ABSTRACT
This chapter explores both the embodied nature of trauma and the systemic dimensions of trauma experience. The idea of the ‘felt sense’ is introduced, as a guide to understanding the way in which trauma lodges itself, and is stored, within the body and to appreciating body-focused approaches to the healing of trauma. These approaches, and especially the value of the ‘warm, resonant presence’ of another, are evaluated against ‘talking’ approaches to trauma response. The author brings her expertise in the field of ‘systems constellations’ to facilitate a discussion of the systemic dimensions of trauma experience and response. Situating the discussion in the context of trauma within churches and congregations, the author offers some concluding observations about the inherently relational character of human beings and the sense in which this ‘relational’ character is preceded, and modelled, by the Triune God.
