Reclaiming Wholeness: Incorporating Spirituality into Grief and Trauma Healing
Grief and trauma can leave us feeling fragmented and disconnected from ourselves as well as the world around us. While healing is not linear, it does require deep introspection and can be challenging to find alignment in thoughts, feelings and nervous system regulation following traumatic experiences. Throughout my years as a therapist, I have been blessed to witness how integrating spiritual practices into the healing process can gently restore connection to self as well as community and culture. When integrating spiritual approaches into healing, it’s important to understand that spirituality is about strengthening a personal, meaningful and sacred relationship with ourselves.
While trauma and loss can rupture our sense of safety and identity, spirituality becomes the language of the soul. It gives space for questions like “Why did this happen to me?” or “Who am I after this experience?”. Questions without definitive answers but through strengthening a connection with oneself, can allow movement beyond the pain as a means of redefining identity, purpose, and meaning from experiences.
Why Spiritual Connection Matters in Grief and Trauma Healing
The rippling effects of grief and loss are interwoven with traumatic experiences. This may be the loss of a loved one, a sense of safety, meaning, identify or connection. While trauma may disconnect us from our bodies and from experiencing life as it once was, in contrast, spirituality offers a bridge back to our inner world, allowing something greater than the pain to emerge. Additionally, spirituality moves beyond “fixing” the problem and instead creates space to uncover what holds meaning as we heal.
Grief and trauma expose a myriad of uncomfortable emotions. Misplaced shame, guilt, anger and rumination, often create discomfort within the mind and body; however, spiritual practices can be a source of self-regulation, inner guidance, and restore trust in ourselves. The brain’s default mode network (DMN), is associated with the area of the brain involved in rumination. Activities such as meditation and prayer help quiet the DMN and allow repetitive cycles to deconstruct negative thoughts while fostering presence and connection to self or others. Moreover, practices that engage the parasympathetic nervous system, shift the body from “fight or flight” to a state of “rest and digest”, which increases cognitive functioning, decreases body tension and anxious responses in addition to improving overall wellness.
Cross-Cultural Practices for Spiritual Healing
Prior to exploring spiritual practices, it’s important to distinguish between religion and spirituality. Religion is often associated with a structured and shared belief system that engages in institutionally led rituals that are shared within a community. Spirituality, on the other hand, is an inner experience, be it to self, others, nature or ancestors. One can be both religious and spiritual at the same time. Culture may also shape both
religious and spiritual practices offering shared experiences or beliefs that may be derived from traditional teachings or cultural norms.
Because all brains and bodies are built differently, interweaving the five senses into the healing process can help restore balance and allow each individual to engage in healing practices that are tailored to their needs. There are countless paths to bring spirituality into healing. The practices below are both time-honored and supported by modern science.
1. Nature-based practices – Spending time in nature, walking barefoot on the earth, and connecting to land or water are quick and effective ways to feel more grounded. Plants and animals may spark feelings of interconnectedness with living creatures, stimulating the production of oxytocin and serotonin – the natural bonding and well-being chemicals in the brain that promote emotional regulation.
2. Breath and body awareness – Breath is our lifeforce; without it, we cannot live.
Conscious breathing returns us to the present moment, calms the amygdala (fear center of the brain), and returns oxygen to the brain, thus, increasing our ability to respond rather than react. Because the body is the storage house of unprocessed survival responses like tension, numbness, chronic fatigue, digestive upset, memory concerns, and chronic pain, talk therapy alone is not always enough. Reconnecting with the body allows individuals to identify internal cues such as hunger, safety, fun, or rest. Much like identifying the needs of a newborn infant, listening to the body allows us to manage our internal operating system and adjust our needs accordingly.
3. Sound and music – Music bypasses language and speaks to the limbic system (emotional brain center), which is where trauma lives. Rhythms and tones help to soothe hyperarousal and instruments, such as the drum, reconnect the body to the heartbeat. Music activates both the right and left hemisphere of the brain, which supports rebuilding the memory, thought processes and whole-brain engagement. Incorporating traditional or cultural songs, dance, chants, humming, or instruments can restore a sense of belonging.
4. Visualization – Imagination and creativity is a spiritual faculty that can connect us to a desired outcome or create a space of safety from within. Using visualization as a tool activates similar neural pathways to real experiences helping to rewire trauma responses and create new emotional associations. Using visualization as a tool helps to rewrite internal narratives and can help us create a visual for the ways in which our “healed” self might look or behave throughout the healing process.
5. Ritual – Rituals are a way of marking sacred transitions such as birth or death. Symbolic actions help integrate what is unseen but deeply felt. Using rituals as a tool for healing can engage the right side of the brain, which is responsible for emotion and creativity, bringing about a reconnection to purpose. Additionally, rituals help us honor loss, emotional closure and create a space for letting go of what no longer serves us.
A Return to Wholeness
While trauma and grief can rob essential parts of our wholeness, spirituality invites us to return home to the place inside that is anchored in connection. By incorporating spiritual practices into healing, progress can unfold in any number of ways including:
A deeper trust in oneself
Reconnecting to the body and emotions
Restore joy, purpose and meaning
Reframe – “Why did this happen” to “How can I make meaning out of this?”
Increased connection to self/others/culture/community
Nervous system regulation
Rewire the neuropathways of the brain
Until recently, science and spirituality have lived in separate worlds; one being seen as rational and evidence-based, while the other was mystical lackadaisical. Now, when coupled, spirituality and science have become companions that offer a more holistic, embodied and meaningful approach to healing. Healing through spirituality isn’t about bypassing pain, it’s about reconnecting to what still lives inside of us. When we invite spirituality into recovery, we make space for transformation instead of survival. While there is no single path to healing, as therapists, it is our role to create a space where our clients can attune to their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs in a way that open pathways to profound restoration. While grief and trauma may rupture our sense of self, spirituality reminds us that healing is not about erasing the pain but rather reclaiming the parts of ourselves that are sacred and whole.
“Healing may not be so much about getting better as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are”
Racheel Naomi Remen