Understanding Trauma and Cultivating Compassion in Faith Communities

The Center for Leadership Excellence presents a Day of Learning with Elaine Heath…

*Doors open at 9am

Bring Your Team! We hope you will consider equipping a trauma ministry team by bringing church colleagues–clergy and lay–to learn at this Day of Learning. Bring a group of 3 or more from your church and receive a 20% discount on your total registration.

About the Day:

During this Day of Learning, clergy and laity will become equipped with descriptions and definitions to better understand the range and types of trauma. Dr. Heath will outline practical trauma interventions for harm prevention and suggest ways to respond and nurture individuals who have encountered trauma in their lives or the church.

Knowing that we cannot foster healing in the world without attending to our healing, we will explore the interconnectedness of personal healing with communal healing, and initial pathways to integrate the two. Drawing from ancient and contemporary wisdom from Christian tradition and trauma studies, participants will learn how to embrace with self-compassion, their own experiences of pain, in order to become “wounded healers.” 

This interactive day will incorporate small group discussions and time for personal reflection.

About Elaine Heath:

Author, Speaker, Retreat Leader, Consultant

We are at the forefront of a new reformation, one that is freeing the Christian faith from the sinful structures of patriarchy, racism, classism, many phobias, and exploitive forms of mission and evangelism. The new reformation is all about the emergence of a generous, hospitable, equitable form of Christianity that heals the wounds of the world. I believe much of the work for the church in the years ahead must focus on healing the wounds inflicted by Christendom so that the beauty and inclusive goodness of the Gospel can be heard, seen, and experienced. My work as an author, speaker, retreat leader, and consultant focuses on helping leaders and organizations lean into the healing, liberating, and spiritually transformative journey into which God is calling the church in this new era.

Along with my spouse and several friends I live at Spring Forest, a new monastic community in rural North Carolina, where I serve as Abbess. We tend a forest and small regenerative farm, and we have a range of ministries that support immigrants. We also hold retreats for small groups and individuals. Our broader new monastic community beyond the farm is called The Church at Spring Forest.

I have served in pastoral and academic ministry, including serving as the McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology and Dean of Duke Divinity School, and am the founder of Neighborhood Seminary and co-founder of the Missional Wisdom Foundation. I’m the author of thirteen books, including, Trauma Informed Evangelism (co-authored with Charles Kiser), Loving the Hell Out of Ourselves: A Memoir (co-authored with Jeanine B. Heath-McGlinn), God Unbound, and The Mystic Way of Evangelism.

Interested in Books by Elaine Heath? We are placing a group order for discounted copies of two of Elaine Heath’s books: Trauma-Informed Evangelism: Cultivating Communities of Wounded Healers and Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors. To join our group order, we register by August 1 and add the book(s) that you want to your registration.