Image Courtsey of Unsplash
Renewing of the Mind and Trauma Informed Ministry
Free Methodist Healthcare Fellowship Retreat
Oct 20-22, 2023 | Essenhause, Middlebury Indiana
Featured Guest Speaker: Robyn Florian
We also hope to have a one hour Zoom conference on this subject with Robyn Florian in early September.
Friday Evening and Saturday Morning: Robyn will present about trauma-informed care and ways the church can participate in this. Trauma-informed care is popular in medical, psychological and other literature, yet its therapeutic principles were employed by Jesus and John Wesley. Many churches already promote trauma-informed care, even if they do not always understand how important their activities are. Robyn will share how trauma and its effects (fear, anxiety, depression) can negatively affect a person, as well as how the brain stores some of these effects as past memories capable of being triggered by present circumstances. In their hopeless, some people turn to substance abuse. Love, connection with people, forgiveness and forgiving others can be part of a healing process. There is evidence that these healing actives actually change brain activity as part of the process of recovery.
After Robyn’s presentations, there will be an open discussion as to how medical professionals—as well as churches, schools and communities—can promote healing by applying what we learn.
Saturday Evening: we will discuss healing of emotional and spiritual trauma overseas. Patrica Porter and other chaplains will talk about the chaplains training program they did at Hope Africa in February and their plans for the future. Dr. Wetterau will also share stories of some of the medical students he trained; stories of trauma, including watching their parents killed in the civil war, and stories of healing and recovery, usually facilitated through Christian friends and the church.
Our featured speaker: Robyn Florian
Robyn graduated last May with a D.Min. in Organizational Leadership from Asbury Theological Seminary and an M.A. in Christian Ministry from Liberty University, the culmination of a four-year season of study focused on how to help people hope through intensive, integrated soul care. She also holds an M.A. in Communication with an emphasis in digital engagement from Regent University (2004) and a B.S. in Education from Greenville College (1988). In 2016, God called Robyn out of a 25-year career in nonprofit communications and into the work of encouraging, equipping and empowering the Church to better tend to people in crisis and emotional brokenness. Her experiences included tenures at Greenville University and Spring Arbor University as well as investments in prison ministry, disaster relief, homeless outreach, and those dealing with medical challenges prior to her current investment in emotional healing and leadership formation.