These are additional resources outside of what we have created here at Heal by the Word. All of these resources have been used by our team at some point in their own healing journey. Having these resources on our site does not mean agreement or alignment with everything released by these individuals. 

We pray these resources benefit you on your journey. If you would like additional support, please reach out.

Because being delivered from evil is part of our instruction as Christians, we include several options from devoted ministries and resources.  We are also happy to assist you in this process and help you maintain your deliverance!

www.doersoftheword.com – also found on YouTube at David Middleton

Bibles and Biblical Teachings

 

We can only recommend nutrition resources that are free from “fatness is bad” agendas. Sadly, most Christian health books are not trauma or eating disorders informed. We recommend you reach out at tracybrownrd.com/get started for efficient, effective, mentally and emotionally safe and individualized nutrition interventions for you. 

Have you been told you are too sensitive?  Feel like you or your needs are too much?

What if you knew that you are fearfully and wonderfully made to be this way for God’s kingdom! 

Carol A Brown reassures us that “you may be coping with an extremely sensitive nervous system, which is core to burden bearing and sensing the heart of God! It is a good thing!”

Why are we not ministering and educating on being highly sensitive?

I (Tracy) struggled with self-hate and confusion because the sensitivity that I was born with was criticized, manipulated, not seen nor appropriately ministered to in how to use how God made me (us) in a Godly way.

Because of this mis-attunement and abuse, the enemy used this make-up to whip me, build up pride and lead me to the new age to develop as a diviner and shaman. Yikes!  Thank you, Jesus, for showing me the Kingdom way to be boundaried with knowledge and discernment and teaching me how to be a burden bearer, leaving behind empathic work.

Here are just a few characteristics of highly sensitive/ burden bearing people:

  *  Difficulty with environmental stimuli: bright lights, loud noises, crowds, scents, materials, sensations; tags/textures in clothes or foods can be irritating.

  *  See things in a big picture, nuanced or detailed oriented way with a vivid imagination.

  *  Whether you are extroverted or introverted, need time to recover from sensory, emotional, or relational experiences.

  * Ask pointed questions of people that others might consider inappropriate – cutting to the heart of the matter.

  *  Attuned to the needs or wants of others, helping how you can.

  *  Attuned to and impacted by the emotions or moods of others.

  *  Can have times of “big” emotions; sad, grieved, or tearful over hurts of themselves, others, the world.

  *  Overwhelm because of any of the above resulting in “not acting like yourself.”

  * Tender feelings / easily offended if un-redeemed or un-treated trauma.

  *  Can be “watchful”, observant or even shy.

  *  Vulnerable to depression when sensitivity is not guarded.

  *  Lose yourself around strong personalities or intense emotions of others – absorbing others “stuff.”

  *  See/notice details and circumstances others cannot.

  *  Sense/know things ahead of time.

 

Carol A. Brown in her book “Highly Sensitive” also describes 5 typical problems having to do with not knowing how to manage the above characteristics.

  * Difficulty hearing God or recognizing that you do hear him.

  * Difficulty discerning between someone else’s burden and your own.

  * Boundaries

  * Trust

  * Issues of Identity

 

If you are thinking “yes this is me and now, what do I do?”, please do not think you have to change all of this in your own power!

God has given us his Word, discernment, dreams, visions, wisdom, knowledge, and other people to help us become strong in him with sensitivity to minister as a part of the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12: 1-31)

And remember, the Lord will teach us how to be burden-bearers appropriately through the above and following ways : Matthew 11: 28-30 – “come unto Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”

When we bring our high sensitivity to the Lord, we learn how to carry our own load as in instructed in Galatians 6:5 and to care for and serve others appropriately.

 

Here are a few ways to get started to use your sensitivity appropriately by Carol A. Brown from her “Highly Sensitive” book:

  * The Scriptures

  * Tugs on the Heart

  * Conscious Thoughts and Hunches

  * Pictures or Mental Images

  * Common Images seen repeatedly depicted in the Bible.

  * Lessons of Life

  * Dreams and Visions

  * God speaking to you through other People.

  * Physical Sensations

  * (My addition) Knowing the attributes/names/character of God.

  * (My addition) Living by the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5: 1-11

 

Finally, we must test what we hear or sense by asking (attributed to Carol A. Brown) 

  * Does what I hear align with Scripture?

  * Does it find agreement with the discernment of Christians I trust?

  * Does it witness and continue to witness to me through the Holy Spirit?

  * Is it consistent with the nature and character of Christ?

  * Is it consistent with historic Church doctrine?

 

Carol A. Brown also gives a few more prompts here to work through issues of trust, boundaries and many other issues in the healing of overwhelmed burden barriers and highly sensitive people here:  https://www.carolabrown.com/post/highly-sensitive-user-s-guide

Our team prays this information profits you and helps you grow in the Lord.

Of course, we recommend healing through going to God and His called helpers to heal from chronic symptoms of trauma but understanding how the brain and body operate can help us feel less out of control when we cannot make progress.

Let’s take a few minutes to understand the symptoms of unprocessed trauma:

Physical

There is a stress response that occurs between the emotions/sensations that occurred with trauma.  This is stored in the amygdala.  The amygdala’s job to help you “remember” often with no episodic memory (pictures) but with body sensatiosn and emotions so you can be on guard for these things happening again.  This is often felt as hypervigilance.  These mind and body sensations can keep the body looping in stress responses that over time, wear down our mind, body and even faith.

 

Mental

Our eye and ear gates matter very much to how much old traumas are triggered.  We can’t help this, but we can protect ourselves by not consuming media that is / was similar to when we experienced diet trauma or other traumas. 

 

Trauma impacts our ability to make changes that would improve our lives.

 

Repetitive thoughts can occur about food and body or other fears of rejctions, even salvation, can be triggered by either spiritual oppression from the open door of trauma or our own transgressions.  This is why renewal of our minds daily is vital and making time to focus on God’s voice, actions that are in obedience to his plan for healing for you and Godly counsel to stay accountable.

(James 4:7-10 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”)

Emotional

The enemy wants to keep us in turmoil so that we believe that our best bet is to stay in the distractions of this world to push away the feelings versus observe them use support and the weapons God has given us through Christ Jesus.  Before we talk more about how to grow our emotional resilience so we aren’t constantly triggered, let talk a little about what you might be feeling when you are under stress/trauma response that hasn’t been processed.  Remember it’s not that we have to be regulated all the time; the goal is to grow our capacity and reach for our resources.

“So many of us have shame. Not being thin enough, reading the Bible enough, etc. Shame is all about fear – the fear of being disconnected, left out, exposed and alone. Shame steals hope and joy, and keeps a person self-focused.” – Helen Hofman

Christian counseling offers the solution to shame.

We believe what Helen  writes, “The Christian counselor brings true hope for a client struggling with shame. Christ’s death and resurrection offer not only the antidote to sin, but also the solution to shame. To those who self-identify as shameful, Christ offers a new heart, a new sense of self, and true change. Knowing that Christ took our shame as well as our sins to the cross, we can leave both burdens there. He provides a new identity for those covered in shame.”

(2nd Corinthians 10: 3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ)

What if we were to focus more on how Jesus bore our real and perceived shames and find our identities in not what people think or say, but in who he is (our identities) in us!?

Here are some signs you have or are experiencing a threat response:
FLIGHT

• Emotional flooding,  sense of unease, dread, hypervigilant, disconnected from self, others, feeling separated

• Anxiety, panic,

• Vehement emotions

• Racing thoughts

• Intrusive thoughts and images

• Nightmares 

• “I don’t want to be here”

• Shallow exhale, increase heart rate, muscle tension, sighted and disorganized 5 sense perception.

• rapid breath, digestive problems

 
FIGHT

• Arguing, combative, pushing against

• Increased heart rate, tightness in chest, shallow breath

• Leaning forward (not in an interested way), chest up/out, furrowed brow, narrowed eyes, tense face

• Self-harm, including purging, cutting, restricting because “fighting” against acknowledging or allowing needs to get met

• Lone wolf; I can figure this out myself

• Voice volume (louder)

 
FREEZE

• Shallow inhale, glazed eyes, decreased heart rate, muscle hypotonic, dulled 5 sense perception, digestive problems, animal defense of low freeze, slow digestion , drained,

• Slow cognition, confusion, memory access and storage impairments, disconnection, negative self-talk

• Flat or numb affect, depression, shame, helplessness, despair, hopeless, bored in session

• Foggy, alone, lost, unreachable, invisible, floating, untethered, collapsed

•Remember feeling “not present” is on a continuum” 

— Day to Day

  • Driving home without remembering the details
  • Losing interest or connection in relationship
  • Someone is talking but cant really hear
  • Daydreaming

— Functional freeze

  • Going through the motions in life, not acknowledging what isn’t working nor having access to flexibity
  • Feeling like decisions are hard to make

—  Dissociative

  • Lose track of needs/time
  • Derealization/black out
  • Potential for more serious dissociative conditions including addictions, BPD and DID
 
PEOPLE PLEASE / FEIGN / FAWN

  • You Have an Inability to Say “No”

  • You feel disconnected from your own emotions, sensations, and needs

  • Your Values seem to be Fluid in Personal Interactions

  • Your Guilt and Anger Go Hand-in-Hand:  I feel bad when others are mad; it’s my fault

  • You are blanking out emotionally

  • Your emotions erupt in unusual ways

  • You feel responsible for the reactions of others

  • You feel like no one really knows you

(Adapted from and added to from www.thedawnrehab.com)

The preceding symptoms are signs that your body and brain are in stressed, defensive mode and are normal to happen when you have unprocessed trauma/PTSD and are currently in a stress response.

Healing Trauma and Chronic Stress God’s Way is a topic we have sought the Lord on for years and this is what we have come to trust so far about allowing the Healing Power of the Holy Spirit in your life, Jesus as your savior who understand exactly what you are going through and trusting our Heavenly Father to keep his promises in wanting us to have victory over the tribulations we face because of sin and generational inequity.  

We promote the following to participate in God’s desire for us to be whole….

  • Daily Repentance (this is very important especially as you engage in spiritual warfare and deliverance)
  • Know the word for yourself – do not soley rely on preachers and teachers
  • Understand whether this makes us uncomfortable or not, that we are in a spiritual war, making deliverance, binding and loosing, rebuking the enemy and speaking life vital for your recovery.
  • Having Godly counsel to strengthen and encourage
  • Renew your mind daily
  • Praise and appreciation
  • Rid your life of idols
  • Remember the blood covering of Jesus, to put on the full armor of God, to request a hedge of protection over all aspects of your life daily
  • Acceptance that we are not here to fit in with this world, but to be set apart
  • AND that there is victory in pursuing a relationship with God the father, God the son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit

Remember, Jesus was fully divine and fully human (Jn 20:31; Jn 1:14; 1 Jn 1:1–4.) He became a man with all the functions of His body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, He would have experienced extreme physical agony as well as shame, betrayal, and rejection within the context of His relationships. He would have experienced what we call a “broken heart.”

Finally, we will offer this.  Your trauma does not make us uncomfortable.  If we are in him we know that he will guide us through. There is purpose in your pain. The scars may never fully disappear in this lifetime but the healing is a witness to your victory through Jesus Christ. We  understand the conditions for healing and are here to help but will always point you to the Great Healer/Counselor and “I Am”

 

Health

 

Relationship

Trauma ruptures our relationship with ourselves and others.  And the enemy will get you to believe you can’t trust God either.  One of the most powerful ways we heal trauma is in relationship and we aim to help you forgive yourself and others but see God has your primary attachment, clinging to him to learn to heal what was “too much” and “not enough” in early relationships and care you received.

To learn more about how we are wired to connect and what God says about healthy relationships, visit:

https://www.freechristiancounselingtraining.com/answers-by-topic/attachment/

 

Things to consider :

Where was God in the trauma?

What does the bible say about trauma?

Recovery from Childhood Trauma

We know covert ritual, cult, new age, psychological, experimental, and religious abuse happen and are difficult experiences for people accept, let alone be willing to move forward to heal.  We believe that many more people have experienced ritual and experimental abuse and is in their family line than realize and we aim to be a resource to bring people back to Christ as the main healer.

  * Hear my story of covert ritual abuse and recovery through Jesus Christ

RESOURCES

Finally, if you need one-on-one counseling from another highly sensitive person to get to the root of persistent overwhelm, please reach out at www.tracybrownrd.com/get-started.

• Spiritual Abuse and the Church:  Why Should We Listen?

• 4 Steps to Heal from Church Hurt

• Trauma, Food & Spiritual Abuse + Live Q&A

Supplements I Recommend

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