Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Do Trauma and Abuse Have the Last Word?
She's seen slave dungeons in Ghana. Genocide in Rwanda. Systemic sexual abuse in Brazil. Child abuse and domestic violence in the U.S. After forty years of counseling abuse survivors around the world, Dr. Diane Langberg, a world renowned trauma expert, remains certain that what trauma destroys, Christ can and does restore. This book will convince you, too, of the healing heart of God.
When someone suffers through trauma, can healing happen? And, if yes, how does it happen? Dr. Diane Langberg tackles these complex and difficult questions with the insights she has gained through years of counseling those whose lives have been destroyed by trauma and abuse. Her answer carefully explained in Suffering and the Heart of God is Yes, what trauma destroys, Jesus can and does restore.
But it’s not a fast process, instead much patience is required from family, friends, and counselors as they wisely and respectfully help victims unpack their traumatic suffering through talking, tears, and time. And it’s not a process that can be separated from the work of God in both a counselor and counselee. Dr. Langberg calls all of those who wish to help sufferers to model Jesus's sacrificial love and care in how they listen, love, and guide.
The heart of God is revealed to sufferers as they grow to understand the cross of Jesus Christ and how their God came to this earth and experienced such severe suffering that he too is well-acquainted with grief. The cross of Jesus Christ is the lens that transforms and redeems traumatic suffering and its aftermath, not only for the sufferer, but it also transforms those who walk with the suffering.
This Christian book will be a great help to anyone who loves, listens to, and seeks to help someone impacted by trauma and abuse. There is no quick fix, but there is the hope for healing through the love of God in Jesus Christ.
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- Calls all of those who wish to help sufferers to model Jesus's sacrificial love and care
- Reveals the heart of God to sufferers as they grow to understand the cross of Christ
- Points to the cross of Christ as the lens that transforms and redeems traumatic suffering and its aftermath
- Trauma as a Place of Service
- Justice vs. Complicity
- The Psychology of Evil and Sin
- The Psychology of Suffering
- The Fellowship of His Sufferings
- The Spiritual Impact of Abuse
- Ministry to the Suffering
- Shame and Trauma
- Living with Trauma Memories
- Living with Ongoing Trauma
- The Many Faces of Grief
- Leadership, Power, and Deception in the Church and the Home
- Sexual Abuse in Christian Organizations
- Complex Trauma
- Understanding Domestic Violence
- Understanding Sexual Abuse
- Narcissism and the System It Breeds
- Ten Lessons for Counseling Students
- Secondary Trauma
- Beauty in Garbage City
Suffering, the World, and the Heart of God
Ministry in the Context of Christian Community
Ministry in the Clinician’s Office
Care for the Counselor
In a poetic, powerful, passionate, and challenging book, Diane Langberg, with her many years of counseling experience, takes us on a disturbing (and healing) journey into the hearts of the survivors of many different types of terrible trauma all over the world into our own bent and broken hearts, and then into the heart of an amazing, loving God who was humiliated, crucified, and abandoned so that we (and the whole creation) might be healed and delivered from the power of evil. This is a superb master-class in counseling and pastoral care with a gifted, experienced, and wise therapist.
—Richard Winter, MD, Therapist and Professor of Practical Theology and Counseling, Covenant Theological Seminary
Through this book, Dr. Langberg names one of the most insidious threats to spiritual health in our generation: trauma and the wounded heart. While disturbing, her unrelenting campaign identifies the next "mission field" of the church, those who are suffering silently. This book is for all who hunger to help a loved one, congregant, or client apply the truth of God's Word as a healing ointment to the hidden anguish that trauma leaves in its wake.
—Roy Peterson, President, American Bible Society
God never wastes a wound. He is in the midst of our darkest moment revealing himself full of love, truth, hope, and healing. This book is an absolute treasure a gift of grace to us all.
—Tim Clinton, President, American Association of Christian Counselors
Diane Langberg brings to these moving essays decades of experience working with trauma survivors in the United States and abroad. This is no arms-length reflection on the nature of human suffering. Throughout, she repeatedly points her readers to Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant, who is the only hope for victim and perpetrator alike and for the counselor who desires to be used by God to make a difference amidst terrible brokenness and sin.
—Michael R. Emlet, MDiv, MD, Faculty and Counselor, the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF); author of CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet
We live in a broken world and evil is real. Where the true light of the gospel of Christ goes, the darkness of evil in this world retreats. William Wilberforce reflected the character of Christ into the eighteenth century British Empire and faithfully led the fight against slavery for forty years until it was outlawed. Diane Langberg has for forty years looked into the eyes of those wounded by evil and been a powerful voice for healing, justice, and truth. This book is a place of insight, wisdom, encouragement, and challenge for the body of Christ to love our precious Lord and to reflect his heart and love to the brokenhearted.
—Greg Pritchard, PhD, Director, European Leadership Forum, President, Forum of Christian Leaders
- Title: Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores
- Author: Diane Langberg
- Publisher: New Growth Press
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Pages: 304
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Trauma; Abuse; Suffering
- Resource ID: LLS:SFFRNGHRTCRSTRS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-09T18:53:02Z
Dr. Diane Langberg, is a globally recognized psychologist with 53 years of clinical experience working with trauma patients. She has trained caregivers from six continents in responding to trauma and to the abuse of power. For 29 years she directed her own practice in Jenkintown PA - Diane Langberg Ph.D. & Associates. Now, in partnership with Dr. Phil Monroe, Langberg, Monroe & Associates continues this work which includes seventeen therapists with multiple specialties.
November 2024 will see the publication of Dr. Langberg's most recent book, When the Church Harms God's People: Becoming Faith Communities that Resist Abuse, Pursue Truth, and Care for the Wounded. Two more recent works are In Our Lives First: Meditations for Counselors, Volume 2, and Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. Additional readings include Suffering the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores, On the Threshold of Hope (with Workbook), Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse, and In Our Lives First: Meditations for Counselors.
Dr. Langberg is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Achievements from Taylor University., the American Association of Christian Counselors Caregiver Award, The Distinguished President’s award, and the Philadelphia Council of Clergy’s Christian Service Award.
She is married and has two sons and four grandchildren.