UU Trauma Response Ministry

I’ve recently completed the training to become part of the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry Team. I spent fourteen hours learning from folks who were in New York City after 9/11; in New Orleans after Katrina; and at the Tennessee Valley UU congregation last summer after the shooting. They are clearly VERY good at what they do. However, they need to expand the team, both in numbers, and in geographical coverage.

I found the training invaluable. As they taught us the skills necessary for trauma response ministry, I kept remembering times when I’ve gone to the hospital following an unexpected death or an accident. It quickly became clear that even if I am never called upon to respond to a major disaster, I will be better at supporting indi- viduals who are facing trauma in their lives as a result of going through this training.

I learned that there are fundamental differences between “regular” pastoral care and counseling and trauma response. In “regular” situations, we try to invite people to get in touch with their feelings. In a crisis, the responder’s goal is to help a person stabilize by backing AWAY from feelings and regaining cognitive control of one’s actions and reactions.

Traumatic events trigger chemical reactions, flooding the body with stress hormones. This makes us feel like we are going crazy. In fact, the ‘normal’ reaction to ‘abnormal’ events is ‘abnormal’ behavior, thoughts, and feelings. The healing process can’t begin until people accept that, and intentionally decide on concrete steps to take in order to return to homeostasis. The thinking brain has to gently pry the reins out of the hands of the feeling brain for a while in order to get the wagon back onto the track.

In the past, this community has supported and encouraged me when I have felt called to a wider ministry, such as serving on the board of the Bremerton FoodLine or working with the district’s youth. The difference with this work is that once I am a part of the team, I can be deployed to the site of a disaster or trauma. This means I might be leaving Bremerton and KUUF for as much as two weeks. You would be without your minister for this time.

Knowing that you look out for each other exceptionally well, I feel comfortable letting go of my pastoral responsibilities at KUUF. The Lay Pastoral Ministry Team will be available and empowered to reach out to people around the crisis I would be responding to. The Trauma Response Team helps find pulpit coverage; I would be excused and fly back were there to be a death or other unrelated crisis at KUUF. Still, I am asking for your support and encouragement before I commit to doing this work.

If you’d like to speak to me about this, please do so. You can also respond (to this and other ‘Musing’ columns) via the blog on KUUF’s new website. Or you could speak with any of the members of the Committee on Ministry—Florrie Brassier, Eugene Brennan, Marilyn Drengson, Lisa Johnson, Neil Makar or John Younie—or members of the Board of Trustees.

I would hope that it would feel good to know that you, as a community, are ‘loaning’ your minister to people who are in great need. Like bringing casseroles to a family that has lost a loved one, it is something concrete to DO as a part of a compassionate response to tragedy. In fact, I would love for you to see my deployment as a part of the congregation’s ministry of extending “sympathy and compassion to those who are hurting in our wider world.”

Thank you!

Blessings,

Liz