Trauma-Informed Leadership for Pastors and Ministry Leaders

Recognize what trauma is doing beneath the surface, and lead with greater care.

Ministry puts leaders close to pain.

You sit with people through grief, crisis, conflict, loss, fear, and change. You may be carrying stories and responsibilities that stay with you long after the conversation ends.

Over time, that exposure can affect the way you feel, relate, make decisions, and lead.

Trauma-Informed Leadership is a six-session online course for pastors and ministry leaders who want to better understand the effects of trauma, recognize what may be happening in themselves and the people around them, and build healthier ways of leading.

When Caring for Others Starts to Take a Toll

Trauma does not only affect people who have experienced a single catastrophic event.

Leaders can also experience vicarious and cumulative trauma through repeated exposure to other people’s suffering, ongoing stress, and the responsibility of caring for communities during difficult seasons.

The effects are not always obvious.

They may show up as exhaustion, emotional reactivity, numbness, withdrawal, difficulty concentrating, disrupted relationships, or a growing sense that something simply feels different.

Recognizing those patterns is not about diagnosing yourself or anyone else.

It is about developing enough awareness to respond with greater wisdom and care.

What You Will Explore

Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Ministry

Learn how repeated exposure to distress and crisis can affect clergy and ministry leaders.

Consider why the nature of ministry work and the expectation to continually support others can increase the emotional burden leaders carry.

Recognizing Cumulative Trauma

Explore how stress can build gradually over time and learn to recognize emotional, physical, and behavioral signs that something may need attention.

Consider how unresolved trauma can also affect teams, relationships, and organizational health.

Support and Coping

Explore practices, community support, and professional resources that can help leaders respond to the effects of prolonged stress and trauma.

The goal is not simply to become better at enduring more.

It is to recognize when support is needed and develop healthier ways of receiving it.

Building Resilience in Ministry

Examine what resilience looks like for both leaders and communities and identify practices that can strengthen the capacity to remain present through difficult circumstances.

Creating Trauma-Informed Ministry Environments

Learn the foundational principles of trauma-informed care, including trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and creating spaces that are safe enough for honesty.

Consider practical ways to apply these principles within congregations, ministries, and organizations.

Integrating What You Have Learned

Bring the course together by identifying practical next steps for your own leadership and ministry context.

Develop a plan for continuing to grow in trauma-informed awareness and practice beyond the course.

This Course Is for You If…

You regularly accompany people through grief, crisis, conflict, or trauma.

You have noticed that the emotional weight of ministry is affecting you more than it used to.

You feel responsible for supporting everyone else but are less certain about where leaders go for support themselves.

Your organization has been through a prolonged period of stress, disruption, or loss.

You want to create a ministry culture where people can speak honestly about what they are experiencing.

Or you want to understand trauma better so that your leadership does not unintentionally add to the harm someone is already carrying.

What You Can Take Back Into Your Ministry

By the end of the course, you will be better equipped to:

• Recognize signs of vicarious and cumulative trauma
• Understand how prolonged stress can affect leaders and organizations
• Identify supportive practices and resources before stress becomes overwhelming
• Strengthen resilience in yourself and your ministry context
• Apply trauma-informed principles to leadership and organizational life
• Create environments marked by greater trust, choice, collaboration, and care
• Identify practical next steps for healthier leadership

You Do Not Have to Carry Everything Alone

Ministry often teaches leaders how to care for other people.

It does not always teach them how to recognize what sustained exposure to pain is doing to them.

Trauma-informed leadership begins with awareness: noticing what is happening beneath the surface, understanding how it shapes people and systems, and learning to respond in ways that support greater health rather than simply asking everyone to keep going.

Enroll in the Class

Rose is the Executive Director for the Center for Transforming Engagement overseeing resilience programs, bringing a lifetime of ministry experience as co-founder of the Practicing Church in Shoreline, WA, former Regional Leader of Northwest Vineyard USA, and founder of Canopy Scholars; she continues to teach and preach, champions women in ministry, and draws her passion for resilience from her own health journey, holding a DMin from Bakke Graduate University focused on transformational leadership for the global city. She and her husband, Rich, have a blended family of eight children and more than twenty-five grandchildren.

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