Living for the Poor while not Burning Out

[stevek]

Johnathan Neufield-- will you please pass on to all of us some
resources about balance and self-care when helping the poor?

[Seattle Stop Drop and Roll]

I would be happy to. What Steve is asking about is the writing of Laura VanDernoot Lipsky, and her work on Trauma Stewardship. It really is a surprising idea to place trauma and stewardship in the same sentance, but essentially her writing seeks to help people who are exposed and/or called to companion people who are experiencing trauma - steward their exposure in way that prevent the companion/friend/pastor/caregiver from becoming a secondary victim of the trauma. Her writing helps us identify signs that trauma is impacting caregivers, and how our ancient spiritual traditions can help us metabolize and integrate our exposure to trauma. So that we can honestly say that our exposure to trauma and suffering is not a burden, but a gift that we can steward and be present to over the long run - without having the quality of presence and companionship we seek to offer diminishing over time. www.traumastewardship.com 

 

Shalom,

Jonathan

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:17 PM, stevek <steve...@aol.com> wrote:

Johnathan Neufield-- will you please pass on to all of us some
resources about balance and self-care when helping the poor?

--
Community Minister Seattle Mennonite Church 3120 NE 125th St.
(206)361-4630 ext. 7 http://seattle.wa.us.mennonite.net/