Christians around the world are impacted by varying traumatic experiences ranging from war, persecution and displacement to difficult family and interpersonal situations. In specific response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but with broad application to other victims of trauma, Talbot School of Theology created a course on Biola LEARN entitled Navigating the Collective Trauma Experience with James Hampson and psychologist Dr. David Wang. This course is designed for Christians who have gone through traumatic events of all kinds and also for those who would like to grow in trauma awareness.

This course features the following topics:

  • How to engage Scripture in healthy ways in the midst of suffering

  • How to identify and combat misconceptions about suffering and faith

  • How to build an awareness of trauma and the common responses to traumatic events

  • How to engage in Psychological First Aid

  • How to lead others in processing trauma biblically

It is our hope that this course will help each person to better understand their trauma experience and to create categories for understanding what they and their fellow Christians have endured. Understanding trauma and its impact can chart some pathways to help us walk through our suffering and to walk with others in their trauma. Additionally, God’s Word can give us words to voice our unspeakable experiences of extreme suffering and can empower us to walk through a season of grief alongside a loving and powerful God. This course will help us to engage the concepts of trauma from a psychologically-informed biblical perspective and empower our engagement with trauma, whether personally or in our communities, in understanding and healing.

While Hampson and Wang teach this course in English, we have subtitles available in Ukrainian, Polish, German, Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Moldovan. We hope to add several other languages in the future as well. Over the last year, we’ve received encouraging testimonials from participants enrolled in this course, many of whom affirm that this free course is a helpful and timely resource for those navigating various forms of trauma. Navigating the Collective Trauma Experience ranks among the top-accessed courses on Biola LEARN, and we hope many more of you will take advantage of this resource in the weeks, months and years to come.

To access this course, all you need to do is create an account on Biola LEARN. While other course offerings on Biola LEARN require a purchase, this course is made available to you for free, thanks to our Talbot donors. Once you create your account, click on the link above or type “Navigating the Collective Trauma Experience” into the search bar. and Once you find it, click on “enroll.” Talbot is deeply grateful for the generous donors who made it possible for us to provide this course to you, free of charge.