We all encounter the perennial challenge in life that includes both mediating and navigating human suffering. In the challenge, we attend to others and ourselves, as suffering remains a part of human existence that makes serious demands. When suffering becomes radical or extreme, we call it trauma. Addressing the impact of trauma is the aim of this network.

If you are here, trauma has affected you in some way, and we hope that TIPS – Trauma Informed Pastoral Support – will help you understand trauma’s effects, provide you with tools for recovery, and offer principles for helping others. With compassionate expert guidance and an understanding of how to navigate deep pain – that of someone you are helping or that of your own – you can transform your life for the better.

The mission of this network is to provide opportunities and social support around the navigation of trauma and its aftermath.

As a part of the network, we will explore questions like:

• What are the effects and impacts of trauma?
• How does trauma and radical suffering challenge theology, faith, and religious practice?
• What are the resources and impediments that exist within the Church in terms of negotiating trauma?
• What can we do to address trauma and create some harmony with the Church and/or faith?

What you will get in this network: 

• Support from a community of others around the topic of trauma through discussion boards and at live events.
• Transformational written material and audio to help you recognize and address trauma, so you can move forward with strength, clarity, and grace.
• Expert guidance to help you identify and navigate damaging effects of trauma and illuminate your path to personal transformation and professional growth.
• Tools and techniques curated to guide the recovery process from trauma and provide techniques to employ in the care of others.

Who should join:

• People wishing to learn about trauma and the possibilities of transformational self-growth in trauma’s aftermath.
• Any person caring for others with deep emotional pain, especially in a church, pastoral, or ministerial setting.
• Individuals desiring to understand the connection between trauma and theology – conceptually – and how that connection plays out in practice.
• Anyone needing expert step-by-step guidance to navigate trauma and its aftermath.

Introductory memberships are $4.99 monthly. Access includes a downloadable resource list; videos, essays, and book recommendations; community engagement and support; monthly 90-minute online discussion sessions the second Tuesday of every month at 7:00pm EST, with expert guidance.

While your membership will be billed monthly, you are able to cancel at any time.

About Your Facilitator

I am Dr. Stephanie Arel. I write and teach about internal obstacles that get in the way of self-growth. I believe that self-reflection, through self-examination, helps people help themselves and, in turn, help others. I am committed to providing tools and methods of caring for the self to support those engaged in caring for others. Strengthening the self leads to healthier living, better relationships, and flourishing communities.

People often ask me what I do for personal stress relief...my answer is always the same: "I find water." I am a Florida native, so water holds a special place in my heart. Like many young girls, I danced ballet from the time I was five. Intrigued by the language of the dance, I wanted to take French. One of my Bachelor's degrees is in French, the other is in English Literature.

I pursued my first Master's degrees in French and Italian Literature and Art and began teaching humanities courses at the local college when I was 24. From there, I expanded my dancing career, teaching ballet to other athletes and becoming a competitive ballroom dancer myself. Working with a major hospital in Florida, I developed a rehab protocol -over 20 years ago- that began with working with the elderly and expanded to specialize with people who have endured traumatic injuries, especially brain injuries.

Always interested in the spiritual life, and raised Roman Catholic, I studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in both systematics and religion and psychology, completing my PhD in Theological Studies, with an interest in trauma studies, from Boston University. 

I teach at Fordham, and I teach at seminaries to Chaplains and ministers who attend to trauma. I have a training in trauma for clinical treatment from the National Institute of the psychotherapies in NYC and a certificate in treating compassion fatigue (for caregivers). I worked at an eating disorder unit at a women’s hospital for three years specializing in group rehab from a 12-step approach. Currently, I consult with organizations that deal with traumatic content to help staff manage the effects of the work on their daily lives. 

My commitment and training make me uniquely capable of attending to what Edith Stein calls "the psycho-physical, spiritual self."