Christian Counselor Directory Blog

Trauma affects people differently depending on their personal experiences, resilience levels, and the support systems they have in place. While the term "trauma" often conjures images of catastrophic events, it can also describe subtle yet impactful experiences that shape mental and emotional well-being.

Types of Events That May Cause Trauma

Natural disasters: Earthquakes, hurricanes, or other extreme weather conditions.
Violence: Physical assault, domestic violence, or war-related experiences.
Loss: The death of a loved one or separation from close relationships.
Chronic stressors: Prolonged neglect, bullying, or financial instability.

While these examples represent common causes of trauma, it is essential to recognize that what feels traumatic to one person may not have the same effect on another. This variability underscores the deeply personal nature of trauma.

How Trauma Manifests in Daily Life

Trauma does not simply exist as a distant memory—it often persists in ways that influence an individual’s behavior and interactions with the world.

Heightened feelings of sadness, anxiety, or anger.
Difficulty managing strong emotions.
Challenges in trusting others.
Fear of intimacy or attachment issues.
Negative beliefs about self-worth or safety.

Understanding these manifestations is critical for supporting individuals who have experienced trauma.

The Importance of Context

Trauma should always be understood within the context of someone's unique situation and history. Social support systems play an essential role in helping individuals process their experiences and move toward healing. For some people, professional interventions are necessary to address more severe symptoms effectively.

By deepening our understanding of trauma’s complex nature and its varied expressions across individuals and cultures, we can create a more compassionate environment for healing and growth.

Little t vs Big T Trauma

Trauma is a complex and multifaceted experience, but not all traumas are the same. One important distinction in understanding trauma lies in the difference between "little t" trauma and "Big T" trauma.

Big T Trauma: Life-Altering Events

Big T trauma refers to significant, life-altering events that often involve a clear threat to one's safety or survival. These types of events can overwhelm an individual's ability to cope.


Natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes)
Physical or sexual assault
Military combat
Severe car accidents
Life-threatening illnesses

Big T traumas typically lead to more acute psychological responses and may result in disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They are often easier to identify due to their dramatic and highly distressing nature.

Little t Trauma: Subtle Yet Impactful

Little t traumas, on the other hand, encompass smaller-scale events that may not seem immediately devastating but still leave a lasting emotional impact over time. These experiences might not involve physical danger but can disrupt one's sense of security or self-worth.

Repeated criticism during childhood
Experiencing exclusion or bullying
Parental divorce
Loss of a pet
Financial struggles

While little t traumas may not fully disrupt one’s life at first glance, their cumulative effect can be profound if left unaddressed. They may contribute to chronic stress, anxiety, or feelings of inadequacy.

Comparing Big T vs Little t Trauma

Why Both Types Matter

Both types of trauma are important because they shape an individual's emotional landscape and coping mechanisms. While Big T trauma often receives more attention due to its dramatic nature, little t trauma deserves equal recognition for its cumulative effects on mental health over time.

Increased emotional sensitivity
Difficulty building healthy relationships
Struggles with self-esteem
Chronic stress-related health issues

Addressing Both Forms of Trauma

It is essential for mental health professionals and individuals alike to recognize both forms of trauma in order to provide proper support and intervention.

Validating all experiences as significant without unfair comparisons.

Offering psychoeducation about the impact of even seemingly “small” traumatic events.

Encouraging self-awareness so individuals can recognize unprocessed emotions from smaller life experiences.

Addressing both little t and Big T traumas holistically fosters resilience while promoting long-term healing for individuals navigating their mental health journey effectively.

Trauma-Informed Treatment

Trauma-informed treatment is a framework that acknowledges the widespread impact of trauma and integrates this understanding into every aspect of care. It places emphasis on creating safe, supportive environments where individuals can begin to heal without re-traumatization. This approach is relevant in various fields, including mental health, education, healthcare, and social services.

Principles of Trauma-Informed Care

Trauma-informed treatment is guided by several key principles.


Safety: Ensuring both physical and emotional safety for individuals.
Trustworthiness and Transparency: Building trust through clear communication and consistent practices.
Peer Support: Encouraging connection with others who have experienced similar challenges.
Collaboration and Mutuality: Valuing the involvement of individuals in their own treatment process.
Empowerment, Voice, and Choice: Promoting self-determination by offering choices and prioritizing an individual’s voice in decision-making.
Cultural Humility: Recognizing the role of cultural factors while avoiding stereotypes or assumptions.

Adopting these principles ensures a person-centered approach to care that respects the unique experiences of trauma survivors.


Core Components of Trauma-Informed Treatment

Trauma-informed care can take many forms depending on the individual’s needs.
Helping individuals understand what trauma is and how it affects the brain and body.
Teaching coping skills to manage triggers or stress responses.
Introducing practices like mindfulness or grounding techniques to manage intense emotions.
Encouraging activities such as journaling or art therapy to explore emotions safely.
Identifying an individual’s strengths rather than focusing solely on deficits or problems.

Using these strengths as tools for recovery.

Building healthy interpersonal connections to counteract isolation caused by trauma.
Facilitating group therapies where appropriate to cultivate peer support.
Addressing somatic symptoms through methods like yoga, physical exercise, or body-based therapies (e. g. , somatic experiencing).
Considering proper nutrition, sleep hygiene, and other aspects of overall health.



Benefits of Trauma-Informed Approaches

Trauma-informed treatment not only helps survivors feel seen but also actively supports their journey toward post-traumatic growth.

By adopting such approaches across different systems—whether in therapy settings or educational institutions—organizations contribute toward broader systemic changes that prioritize mental health resilience.


Training Gaps: Not all professionals receive adequate training on trauma-related issues.

Resource Limitations: Some organizations may lack time or funding needed for sustainable implementation.

Stigma Reduction Efforts: Overcoming societal stigma around mental health remains a persistent obstacle.

Addressing these barriers requires systemic efforts such as staff development programs, policy changes within organizations, and advocating for increased funding for mental health initiatives.

Trauma-informed treatment transforms not just outcomes for individuals but also how systems operate at large—all while promoting dignity and respect throughout the healing process.

Trauma-Informed Treatment

Trauma-informed treatment is an approach to care that recognizes the prevalence and impact of trauma on individuals' lives. It goes beyond traditional methods by prioritizing safety, trust, collaboration, and empowerment within therapeutic settings. This model emphasizes understanding an individual’s trauma history and adapting care to their specific needs, fostering recovery and resilience.

Principles of Trauma-Informed Treatment

Safety:Creating a sense of physical and emotional security for those receiving care.
Trustworthiness and Transparency:Building trust through clear, consistent communication and actions.
Peer Support:Encouraging connection with others who have experienced similar situations to promote healing.
Collaboration:Engaging clients as active participants in their treatment instead of passive recipients.
Empowerment:Focusing on individual strengths while encouraging autonomy and self-efficacy.

Trauma-informed practices not only benefit individuals who have experienced trauma but also create safer environments across sectors like education, healthcare, or social services. Supporting people holistically ensures they are treated with dignity while fostering long-term recovery.

The best trauma treatment is called Accelerated Resolution Therapy ( A.R.T.) and it addresses all the principles listed above and has excellent outcomes for many clients. Please take a look at this TED Talk video by its creator and you will see why this modality is key to healing.

https://youtu.be/vP7dx03arxI?si=jZfoxWEsb9RBNTdL

Teresa Lusk, Pastor, Board Certified Biblical Counselor, and
Founder of ExecYou Coach | Allen, TX
To Schedule Your appointment: 214-552-6470 | https://beyondfreedomchurch.org/coaching

Many clients come to therapists or pastoral counselors hoping to resolve their issues. They wonder if childhood habits, memories, or traumas contribute to their current crisis. But how often do clients and therapists consider deeper possibilities contributing to the wrestlings of the soul?

While I hold a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling and am a Board-Certified Biblical Counselor with years of experience and hundreds of clients, nothing compares to the wisdom, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit. He is the One who sets people free beyond circumstantial issues and pierces into spiritual obstacles often unnoticed and unrealized by both clients and therapists. The spiritual issues I refer to are a phenomenon—the need for deliverance ministry. Deliverance ministry frees individuals from demonic oppression that may arise from the experiences I mentioned, but also from encounters not often recognized by many. This includes involvement in the occult by the client or their family, sexual abuse, and even child abuse and neglect.
Many clients have seen their lives transformed in just one session when exploring the reality of demonic oppression. What should separate Christian counseling from secular counseling is our dependence on the presence and power of the LORD and recognition that we have something greater than the tools taught in universities.

What does a session look like when working with clients who meet certain criteria indicating the need for deliverance counseling and freedom ministry? First, we must be attuned to the discernment of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 2:14–15 (NASB) states, "But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself or herself is discerned by no one." This means we have trained ourselves to see spiritually first and consider the fullness of how the Lord created us—body, soul (mind, will, emotions, intellect), and spirit.

Second, we utilize a questionnaire that inquires about past and present involvement in various forms of witchcraft, even subtle practices. Clients may report nightmares, night terrors, feelings of being watched, oppression of body and mind they cannot shake, cycles of non-stop failure, and closed doors, to name a few.As a Hispanic woman, I can assure you that many non-white cultures open the doors to practices that seem harmless but are gateways to darkness because they are ingrained as normal within those cultures. The number of clients who confess to such activity and display manifestations of demonic oppression is very high and common. This is not to say our white brothers and sisters do not participate, as blatant witchcraft participation is growing even among our youth. However, the normalization of occult practices is greater in the aforementioned cultures.

Additionally, for the sake of time and providing only a summary of this biblical counseling approach, we utilize the power of renunciation and repentance. I lead clients through prayers that break ties with past and present participation in the occult. If they have experienced physical or sexual abuse, I employ a healing and forgiveness series of confessions that have proven successful repeatedly, and the LORD honors these words when partnered with our faith.

This is not something learned in a day but developed through years of practice and Scriptures that confirm my methods in counseling and ministry. Nothing compares to this type of counseling and deliverance. No number of years attaining a Master’s or PhD in counseling or psychiatry can produce the results of the Holy Spirit in the room with a counselor or minister who understands the power of biblical freedom. This is not to diminish other theories and techniques—after all, the truth sets people free. But freedom comes in various levels.

The evidence that your client has attained a deeper spiritual freedom through deliverance-biblical counseling begins with accelerated change. Effective Holy Spirit-led deliverance techniques have undeniable results, starting with the very feeling of freedom. It cannot be manufactured. Other immediate changes include elimination of nightmares, no longer feeling watched, joy, physical energy, desire to read the Bible, wanting to be around people, a sense of belonging and being welcomed by others, among other signs.

I say: information and knowledge are not enough—we need experience to follow. This counseling ministry is exemplified in the Bible. When Jesus preached, He followed it with action. Matthew 4:23 (NASB) writes, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” There are many other scriptures like this. I invite counselors, pastors, spiritual leaders, and lay ministers to train and employ this counseling school of the Holy Spirit. Pastors and counselors need to experience this transformative ministry themselves to effectively guide others toward lasting freedom and deeper healing. Many Christians in mental health trust secular teachings faster than they trust that the Lord offers healing, deliverance, and freedom principles in the Bible. I invite you as a counselor and pastor to tap into a world long neglected and begin experiencing the accelerated, life-changing, life-giving ministry of the great Counselor in your healing rooms.

For more information about when Pastoral Counseling Meets Deliverance Training or speaking/preaching for you, your church, or group of leaders, contact Pastor Teresa Lusk | teresa@teresalusk.com or text 214-552-6470. To start learning about this counseling process immediately, grab a copy of my book, Unapologetically Free: Deliverance and Freedom through the Spirit-Filled Life. Order by texting the number above, or get your copy on Amazon.

#SpiritualFreedom #DeliveranceMinistry #ChristianCounseling #BiblicalCounseling #HolySpiritPower #FaithAndHealing #InnerHealing #DemonicOppression #RenunciationAndRepentance #UnapologeticallyFree #BoardCertifiedCounselor #ChristianTherapist #PastoralCounseling #FaithBasedHealing #CounselingWithChrist #TraumaInformedFaith #ChristianLeaders #PastorsOfInstagram #CounselorsOfFaith #ChristianCoaching #HealingForBelievers #ChurchLeadersUnite #LayMinisters #BreakingGenerationalCurses #FreedomInChrist #SpiritualDiscernment #OvercomingTheOccult #NoMoreNightmares #HealingFromAbuse #FreedomThroughForgiveness #ExecYouCoach #BeyondFreedomChurch #TeresaLuskMinistries #FreedomCounseling #BookOfDeliverance #HealingMinistry #TexasMinistry

Is obsessive thinking keeping you up at night? Maybe you wake up at 3 am and you keep thinking the same thoughts over and over and imagining the worst-case scenario.

You might experience…
Uncontrollable anxiety…
Your stomach in knots…
Your heart pounding…
Your body shaking…
You might even feel stupid or silly for being so anxious.
Wondering…
What’s wrong with me?
Why can’t I just calm down?
Will this ever stop?
If that’s you, you’re not alone. I was all of these.

There was a time when I was obsessed with anxious thoughts. I was drowning in worry and fear. My thinking was dominated by fearful “what if’s” about the future. I was a basket case of tense energy unable to stop frantic thoughts.

All I wanted was to calm down, be able to sleep, and get control of myself. I wanted to be able to think clearly rather than being overwhelmed with scary images of what could happen.
I needed to stop my obsessive thinking. I needed to get clear about what was really happening.
With help, I was able to calm down and think clearly.

Here’s what I discovered….
My obsessive thinking was driven by the assumptions I was making about what might happen.
That’s right….my thoughts were focused on what might happen…not reality!
ASSUMPTIONS were killing me!

What is an assumption?

Simply put, an assumption is something that we accept as true or as likely to happen without proof.

Where Assumptions Come From

Assumptions or prejudgments develop throughout our lives. Childhood experiences shape unconscious ideas and conclusions about everything. Throughout our early development and into adulthood we absorb thinking patterns modeled by significant others.

How Assumptions Act

Assumptions act as “filters” for everything that happens. These “filters” pop up automatically in our thinking and cause anxiety. Based on a lifetime of developing assumptions, our minds jump to conclusions that actually have no basis in reality.

It’s about spontaneous, involuntary thoughts that jump into our heads causing worry and fear.
We make assumptions about all kinds of things. We automatically accept assumptions as true when they’ve not been tested by reality. This results in worry and overwhelm.

What assumptions are you making right now? How are these assumptions making you anxious?

How to Let Go of Assumptions Causing Anxiety

1. Ask yourself: How true is this assumption really? Is this really likely to happen? Take time to become aware of thoughts automatically surfacing in your mind. Then reflect on these questions honestly and carefully.

Getting clear and practical about the situation you’re anxious about provides new perspectives. Taking a “matter-of-fact” approach generates a sensible, authentic thought pattern. It helps you think logically and calms you down.

2. Create a blank space in your thinking. Pausing to reflect on what’s really true in a worrisome situation, produces a void or empty space. Hold the empty space. Avoid allowing more assumptions to crowd your mind.

Keeping an open mind is difficult. It means consistently throwing out automatic, harmful thoughts. It means patience and offering kindness to yourself as you do the work of keeping an open mind until real evidence shows up. Then you can make a rational decision. Now it’s not an imagined answer rooted in your anxiety. It is a decision based on the facts.

That is how you can stop obsessive thinking. That is one technique I used to do it and you can do it too.

Several months ago, a woman overwhelmed with anxiety about a situation in her family contacted me. She could not stop thinking about the problems. She was losing sleep and unable to function.

We talked about the thoughts that were troubling her. As she sorted out what was really true in her confused thoughts, she began to feel lighter and calmer. She gained clarity about what was really going on.

I hope you can follow these tips and reduce your anxiety.
But if you are truly struggling with obsessive thoughts keeping you up at night, imagining worst-case scenarios, and you can’t get it to stop, watch my Free 10 Minute Video on How to Stop Anxiety at https://janekcoaching.com/how-to-stop-anxiety/. Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation at https://janekcoaching.com/schedule-a-call/