Last week, I posted a reel on IG about why New Age Practices are so widely used in holistic health.
If you didn't see it, no worries - I'll rehash it here, but what I want you to really think about is why Christians have allowed the occult to own the word "spiritual". When Jesus and various figures in the Bible refer to what is spiritual, they don't always indicate "what kind of spiritual" they are referring to. Largely because the context is apparently clear, but also because there is a confident assurance that God's sovereignty, powerful demonstrations and all that is true will clarify the use of the word.
The fact that we are tri-part beings is not news to most people, but still new to some religious groups who rely heavily on legalism and the notion of obedience to define goodness. There are some churches that don’t even believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, which leaves us with three groups of people:
1. The people hungry for truth and self understanding. There are people wondering why they are able to see, hear, and perceive things not tangible or visible to the natural eye. Why they feel things so strongly and why they have such strong attraction to things internal and eternal. People are wondering why they seem so “supernatural” when compared to the community they were brought up in… and unfortunately their local churches and ministers didn’t have answers except ✨witchcraft✨. No context for spiritual gifts that have their place in the Kingdom of God. No knowledge of how to teach and equip around how to nurture spiritual gifts while maturing spiritually in other ways. Just… church.
2. The people looking for evidence of power so that they can create the change they desperately need or strongly desire. Any context that ignores the involvement and power of the Holy Spirit is absent of a hope that we desperately need living in this world. Power is EVERYWHERE. Financial power, informational power, legislative power …and none of that even has to do with the realm of the spirit. But to exist in this life with no power is to be oppressed by the powers that be. To exist in this life without knowledge of the power of the Holy Spirit is to be left to discover other supernatural powers that have visible effect in the natural world.
3. The people who want to help people in ways that they can see. In the holistic health sphere, you will find people who understand that some physiological ailments are impacted and created by things unseen. Therefore, the solutions also involve things unseen.
Hebrew 11:3 goes on to tell us that "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
Witches existed even in this time, but were able to recognize that in the realm of spiritual engagement, there was only one soverign and supreme player: The God of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This wasn't perpetuated through the ministry of Jesus, Himself. Rather, it was demonstrated through the acts of the Holy Spirit that operated in the Apostles.
Today, there are people, beyond witches, who want to see healing and effective change without the unlawful use of power. There are people who were groomed in that power and accepted it because they didn’t know of any difference.
And then we have the church, where spirituality is not well enough defined for us to be able to distinguish our spirituality from "theirs" without the use of force, dogma, and judgement as a false indicator of authority.
This is why Trauma Informed Spiritual Intervention exists.
It’s hard to market yourself as a “Christian” anything because of the baggage that comes with the word. We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ… and we also understand that when people hear the word “Christian” they also hear:
• judgment
• badgering
• manipulation
• control
And God forbid an instance where they have to defend what they believe.
There will always be the situation where you’re just not compatible with a potential client — whether you are a coach, therapist, midwife, doula, etc. When you offer holistic care, compatibility becomes even harder to achieve because you, as well as your potential clients, enter the holistic space with experiences and preconceived notions that must be honored on both ends.
The last thing you want to do is trigger or re-traumatize your clients because your own religious context is in disagreement with who you are as a professional and caregiver.
As the practitioner, you understand the responsibility that you have for providing spiritual care. You understand the intersections that your ideal clients may not see in the first consultation.
I know you’ve never heard it said like this before and that’s why I’m telling you now — being certified in Trauma-Informed Spiritual Intervention will give you the skill set, framework, strategies and discipline that you need to bring clarity to your own practice and to make sure that your clients feel safe knowing that you can respond to their spiritual needs.
To learn more, visit flamingorecovery.org/trauma-informed or comment below “trauma-informed” to chat with me about what all this means.
Sessions start in January — if you log-in and register before the new year, you get 20% off your first installment or paid in full registration.
You want this training. Trust me, you do.
