Customer Reviews

Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In her book Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul, Rev. Rogers' provides a much needed introduction to the problem of providing pastoral care to individuals suffering Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This twelve-chapter book defines PTSD, enumerates its symptoms and explores common manifestations of disease. She compellingly describes the spiritual impact of trauma via tradition Christian language but she seems overly dependant on traditional formulas of pastoral theology and pastoral care. Perhaps her most important contribution lies in her challenge to churches that the must explore more carefully how they perpetuate the abuse of power.

Herein lies my critique: while Rev. Rogers does mention a few of the newer approaches to treating PTSD, she does not caution pastors about the dangers of re-traumatization that can occur with open-ended listening to the traumatic event(s). She does not adequately engage the vitally important current research in the treatment of PTSD.

The image of the shattered soul is an excellent one in regards to PTSD. It is nice to think about the church as a reintegrating force for shattered souls, however her final chapter suggesting that the church can help prevent PTSD seems to be overly optimistic. The experience of trauma is so profoundly alienating that sufferers are likely to reject the ministry of hope in community that the church and its ministers offer.

I appreciate Rev. Rogers' recommendation that pastors refer PTSD patients to appropriate healthcare professionals, but I also believe that she could have placed more emphasis on the pastor's role as part of a treatment team for such wounded souls.

Rev. Rogers has provided an excellent overview of a topic that needs much more research. The field of pastoral care desperately needs to integrate traditional wisdom with current research findings on treatment for PTSD.

This is a very important subject but I felt the book did not quite come to terms with it. I had no real sense of how Pastors should approach these soldiers so deeply wounded.

This book read like a high school term paper. It was largely a collection of definitions and outlines from other sources.

This book is not for you if:
You believe God and His word are sufficient for our problems
You believe Pastors can and should minister to people with mental /social issues like PTSD.
You believe new age philosophy is inconsistent with God's word.

Here is a sampling of the authors opinions:
On treating PTSD: "...the pastor should not cross the line into attempting anything therapeutic with survivors"
On treatment ideas: Meditation, Reiki, polarity therapy, music therapy, holotropic breathwork.
On her sources of theology: ....contemporary feminist liberation theologians have brought to light an alternative imaging of God"
On the issue of female circumcision: "We in the white-dominated Western culture must resist imposing our cultural values on others"

The authors message seems to be. Leave the counseling to psychiatrists and psychologists and use new age approaches to healing rather than relying on God and the church community. It may be titled "Pastoral Care" but I found it to be anything but!