Faith leaders in Northern Ireland, as a consequence of their pastoral work, are a population with high exposure to trauma. This can profoundly impact their wellbeing and their capacity to care for others. Journey Towards Healing continues to offer faith leaders evidence-based trauma awareness training, seeking to help them recognise trauma and its impact within the lives of others, as well as within their own lives.
Through a widely distributed booklet and its research strand, Journey Towards Healing cultivates an ongoing process of reflection on trauma and its impact on individuals and communities in Northern Ireland. Via an international conference*, the programme has also provided an international platform to encourage dialogue about the relationships between spirituality, religion, faith, conflict, violence, trauma and healing, in Northern Ireland and beyond.
Journey Towards Healing brings together mental health practitioners and faith leaders from all the religious traditions in Northern Ireland as well as political and community leaders from across all sectors of Northern Irish society.
This multidisciplinary team - through a common focus on the human experience of trauma and wellbeing - provides a uniquely holistic approach to trauma recovery in Northern Ireland.
We are committed to cultivating a process that will positively contribute towards sustainable peace for future generations.
The Journey Towards Healing International Conference...
...took place 9-13th March 2011 at The Europa Hotel, Belfast. More information about the conference is available by clicking here to be taken to the conference website.
Irish Dominican Sister
Director of Social Witness, Presbyterian Church in Ireland
Anglican priest, Church of Ireland
Training and Development
Officer, Egdgehill Theological College, Methodist Church in Ireland
Psychotherapist
International psychiatrist
Personal Assistant to Peter McBride
Journey Towards Healing Programme Coordinator
Contact Colleen D. Brown, Journey Towards Healing Coordinator
Since 2004, Phase 1 Journey Towards Healing Training has been offered to faith leaders and other pastoral workers who are encountering people with experience of trauma.
This training draws upon the information in the Journey Towards Healing booklet - presented via powerpoint and explored through dialogue with participants. The training experience, available as full or half-day, moves through the following 8 stages:
The training hopes to be a means of support for anyone involved in pastoral care, and for those they encounter who are suffering as a consequence of traumatic experience. At the end of the training day, the experience will have expanded participants' awareness about trauma and its impact, and increased their resilience.
For more information, to request a booklet or to coordinate a training, please contact Colleen D. Brown, Journey Towards Healing Programme Coordinator. Click here
The 2010-2011 pilot of Phase 2 Training is currently being evaluated. It ran with 12 pastoral workers, exploring 10 modules. Each module combined trauma theory and best practice trauma care models, and included a facilitated group reflection process.
Phase 2 2011-2012 is likely to follow a streamlined format, beginning in Autumn 2011.
This module will introduce the holistic framework that Journey Towards Healing has developed for understanding the impact of trauma on the whole person: mind, body, spirit, relationships, community, and social fabric. This framework sets the foundation for the entire course.
This module will focus on latest research findings for the impact of trauma on the mind (neurology) & the body (biology), and on the relationship between mind & body (neurobiology).
This module will particularly explore the impact of trauma on mind, body & spirit, as a whole, with a focus on the impact of trauma on faith and spirituality.
This module will explore the impact of trauma upon relationships and communities.
This module will bring into conversation different experiences of the relationship between 'trauma and faith' in various parts of the world, including: Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Balkans, Israel/Palestine, and the Americas.
Building on an experience of examining the universal (global) and particular (local) dimensions of the relationship between 'trauma and faith', this module will provide a time to go deeper into understanding the particular context of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, and explore the particular impact of sectarian conflict trauma on the whole: mind, body, spirit, relationships, communities, and the social fabric.
This module will provide a time to integrate learnings and key questions since May.
This module will begin a process of applying useful learning into one's own ministerial context, with the goal of supporting the development of a strategic pastoral plan for one's own community (i.e. designing a workshop, a speaker series, a retreat, developing an infrastructure for a pastoral team, etc).
This evening is for each course participant to present their own strategic pastoral plan to the group.
This evening will be a time to celebrate and bring Phase 2 2011-2012 to a close.
Four Main Christian Churches in Northern Ireland:
Interfaith links:
