Trauma & the Body

God created us as both spiritual and physical beings. Because of this, we should not be surprised that trauma impacts our bodies as well as our hearts. Bessel van der Kolk's landmark book, The Body Keeps the Score, highlights the impact of trauma on a person's bodily constitution. How should we as Christians think about his and others' observations about the ways trauma is experienced and healed? This session will provide a biblical understanding of the impact of trauma on embodied souls and will suggest practical implications that flow from this biblical framing, which neither overemphasizes nor underemphasizes the role of our bodies.