Episode 15: Healing What's Within through Curiosity and Connection with Chuck DeGroat

Trauma fundamentally disconnects us.

It can disconnect our brains from our bodies. It can sever relationships and entire communities. Those of us familiar with trauma know it can have a real impact on our faith or beliefs. It warps our understanding of others, our sense of safety, and even our own identity.

So how do we find connection again?

When we are alienated from ourselves, each other, and God, how do we find our way back home?

These are the questions that therapist and author Chuck DeGroat tackles in his latest book, Healing What’s Within. This is not a sequel or follow up to his previous When Narcissism Comes to Church, but rather a look at his own journey and process of dealing with his own trauma after spiritual abuse.

His deep knowledge and understanding of therapeutic work coupled with his experience as a minister, DeGroat offers incredibly practical tools for us to examine our own stories with curiosity and compassion and find our way back home to safety and security.

He reiterates our deepest message and hope, that we are indeed not just broken, but deeply Beloved.

download Episode Transcript 📄

Episode Resources and Links 

• Truth and Repair by Judith Herman on Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk on Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• I Shouldn’t Feel This Way by Dr. Alison Cook on Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• In the Shelter by Padraig O’Tuama on Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• Broken to Beloved Conference (for pastors and church leaders)
• Broken to Beloved Gathering (for the wounded and their advocates)
• Episode 001: Navigating Toxic Systems and Maintaining Agency with Dr. Alison Cook

Guest Spotlight 

Chuck DeGroat is a follower of Jesus, a husband to Sara, and father to two amazing daughters. He serves as Professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality and Executive Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Western Theological Seminary in Holland MI. He’s also a faculty member for the Soul Care Institute.

A licensed therapist, a spiritual director, author of five books (including When Narcissism Comes to Church), and retreat leader/speaker, Chuck has specialized in issues of abuse and trauma, pastoral (and leadership) health, and navigating issues of doubt and dark nights on the faith journey. He’s also a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America, and has pastored in Orlando and San Francisco before transitioning to training and forming pastors.

Chuck also trains clergy in issues of abuse and trauma, conducts pastor and planter assessments, and facilitates church consultations and investigations of abuse among pastors and within congregations.

Website | Instagram | Facebook

• Healing What’s Within at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• When Narcissism Comes to Church on Bookshop.org | on Amazon