RT Article
T1 Trauma, Spirituality, and Healing: A Journey through the Lens of an Incarcerated Person
JF Religions
VO 13
IS 3
A1 Hylton, Leo
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1804403105
AB This article examines the case study of Joseph, an incarcerated man in a northeastern state who experienced myriad traumas over the course of his life and attained healing through spirituality. We follow his story from his abusive childhood home to the foster care system, where he was further traumatized through repeated forced separations. Then, through his adolescent years and his witnessing the deaths of two integral people in his life, we see Joseph’s spiritual struggles that led him into a life of violence and into an adulthood that found him quickly transitioned from the foster care system to the prison system. It is not until years into his prison sentence that we see Joseph begin attaining some semblance of spiritual clarity and grounding—and this through the providential intervention of a man of faith who himself is incarcerated. Interwoven in Joseph’s case study is a thread of extant literature pertaining to the overarching themes of this article: Trauma, Spirituality, and Healing. To honor Joseph’s faith and to most accurately represent his voice and experience, the author’s references to God are almost exclusively in relation to the Judeo-Christian faith tradition, while acknowledging the much wider application of the term "spirituality".
K1 Child Abuse
K1 Crime
K1 Foster care
K1 Meaning-making
K1 Prison
K1 Spirituality
K1 Trauma
K1 trauma-healing
DO 10.3390/rel13030222