The Wound is Not the End of the Story
Christ is
Trauma-informed care is everywhere. It’s the buzzword in education, psychology, ministry, and even pastoral counseling. At first glance, it sounds compassionate and helpful—who wouldn’t want to be “informed” about someone’s pain? But its popularity masks a deeper problem: trauma-informed care is not neutral. It is built on assumptions about the human person, truth, and healing that are often profoundly at odds with the biblical worldview. And as it spreads, it’s quietly reshaping how the Church thinks about suffering, responsibility, and the path to healing.
At its core, a trauma-informed worldview reframes human beings primarily as products of their wounds. It views trauma as the most determinative force in a person’s identity and behavior. In this system, people are not primarily moral agents or image-bearers of God; they are fragile survivors who must be handled with caution. Emphasis is placed on emotional safety, trigger avoidance, and the validation of personal narrative. While this may sound kind, it subtly displaces the categories of sin, repentance, and redemption with harm, coping, and management. It reorients care away from truth-telling and toward story-affirming.
In contrast, the biblical worldview begins with a radically different anthropology. People are not merely victims of their circumstances—they are created in God’s image with dignity, responsibility, and purpose.
Yes, people suffer. Yes, trauma is real. But Scripture insists that human beings are not reducible to what has been done to them.
They are also accountable for their choices, capable of repentance, and invited into a redemptive story that goes far beyond merely managing pain. The cross of Christ deals honestly with suffering, but it does so by redeeming it—not validating it as the end of the story.
This divergence becomes especially clear when we look at how each system defines healing. Trauma-informed care seeks to eliminate emotional distress and minimize psychological triggers. It assumes that healing is found in feeling safe and being constantly affirmed. The biblical vision, however, teaches that healing often comes through pain—not around it. Suffering can be redemptive when entrusted to God. The gospel offers not just comfort, but transformation. It reorients the past through the work of Christ and offers a future grounded not in psychological safety, but in spiritual sanctification.
Even more concerning, trauma-informed approaches tend to make memory the highest epistemological authority in a person’s life. "Your story is your truth" becomes the defining principle. But Scripture teaches that God’s Word, not our memory, is truth. While memory can be an important part of processing pain, it must be submitted to the authority of Scripture. A worldview that elevates human narrative above divine revelation cannot lead to flourishing—it can only offer coping, not true healing.
Human flourishing, according to the Bible, is not about perpetual self-protection. It is about being conformed to the image of Christ. That means learning to endure, to forgive, to love enemies, and to suffer well. These aren’t compatible with the trauma-informed ethos, which often resists confrontation, accountability, and any form of suffering that isn’t instantly soothed.
The Church must be discerning. We cannot simply baptize secular therapeutic models with Christian language and assume they serve the gospel. Trauma-informed care may offer short-term relief, but it cannot deliver the kind of durable, redemptive hope that only the gospel can provide. If we want to see people truly flourish, we must guide them not into safety from their stories—but into the arms of the Savior who redeems them.
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