Leaning Into Faith While Tending to the Wounds Within

Understanding the Needs Beneath the Trauma

There’s a version of you that still remembers.

She remembers the fear.

She remembers the confusion.

She remembers trying to be strong when she didn’t feel safe.

We don’t always call her the “inner child.”

Sometimes she just feels like a tight chest.

A quick reaction.

A wave of sadness that doesn’t match the moment.

And if we’re not paying attention, we either shame her… or silence her.

But faith — real, steady faith — invites us to do something different.

It invites us to lean in.

Trauma Isn’t Just What Happened

It’s What Didn’t Happen

Trauma isn’t only abuse or chaos.

Sometimes trauma is:

Not being comforted when you cried

Being told you were “too sensitive”

Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions

Learning love meant performance

Trauma is the moment your nervous system learned:

“I have to survive this.”

And survival mode doesn’t disappear just because you grow up.

Your body remembers.

Your reactions remember.

Your patterns remember.

Faith Isn’t Denial. It’s Safety.

For years, many of us were taught that faith meant pushing feelings down.

Pray harder.

Be grateful.

Don’t question.

But that isn’t the kind of faith that heals.

Healing faith sounds more like this:

God is not intimidated by your pain.

You are allowed to feel what you feel.

Bringing your wounds into the light is not weakness.

When I say my faith is steady, I don’t mean I never doubt.

I mean I trust that I can bring my doubt with me.

Faith becomes the safe place your nervous system didn’t always have.

The “Inner Child” Is Simply Unmet Needs

Let’s simplify it.

That younger version of you?

She needed:

Safety

Comfort

Reassurance

Protection

Validation

When those needs weren’t met consistently, your system adapted.

Maybe you became:

Hyper-independent

A people pleaser

Emotionally guarded

Quick to react

Afraid of abandonment

Those aren’t personality flaws.

They’re protective strategies.

And faith allows you to look at them without shame.

What Happens When Faith and Trauma Work Together?

Instead of fighting your reactions, you begin asking:

What is this feeling trying to protect?

Instead of spiraling into guilt, you pause:

Is this a present threat… or an old memory?

Instead of pushing pain away, you sit with it —

not alone, but anchored.

This is where resilience deepens.

Not in pretending you’re fine.

But in recognizing when your 10-year-old self is driving a 45-year-old decision.

And gently taking the wheel back.

Leaning Into Faith Practically

This isn’t abstract.

It looks like:

Placing your hand on your chest when emotions spike

Saying, “I am safe right now.”

Breathing before responding

Asking God to help you respond from wisdom instead of fear

Allowing yourself to grieve what you didn’t receive

Faith does not erase trauma.

But it creates a container strong enough to process it.

Like a tree rooted deeply enough to bend without breaking.

Steady doesn’t mean stiff.

It means anchored.

You Are Not Broken. You Are Becoming.

The goal is not to eliminate your past.

The goal is to stop letting it unconsciously run your present.

The younger part of you does not need to be silenced.

She needs to be comforted.

And faith — steady, rooted faith — gives you the strength to say:

“I see you.

You survived.

But I’ve got us now.”

That’s not weakness.

That’s leadership over your nervous system.

That’s resilience.

A Gentle Reflection

Where do you still react from old wounds?

What did you need then that you can begin offering yourself now?

And how might faith become the steady ground beneath your healing —

not to silence your pain, but to hold it?

If this resonates, this is the work we do inside Visible Potential — not surface positivity, but steady transformation.

You don’t have to choose between faith and psychology.

You can build resilience with both.

And you don’t have to do it alone.