On the second day of the seminar on pastoral care and mental health, held on September 19, 2026 at the St. Joseph Retreat Center, Sunyani, Fr. Martin Sie, a pastoral psychologist, addressed participants on understanding of trauma.
Religious sisters were well represented at the seminar, which was organized for priests, religious, catechists, and Catholic educational heads.
This is a positive sign for Sisters to have an impactful pastoral care in their various apostolates.
The topic on trauma was facilitated by Rev. Fr. John Sah, a psychologist. The session established that the core aim of the module was to help participants understand trauma, recognize its symptoms, seek appropriate help, and ultimately find growth.
In his presentation, he said trauma, which can also be referred to as psychiatric trauma, emotional damage, or psychotrauma, is an emotional response to severe, distressing events such as bodily injury, sexual violence, or threats to life.
He emphasised that trauma causes pervasive, lasting adverse impacts on an individual’s mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Drawing from the DSM-5 framework.
He maintained that traumatic exposure can be direct (e.g., car accidents, natural disasters, sexual violence) or indirect (e.g., exposure to violence, mass casualty events, or the death of a loved one), encompassing broader experiences like childhood abuse, neglect, poverty, racism, and combat.
The session categorised trauma into distinct types based on exposure and context. Acute trauma stems from a single isolated event, whereas chronic trauma results from repeated or prolonged exposure to distressing circumstances like ongoing domestic violence or systemic discrimination.
Complex trauma typically arises during upbringing within inescapable power imbalances or caregiving relationships, while vicarious (secondary) trauma affects individuals through indirect exposure or deep empathetic engagement with another person’s suffering.
To contextualize these concepts, a vignette was presented involving a child raised in an unpredictable, abusive home with an alcoholic father and a depressed, withdrawn mother.
Through group feedback, Fr. Sah opined that such environments foster deep-seated beliefs like “I don’t matter” or “The world isn’t safe”, which often manifest as combative or withdrawn behaviours, school struggles, or excessive people-pleasing.
The clinical manifestations of trauma were outlined across behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and physical dimensions.
Behavioral signs include avoidance, hypervigilance, and social withdrawal, while emotional and mood signs range from sudden fear, guilt, and shame to emotional numbness and irritability.
Cognitively, trauma presents through intrusive flashbacks, nightmares, and poor concentration.
He also highlighted additional severe symptoms such as panic attacks, dissociation (feeling detached from one’s body or reality), and self-neglect.
From a neurological perspective, Fr. Sah underpinned his explanation of trauma’s lingering impacts by detailing how it alters key structures in the limbic system the amygdala (the brain’s alarm system), the prefrontal cortex (the rational center), and the hippocampus (the memory center) thereby disrupting how danger, memories, and emotions are processed.
Concluding the presentation, coping mechanisms and clinical interventions were addressed.
He reiterated that maladaptive coping strategies like unhealthy eating and substance use offer only temporary relief and ultimately worsen anxiety, deepen social isolation, and increase chronic health risks.
Fr. Sah stressed that treating trauma effectively requires a combination of therapy, medication, and lifestyle adjustments. Evidence-based trauma-focused therapies were introduced, including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), and Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy / Systematic Desensitization, explaining how PE therapy safely and gradually exposes individuals to trauma-related memories (in imaginary or in vivo forms) to reduce fear and promote emotional healing.
The detailed presentation helped broaden the knowledge scope of the participants, especially about some of the signs they should look out for in trauma patients in their pastoral duties.
At the end of the day, the participants were asked to evaluate the seminar and suggest topics they would like to see covered in the future.
Some of the suggested topics included rehabilitation, safeguarding, and more on trauma.
The participants expressed their satisfaction with the seminar and requested that similar events be held in the future.
Each participant received a certificate of participation during which the organizer Fr. Martin Yaw Sie admonished them to go and make a difference in their pastoral ministry.
By Sr. Esther Kutie, SVI and Sr. Sheila Aselwine Adombire, HHCJ (Catholic Sister Communicators Network Ghana- CASCON – GH)
