Religion and Recovery from PTSD

This volume focuses on the role that religion and spirituality can play in recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other forms of trauma, including moral injury. Religious texts, from the Bible to Buddhist scriptures, have always contained passages that focus on helping those who have experienced the trauma of war. Many religions have developed psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual ways of coping and healing that can work in tandem with clinical treatments today in assisting recovery from PTSD and moral injury. In this book the authors review and discuss systematic research into how religion helps people cope with severe trauma, including trauma caused by natural disasters, intentional interpersonal violence, or combat experiences during war. They delve into the impact that spirituality has in both the development of and recovery from PTSD. Beyond reviewing research, they also use case vignettes throughout to illustrate the very human story of recovery from PTSD, and how religious or spiritual beliefs can both help or hinder depending on circumstance. A vital work for any mental health or religious professionals who seek to help people dealing with severe trauma and loss.

About the Author :
Harold G. Koenig, M.D. is Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Cente, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics and religion. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on dozens of national and international TV news programs. He has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) concerning the benefits of religion and spirituality to public health. Donna Ames is a psychiatrist and Professor in Residence at the VA and UCLA in Los Angeles. She has worked for 30 years as a psychiatrist and was involved in psychiatric research for 7 years prior to her graduation from medical school. She is grateful and honored to serve Veterans every day. She is an accomplished researcher with over 100 publications, a sought after teacher and mentor and skilled clinician. Most importantly, she is a child of G-d, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a mother of 6 and grandmother of 6. Michelle Pearce, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Pearce is also a clinical psychologist who studies the relationship between religion/spirituality, coping, and health, as well as the integration of spirituality into the practice of psychotherapy. Her current research is on spiritually integrated cognitive processing therapy for moral injury and PTSD, as well as the development and evaluation of spiritual competency training for mental health professionals. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at Duke University Medical Center and a second fellowship in Spirituality and Health at the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. She is the author of the book Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical, Tool-Based Primer.