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God and Family Attachment             Knabb and Emerson (2013) explained the emerging theme of attachment in the psychology of religion. This fourth wave seeks to establish God as a member of the family system. God serves as a secure base for human connection. They assert that the metanarrative of Scripture involves a circle of attachment […]

  “In summary, in this section, we have learned more about Centering Prayer by comparingit with mindfulness, a well-researched mindful practice. First, we notice that both types of contemplation have a similar goal; that is, helping practitioners wake up to who they are” (Blanton, 2011, p. 140).   “Mindfulness and Centering Prayer both share the […]

Mechanism of Action             Bingaman (2015) explored the mechanism of action that underlies the effectiveness of embodied mindfulness practices from a pastoral counseling vantage point. The third wave utilizes acceptance, distress tolerance, commitment, and presence to facilitate healing. MBCT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) both focus on reducing experiential avoidance. This reduces the stress […]

Pentecostal Faith Healing and Complementary Therapies. Brown (2014) has been following the charismatic and Pentecostal revivals sweeping North America for more than 10 years. During this time, she has noted an overlap between CTs and charismatics. Often, these conservative believers get disillusioned with modern medicine. Brown noted that Pentecostals tend to view spiritual healing in […]

Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Therapy. Chanler (2017) advocated for the use of mindfulness as a tool to heal enmeshed interpersonal and family relationships. She used somatic awareness to help disentangled specifically from mother-daughter enmeshment. Ong (2021) and Ong et al. (2019) described trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY). This somatic healing method is specifically geared toward C-PTSD by increasing awareness, […]

Betrayal Trauma A further subset of C-PTSD is betrayal trauma. Freyd et al. (2007) described betrayal trauma as a phenomenon of attachment failure. A child must create maladaptive survival strategies to survive abusive caregiving by a primary attachment figure. These coping mechanisms continue well into adulthood. These adult survivors who have experienced much betrayal can […]

Related Literature An abundance of literature exists regarding the use of CTs for healing trauma (Gulden & Jennings, 2016; Hull et al., 2015; Mohi-Ud-Din & Pandey, 2018; Pence et al., 2014; Sears & Chard, 2016). There is an explicit conversation regarding the theological suitability of CTs for Christians (Brown, 2018; Garzon & Ford, 2016; Jain, […]

Attachment-Rooted Familial Substance Use Disorder. Substance use disorder (SUD) is a primary culprit of familial trauma often rooted in attachment dysfunction. Rasmussen et al. (2018) found that the prevention of childhood trauma can reduce SUD. Conversely, SUD clients should also get screened for childhood trauma and then treated with proper attachment-rooted interventions to increase recovery […]

Overview Familial trauma theory is rooted in attachment theory. Attachment theory is the most well-researched theory of human development (Hughes, 2017). Dysfunctions of attachment lend themselves to a myriad of family systems chaos. Ainsworth and Bowlby (1991) were the founders of attachment theory. Different attachment styles stem from an infant’s initial bonds to their parents. […]