The Way Retreat Resources
The next Trauma Recovery Support Groups for survivors of trauma will begin the week of July 7 – September 3, 2025. Registration is open and the group is limited to 10 participants.
Examples of Life Altering Events:
- Death of a child, parent, sibling, spouse
- Diagnosis of chronic or terminal illness
- Car crash
- Victim or witness of a violent crime
Examples of Trauma during Childhood:
- Sexual, physical, verbal, emotional abuse and/or neglect
- Death of a parent, sibling, or caretaker
- Chronic illness (self or parent)
- Mental illness of parent, sibling or caretaker
- Victim or witness of violent crime
Have you recently undergone a life altering event? Are you a survivor of a traumatic childhood? Are you currently experiencing most of the following?
Fear and anxiety · Irritability or anger · Emotionally numb · Lack of focus · Overwhelming sadness · Easily startled or frightened · Changes in sleeping or eating habits · Bouts of crying that come easily · Recurrent nightmares or thoughts about the trauma.
If you answer yes to any of these questions, then the Trauma Recovery Support Group may be of help to you.
The goal of the Support Group is to help improve your day-to-day functioning. Rather than focusing on the recovery of repressed memories, this group focuses on helping you to live effectively in the present. Drawing on trauma research and evidence-based models for healing from trauma, this group will provide opportunities for learning new tools to address difficult emotions, internal conflict, and cognitive distortions.
The sessions do not focus on participants’ stories of trauma but at times participants may refer to a specific aspect or recollection of their trauma in relation to the topic/tools we are focusing on in the session that week.
The Support Group
The Support Recovery Group is limited to 10 participants. It is led by a professional counselor experienced in working with survivors of trauma and well-formed in the Roman Catholic faith.
There is an initial conversation with the leader to assess if the group is right for this time in your recovery. There are 9 group sessions. Session topics include Grounding, Attachment Ambivalence, Healthy vs. Unhealthy relationships, Avoiding Feelings, Cognitive Distortion, Calming the Body Stress, Locus of Control, Victim Triangle, Forgiveness, and Grief. Session follows this basic format:
- Prayer
- Review of prior session
- Introduction of new session
- Group exercises.
- Review of homework for the week
- Prayer
For more information or if you have any questions please contact Deborah A. McDonald, Coordinator of The Way programs for Trauma Survivors at [email protected].