Understanding Trauma: My Journey as a Prayer Minister

by Judi Henderson
2018 Vol. 02

I am a nurse, life coach and a prayer minister trained though Christian Healing Ministries. I was part of a group that started prayer ministry in our local church. We were confident that the Holy Spirit was going to do miraculous things! Starting with our first recipient, there seemed to be more problems than we were equipped to handle. That is why I started on my “path of learning” about trauma and recovery from trauma.

I had the benefit of working and being taught by Father Andy Miller, who had in turn been trained by the late Dr. Tom Hawkins (Restoration in Christ Ministries) in working with persons who had experienced extreme trauma. My quest led me to Dr. Jim Wilder, one of the authors of The Life Model, a book endorsed by Francis MacNutt and Dallas Willard (recently updated and retitled, Living From the Heart that Jesus Gave You). Dr. Wilder’s teachings changed my life as well and became the backbone of our ministry. These teachings explain trauma and how to recover through redemptive community.

What I learned from these pioneers in the field, is that we have all experienced trauma in some fashion, some more severely than others. According to Dr. Wilder, trauma is anything that renders us less than what God has designed us to be. Trauma occurs when our pain is greater than our joy strength. It can come from injuries inflicted on us or can result from doing things that are not of God’s design (sin) or even a bent in our family line (generational). Dr. Wilder divides trauma into two categories: Trauma A, the absence of the good things that a child should have as he/she grows up (security or belonging, healthy attachment and unconditional love), and healthy dependence for things a child needs (provision) and Trauma B, the bad things that happen to children and adults such as physical, sexual, verbal abuse, abandonment, loss that causes physical wounds, betrayal, calamity or victimization.

I always thought that I had wonderful parents who met my needs and desires as a child. What I grew to understand is that I did have great parents, but they were not perfect and as a result, I had some attachment issues. There were some areas where I had suffered abuse and needed to both heal and mature so I could operate in my authentic self.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a well known traumatologist, writes in his book, The Body Keeps The Score, that developmental trauma (trauma that occurs during a child’s developmental years 0–18), is a hidden epidemic in the United States and pandemic throughout the world. Its effects are five–fold:

  1. It blocks growth and slows maturity both spiritually and emotionally;
  2. It affects relationships, creating difficulties in attaching to others;
  3. There is loss of personal identity;
  4. It causes the inability to regulate emotions; and
  5. Both learning and attention are affected. These types of problems, which begin in childhood, can be exacerbated as adults unless there is appropriate and skilled intervention and healing.

Our prayer recipients came for prayer, seeking help to connect to the Lord and to receive His healing. As the Lord began to heal us, the prayer ministers, we were better able to love and download our joy strength to our recipients for the Lord to speak into their lives. The most wonderful part of being in a healing, redemptive community, such as CHM, is that God can literally re–parent us through the community’s loving acceptance. As we look into the eyes of someone and are glad to be with them, dopamine is secreted in their brain and joy is being downloaded! Joy is relational (being the opposite of shame which causes us to isolate). The Christian community becomes a new family where the Lord is both mother and father, and we become brothers and sisters. Healthy community rebuilds broken trust where life can be seen as good and not always bad. It also helps us learn to listen to God and to each other, building our God–given identity and encourages us to mature spiritually and emotionally, growing from child to adult, and we can begin to act our age!

As I first said, understanding trauma and its effects on myself and others, has helped me in more ways than I could have imagined! As the Lord began to reveal my past trauma and heal those past areas of pain, He was restoring my soul (Psalm 23). I believe that the Lord’s desire for His children is to restore the years that the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). He loves when we step into His design for us to become a royal priesthood of believers ( I Peter 2:9). Joyful relationships are the backbone of healing communities where people learn to remain relational, act like themselves, return to joy and endure hardships. Where the enemy has used trauma to destroy, the Lord redeems and we can learn to live, love and thrive! Thanks be to God!


Judi Henderson A registered nurse and life coach, Judi has been trained as a prayer minister through CHM and speaks at our Schools of Healing Prayer®. 2018 Vol. 02