Trauma-Informed Ministry Training
Eastern Mennonite Seminary offers a variety of ways for ministry, nonprofit, and community leaders to learn more about how trauma can impact us and our communities and how we can support resilience through research-based practices.
All of the following programs have been developed by trained practitioners in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR), a renowned program designed and sustained by EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
Workshops
The Shalom Collaboratory at EMS offers half- and full-day training programs in a variety of formats (online, on campus, and hybrid) for congregational, nonprofit, and community leaders on topics related to conflict transformation, restorative justice, and trauma awareness. Each workshop can also be adapted for specific organizational needs and delivered for your group either online or at your location.
Becoming Resilient Leaders with Trauma-Aware Practices
Harmful patterns of relationships can develop during rapid transition and community trauma. Participants will examine these patterns and learn faith-based leadership practices that can help manage and transform negative patterns. Participants will also be equipped to discover lifegiving patterns that can emerge during crisis and change.
Clergy Retreats
The Shalom Collaboratory at EMS works with regional denominational groups to offer
weekend retreats for clergy to learn about trauma and its impacts in ministry environments
to facilitate growth and resilience in congregational leaders.
If you or your organization is interested in custom-designed online or on-location events for organizational leaders, community members, employees or volunteers, please use this form to start the conversation:
Request Information on Custom Events
Justice-Forward Spiritual Direction Program
Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s program in Justice-Forward Spiritual Direction offers
new emphasis to the ancient practice of spiritual companioning. We place justice at
the forefront of all we do, from our curricular model to our mentoring and supervision
to fostering connections with potential directees. Designed to equip students with
the knowledge and skills to listen into our changing spiritual landscape, the program
weaves together foundational courses with those that respond to emergent needs of
those who lead or participate in compassion, peace, and justice movements or ministries.
A certificate in this program includes a course in "Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction," which current spiritual directors can take as a standalone course to deepen their professional practice.
Master's Level Course
We encourage our graduate students to build work on trauma-awareness and resilience into their program coursework within their elective credits. One way this works is by combining PAX 540 "Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience I" (for 2 SH) with SMCL 564 "Theological Reflection on Trauma" (for 1 SH). This 3 SH option can be completed online. Students enrolled in graduate programs at other universities or seminaries may apply to participate in this two-course series.
SMCL 564 Theological Reflection on Trauma
This asynchronous online course integrates theological reflection with an awareness of trauma and resilience. The complexities of sufferings, evil, healing, forgiveness and reconciliation are explored in conversation with theological sources including the Hebrew Bible; New Testament; and black, womanist, and mujerista theologies. Recognizing the embodied and relational impact of trauma, this course imagines how the life-affirming resources of community, spirituality, and practices can weave a net of care and empowerment.
This course must be taken in the same academic year as and after completing the synchronous session of the first level of Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience at EMU's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
Doctoral Level Course
Our newly designed, fully asynchronous and online Doctor of Ministry in Peacemaking and Social Change includes in-depth engagement with trauma-informed spiritual care as part of its core coursework.
Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care
Trauma, from the Latin for “wound,” signifies particular events in human experience that overwhelm the emotional response capacities of individuals and communities. This course explores the science and spirituality of the ways lasting wounds from traumagenic events impact bodies, brains, beliefs and behaviors. Engaging in critical reflection on theological frameworks for conceptualizing and responding to trauma, students will develop contextual ministerial and community-based practices of spiritual care that seek justice, repair and wholeness amid the ongoing impact of trauma.
