Plain-language publication summarySpirituality, Religion & Trauma Recovery
When faith can both support and complicate healing
Explores how religion and spirituality can shape trauma recovery, revealing the complex ways faith may provide meaning, coping and support while also complicating survivors’ efforts to process and integrate traumatic experiences.
In plain language
What the research found
This publication explored how religion and spirituality influence the healing journeys of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse living in marginalised communities on South Africa's Cape Flats. The study found that faith can be a powerful source of hope, meaning and belonging, but it can also unintentionally discourage survivors from speaking about their trauma through expectations of silence, premature forgiveness or spiritual explanations for suffering. The findings highlight the importance of trauma-informed care that respectfully engages with survivors' spiritual beliefs while recognising the broader social and historical inequalities that shape their experiences. The publication contributes to more culturally responsive, ethical and person-centred approaches to trauma recovery.
Key finding
The study found that faith can be a powerful source of hope, meaning and belonging, but it can also unintentionally discourage survivors from speaking about their trauma through expectations of silence, premature forgiveness or spiritual explanations for suffering.
Further reading
Plain-language publication summary2025
How trauma is experienced beyond words
Explores how integrative silence can create space for embodied awareness, relational safety and trauma processing, offering an alternative to the expectation that survivors must rely on words to communicate and heal.
From the publication
‘Stay with the body’: facilitating integrative silence in community-based sexual trauma care. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 16(1), 2025.Plain-language publication summary2025
Understanding wellbeing beyond the individual
Provides a detailed methodology and explores how community-centred, feminist and restorative approaches can support trauma recovery by strengthening connection, agency and embodied healing among survivors of childhood sexual trauma in marginalised communities.
From the publication
Healing Bodies, Healing Communities: A Community-Based Qualitative Study of Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Trauma in South Africa. Healthcare, 13(20), 2601, 2025.
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