“What’s wrong with you?”

When one of my students is habitually distracted, inattentive, or disruptive, this question might surface in my mind. If vocalized, this response to undesired behavior in my classroom, might, at best, suppress outward disruption so that class can continue as “normal.” Yet, it could perpetuate a cycle of shame and blame, exacerbating the underlying issue and contributing to an ongoing public health crisis. Over the past thirty years, our societal understanding of trauma has opened up a different way to address these presenting issues. Instead of confrontation, I focus on care. Now I know to ask instead, “What has happened to you?”¹

In the classroom, topics of race/racism frequently arise, particularly in light of the ongoing social and cultural awareness of issues of racial injustice in the United States. Being a teacher at Christian seminaries for the past three years, I have yet to teach a course where the topic of race has not come up at some point in the class. No matter whether the conversations were planned or spontaneous, it became apparent to me that these conversations were frequently marked by palpable agitation, anxiety, and anger and sometimes the opposite, students withdrawing and/or shutting down. Some students had notable challenges with emotional regulation. Others would communicate helplessness, either verbally or through their body language. I also noticed the increased activation within myself when these conversations would ensue.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a traumatic time for all of us regardless of age and background. Beyond the pandemic, students may have faced and will continue to face trauma that can be both generational or a singular event—trauma can also be something that is insidious, besetting most of our BIPOC students. Yet, the pandemic in specific has brought to light an awareness that the world is ill-informed on what traumas many face may look like as it shows itself differently depending on context; and due to this, the world is also, simultaneously, ill-equipped to manage and/or work through what is heavy and held bodily each day.

In this article, I focus on the narrative exercise of the “tree of life,” which I facilitate in the course “Pastoral Care and Counseling in Intercultural Contexts.” This course is offered for students who seek their career as a pastoral caregiver, a pastoral counselor, or as a professional clinical counselor. This course has learning objectives that acknowledge human experiences cannot be separated from cultural, historical, and intergenerational trauma because of wars, colonialization, slavery, immigration, etc. At the same time, this classroom becomes the experimental space of self-awareness, where students acknowledge how they have been influenced by their trauma.