Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivors

For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a new book focused on the task of post-traumatic remaking and how trauma survivors might be equipped to nurture their spiritual lives as they live with trauma. I’ve done a lot of work in the field of trauma over the last decade but I felt like I hadn’t produced something truly practical that people could use. But alongside that, I was still conscious of how much upending and disrupting the experience of trauma does to our lives and our theologies and I wanted to be able to explore some of that in dialogue with spiritual practice.

The result is Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivors (SCM Press, 2024). I have made the Introduction to the volume available freely here (with kind permission from my lovely publishers) and if you like what you read you can buy it here.

Read here: Introduction to Survival.

What have readers said so far about the book?

“In this profoundly compassionate guide, Karen O’Donnell presents tangible, embodied practices designed to help trauma survivors navigate their faith journeys. By exploring reconnection through themes of anger, hopelessness, pleasure, rest, and even the act of enjoying good food, she provides invaluable practical support. Readers will find no pressurised suggestions here; they are reminded that the journey of remaking isn’t linear and are invited to consider what resonates with their own lives. This powerful book will be a heartfelt companion for anyone working through their own trauma or supporting others on their path to renewal.”

Dr Katie Cross, University of Aberdeen.

“Earthy, tender, funny, and frank, Survival exposes the logic that cuts survivors off from church and provides persistent witness to trauma theology’s healing counter-logic. But it is more than this. It is a testimony to the potential of theology to reconnect people after experiences of extraordinary pain…Karen O’Donnell weaves the best of historical theological wisdom with trauma studies to produce a primer on best practices for post-traumatic healing in church spaces. She does not just tell us what’s wrong with the church; she shows us how to do better.”

Prof. Shelly Rambo, Boston University.