There are many difficult and painful stories of sexual abuse in the Bible. One such story comes from Genesis 16 with Sarai and Abram’s exploitation of Hagar, their Egyptian servant. The dynamics of abuse are obvious: Hagar is treated as a baby-making machine, an object…
Do you meditate? If I had asked you “Do you read?”, after clarifying that it wasn’t a sarcastic question like “Can’t you read?”, you surely would have answered in the affirmative. Reading is just a part of life, whether that’s reading this email, a text…
In order to heal from trauma, survivors must find ways to safely tell their stories. The “safely” part is of course the most critical, and part of that safety is the survivor seeing and feeling that those listening are supportive, empathic, and without judgment. People…
People are usually surprised to learn that I love training dogs. It happened rather by accident, after adopting a one year old mini labradoodle that was (and unfortunately still is) hopelessly anxious. We worked really hard together for a few months and made a lot…
In a previous post I discussed a simple principle that “naming” our experience helps “tame” our reaction to it. Today I want to explore the deeper meaning behind this. Naming is a powerful act. God demonstrated his sovereign power and wisdom when he named creation…
I don’t recall any of my seminary professors pointing me to Thomas Aquinas as a source for counseling theory or technique. Perhaps they did and I missed it; regardless, I probably would have ignored recommended readings from a 13th century philosopher-monk. But Aquinas comes up…