Page 5 - 31-3 Connections August 2022

Bearing Witness:

Trauma and Referrals

in Spiritual Direction

By Rev. Dr. Shannon Michael Pater

Trauma activation warning: this article discusses Very often we refer
suicide.

This article was reviewed by the person whose someone “out” of
story I tell and is shared with their permission.
spiritual direction to

In 2018, a constellation of anniversaries ending in
fives and zeros prompted a period of significant a therapist or other
discernment that led me to set out on a long
pilgrimage to India. In January 2019, I sold,
donated, and gave away most of what owned relationship because we
me and was welcomed in Mumbai by a circle of
friends.
are afraid of our own
Settling in was overwhelming and joyous. I had
served my last congregation for 10 years; leaving
this place of familiarity had brought a renewed trauma that is being
sense of homecoming. I hosted house parties that
flowed freely with poetry and playfulness. The activated.
days and nights were full of life for all of us.

Then, unimaginable tragedy came.
I have accompanied many in pastoral care and
The husband of one in my circle of friends died counseling, chaplaincy, and spiritual direction since
by suicide. It crushed us all and sent the surviving the mid-1990s. I have born witness to the many
husband to a place of utter desolation. He wanted ways our souls fray on the edges, and the seams of
to follow his husband in death.
our hearts unravel. I completed a Clinical Pastoral
(continued on page 6)

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