Trauma Counseling, and Inner Healing
Do you feel triggered quite often from past pains and trauma? Is it hard to stay in the "present" and enjoy those people and activities around you? Do you feel that your mind gets stuck? We at In His Image believe that God's healing comes through His love, power, and wisdom! One word in the bible for healing is "therapeuo". God often uses specific processes/therapeuo to bring healing to His people.
Have you ever asked, "why do I feel so stuck in this emotional cycle?" Dr. Lisa Winchell found in years of Christian Counseling. that some individuals do not move forward in their overcoming and victory, in spite of their sincere desire to do so and much work they put into it. She began to study the answer for those people and found that trauma emotions create enough "chaos", and unrest in the brain that when the client would apply truth it would just get "kicked out" by the trauma emotions "stuck" in the brain. This often causes a Christian to feel what the Word of God calls double-minded, and feel hopeless even though they serve the God of the greatest hope ever.
Emotional trauma creates damage to the person's sense of self, as well as their emotional and relational capacity. This can happen when an event was so traumatic that it bypassed the person's emotional capacity to cope. Furthermore, the brain science behind trauma is that, when an event that produces intense emotion happens, that emotion memory gets stored in the amygdala. Where it stays and continues to trigger the person anytime something is felt, seen, or happens around them that has any similarities to the original trauma. This is also true for good memories that came with deep good emotions. The bible calls this a stronghold. We have positive strongholds and negative strongholds. The negative ones are always fueled by the past painful emotions, and the lies the enemy fed us about ourselves in it, that produced even more fear and more fuel for the trauma. This produces hypervigilance around the issue, a feeling of "when is the next shoe going to drop". The person can become uncharacteristically oversensitive, fearful, anxious, easily offended, on edge, pressed to resolve anxiety and surprised by the effect it has on their relationships and life, and much more.
Traumas come in many forms:
- Sexual assault
- Accidents
- War
- Emotional and physical abuse
- Death of a loved one
- And even trauma from our own bad choices.
- Deep rejection
Jesus says, "in this world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer I have overcome this world". This is His invitation to bring those pains to Him and learn to live in and through His love, peace, and joy that brings you into that same overcoming.
He also says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." So how does someone whose brain is in hypervigilance, and constant trigger receive this peace? How do we "replace" the negative strongholds/triggers with the good ones? The answer is through God's healing of the trauma and being transformed by the renewing of our mind to His truths, and love.
Lisa Winchell has been trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), as well as the inner healing models that the Holy Spirit has taught the body of Christ. ART has had such great success in bringing joy and peace back to those who have experienced emotional trauma. Inner Healing led by the healing presence of Jesus cleans up traumas even more by identifying/replacing any lies believed about oneself or God in the trauma, breaking any spiritual bondage surrounded around the trauma, and inviting the Lord's healing presence in to bring His truth, healing and victory over the trauma.
At In His Image, we apply all the above, as God leads, to provide a complete pastoral counseling approach to emotional pain and healing!
Schedule Your Appointment Online. For more information, please call Dr. Lisa Winchell, our NCCA Licensed Clinical Christian Counselor: 813-684-7927
