Spiritual Direction and Inner Healing Prayer for Trauma

Blog by Unhurried Living Team

Spiritual direction is a relational practice of sitting with a trained guide who helps you notice where God is present in your life, including in the wounded places trauma leaves behind. Inner healing prayer takes that noticing a step further, inviting Jesus into a specific memory so the pain can be seen, held, and slowly transformed. Neither approach promises a quick fix; both offer something trauma often takes away, which is the felt experience of safety.

On this episode of the Unhurried Living Podcast, Gem Fadling talked with Susan Carson, founder and executive director of Roots and Branches, a ministry in Cincinnati devoted to spiritual direction and contemplative healing. Susan Carson holds a Master of Theology and Culture from St. Stephen's University, and her work draws together the wisdom of Julian of Norwich with modern findings in interpersonal neurobiology. Together they explored why healing rarely happens through information alone, and why spiritual direction and inner healing prayer so often begin with something much quieter: presence.

The conversation kept circling back to one idea. We heal less by trying harder and more by being safely seen. That is the thread running through every section below.

What Does Beholding God Actually Mean for Healing?

Susan Carson traces the idea of beholding God back to Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth century English mystic who spent decades contemplating a vision she received of Christ on the cross. For Julian, beholding was never passive observation. It carried the double meaning of seeing and being held, so that to behold God was also to be upheld by God in the same motion.

Susan Carson connected this ancient insight to what neuroscience now confirms about attachment. Just as an infant finds a sense of self by gazing into a caregiver's eyes, adults find healing by gazing at a loving, non-anxious presence, whether that presence is God or another person who reflects God's steadiness. When beholding God becomes a practice rather than an idea, traumatic memories that have been frozen in isolation can finally be brought into relationship, where they begin to change.

This is not merely poetic language. Susan Carson explained that when we behold something different in God, whether through Scripture, imagination, or quiet prayer, the old memory is not simply recalled; it is reencoded. New neural pathways start to form, and the person begins to live differently because they have been truly seen.

One honest, doable step: choose a single Gospel scene where Jesus meets someone with tenderness, sit with it for five quiet minutes, and simply notice how he looks at that person.

If you would benefit from a trained companion for this kind of beholding prayer, meet with a soul care guide and connect here.

How Do Trauma and Faith Work Together for Healing?

Susan Carson is careful to say that trauma and faith are not separate categories, one clinical and one spiritual. She pointed to Julian of Norwich as proof: Julian lived through plague, war, and church division, and her writing on trauma and faith still speaks centuries later because she never pretended suffering was simple.

Julian's most quoted line, that all shall be well, was not naive optimism. It came after twenty years of wrestling with God over the reality of suffering she watched outside her own window. Trauma and faith met in that small room, and what emerged was not an answer so much as a companionship that could hold the question.

Gem Fadling offered her own account of trauma and faith intersecting in therapy, describing sessions where a skilled counselor invited Jesus into a specific memory so it could be experienced differently. She described watching herself change over years, coming out with less of the trauma's grip and more of a settled sense of being held. Susan Carson's parable of the master and the servant captures this well: a servant falls into a ditch through no fault of his own, and healing begins the moment he looks up and realizes the master never left his side.

One honest, doable step: name one memory that still carries pain, and simply ask, without demanding an answer, "God, were you there?"

Do you feel drawn to explore this kind of prayer further? Browse our books and resources collection and find it here.

Why Does Safe Presence Matter for Healing?

Susan Carson describes safe presence in plain, physical terms. The vagus nerve runs from the brain through the body, constantly scanning for whether we are safe or in danger, and it responds to fight, flight, freeze, or fawn when it senses we are alone in a threat. A regulated, loving safe presence, whether God's or another person's, signals to that nervous system that it is finally allowed to rest.

Gem Fadling illustrated safe presence with a memory of a restaurant server in Paso Robles whose calm, unhurried manner changed the whole table's mood without a single word about it. Susan Carson calls this co-regulation, the same principle at work between a parent and infant and, she believes, between a person and God. Safe presence is not a technique; it is simply what happens when someone stops performing calm and actually is calm.

This is also why Susan Carson insists on noise-free, shame-free, formula-free spaces in her own work as a spiritual director. She stopped trying to fix people years ago and started simply making room, trusting that Christ, not her own effort, does the deeper work of healing.

One honest, doable step: the next time you feel anxious, look for one safe presence nearby, whether a person, a memory, or a moment of quiet with God, and let your body notice it.

What Does Spiritual Direction and Inner Healing Prayer Look Like in Practice?

Spiritual direction and inner healing prayer are not formulas, but certain postures tend to show up again and again in Susan Carson's description of the work. The comparison below contrasts the common cultural approach to emotional pain with what she has found actually helps people heal.

Spiritual direction and inner healing prayer both make room for this second column, offering a companion rather than a checklist. Susan Carson's own years of practicing contemplative prayer, quiet, and solitude are what she credits for her ability to sit calmly with another person's pain.

Who Finds This Kind of Healing?

Leaders and caregivers everywhere carry unspoken exhaustion, whether they lead a congregation, a nonprofit, or simply their own household. Susan Carson's work speaks to anyone who has grown tired of clinical detachment on one side and hollow spiritual formulas on the other. Whatever country, culture, or context you serve from, the invitation to be safely held by God is the same.

Where Do You Go From Here?

Susan Carson's conversation with Gem Fadling returns again and again to one quiet truth: healing is less about fixing ourselves and more about being compassionately witnessed by God and by others. Julian of Norwich discovered this centuries ago in a small room attached to a church, and modern neuroscience is only now catching up to what she already knew. All shall be well because we are already, and always, held.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is co-suffering love and why does it matter? A: Co-suffering love describes God emptying himself into human suffering rather than merely observing it from a distance, a concept Susan Carson draws from Philippians 2. It matters because it means no pain is carried alone; God is present within the suffering itself, offering companionship rather than a fix.

Q: How can contemplative prayer help heal trauma? A: Contemplative prayer creates the quiet and safety needed for painful memories to be revisited within a loving presence rather than in isolation. As the memory is held differently in prayer, new neural pathways can form, allowing the person to experience it with less fear over time.

Q: How does safe presence help regulate the nervous system? A: The vagus nerve constantly monitors for safety, and a calm, non-anxious presence signals the body that it can leave fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses behind. This co-regulation happens through eye contact, tone of voice, and steady presence, whether from another person or from God.

Q: Who was Julian of Norwich? A: Julian of Norwich was a fourteenth century English mystic who lived as an anchorite, receiving visitors through a small window while devoting her life to prayer. She wrote Revelations of Divine Love, considered the earliest surviving book in English by a woman, exploring themes of God's love amid plague and suffering.

Q: What does "noise-free, shame-free, formula-free" mean in spiritual direction? A: This phrase describes a space free of rushed advice, judgment, or three-step solutions, allowing a person to be simply present with God and themselves. Susan Carson found that Jesus rarely worked through formulas, instead meeting people with quiet, patient love.