Spirituality is an important aspect in healing community and intergenerational trauma. Over the last year, when James W. Williams, a co-founder of Numa, Inc. and I talked with the Ukrainian psychotherapists and psychologists in our supervision / introvision group “Clinical Social Work with Refugees and Internally Displaced People,” our colleagues and friends in the group often talked about the importance of the spiritual aspect in balancing mental health and healing trauma and chronic stress caused by the war, atrocities, and losses.
Last Saturday, James and I were honored to participate in celebrating the anniversary of Rev. Pastor Donald Samuel of the Church in Jesus Christ Outreach Ministry in Fort Wayne, IN. That event is a great example of the importance of the spiritual aspect in healing post-traumatic wounds, moral injuries, chronic stress, grief, anxiety, depression by strengthening one’s resiliency through connecting with others, with one’s cultural heritage, creativity, faith, and morality, through participating in healing rituals and celebrations of the collective memory, through releasing stress and embracing hope in togetherness and transcendence of the Spirit in the community which one belongs to by the virtue of one’s birth, or by the virtue of choosing to share its moral values.
Thank you Pastor Donal Samuel, and First Lady Dr Tricia Franklin-Samuel for having us at your beautiful celebration of the anniversary of your work for the community in Fort Wayne, IN! It was an honor, and we wish you a lot of strength and joy as you continue your journey in Spirit of loving and serving people!
The music brought us all together, uplifted our spirits, inspired us to act, and gave us hope – a living Gospel, indeed.