Help, I’m Dealing with Trauma

Lemuel Blackett reminds us that the human spirit is resilient and capable of healing from trauma's often-visible and hidden mal-effects with help, faith, and love.

-Pablo R. Diaz, pastor and former Vice President of Ministries of Guideposts

Every human being, even you, has experienced trauma in some way. Traumatic experiences can distort your perspective, shape how you engage in politics and religion, inform who you choose to marry or your choice of career. But often when we hear advice about overcoming our past, it's filled with ideas that just seem out of reach.

In Help, I'm Dealing with Trauma, pastor Lemuel R.T. Blackett reveals honest, heartbreaking experiences growing up in a struggling family in London and then New York. He witnessed trauma and at times was himself on the brink of self-destruction. He shares his insecurities, disappointments, loss, betrayal, even church hurt, experiences that have left him resistant to letting his guard down. Though a minister, he avoids sugar coating religious jargon and brings you real stories about how he found his way through with prayer, therapy, and simple patience and strength of will, and that you can too.

What does trauma look like, how does it show up in your life, and what do you do about it? Let Lemuel Blackett's hard-won insights help you think through how you handle what's hurting you. Be healed, encouraged, and motivated to be a better you.

Foreword

Introduction

1. The Trauma of the Past

You Cannot Change the Past

2. The Trauma of Grief

I Hate Funerals

3. The Trauma of Family

I Can't Believe I'm Related to Someone Like You

4. The Trauma of Betrayal

I Can't Believe You Would Do This to Me

5. The Trauma of Church

I'm Tired of This Church

6. The Trauma of Job Loss

All You Are Is Hired Help

7. The Trauma of Rejection

It Takes Courage and Curiosity to Keep Going

8. The Trauma of Racism

Why Is Being Black So Difficult?

9. It's Time to Reinvent Yourself

Acknowledgments

About the Author