Summer Convocation 2025: Healing from Trauma

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Paul Coneff

Gerardo Payan

Ivonne Restrepo

Norbert Restrepo

Q&A Healing from Trauma

So let's have a brief prayer and we'll get right into our questions.

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for your presence.

We thank you, Father, for the messages that we have received and the focus on being well.

And we know, Father, that all of us are broken in some ways and in need of mending.

We invite again the Holy Spirit to remain with us, clear our minds from all distractions, and we pray oh Father that as the panelists answer the questions that they will provide through the leading of the Holy Spirit, information that will be useful to the hearers.

Thank you, Father, for what you've done thus far and we look forward to what you're about to do in Jesus name we pray amen so let me let me start with a pretty broad question and then we can we can go So this is really geared towards the therapist amongst us.

What is the difference between an SDA Christian counselor and a traditional secular counselor?

And I don't know if you wanna tackle that 1, Paul or Geraldo.

I would say that a secular counselor is gonna teach you how to try and change in your own strength.

Hopefully a Christian counselor is going to lead you into how Christ in a practical way can be your source for change.

In other words, like Maria, I'm not gonna tell her to try harder to get better.

I'm gonna connect her to Christ's story being rejected, abandoned, and then include prayer in it.

So Christ is going to become personal and real to her.

The change that happens in her heart is not gonna be because of me or because of her, it's gonna be because we brought Christ in prayer and asked the Holy Spirit to be the power source for change, as opposed to telling her to try harder to do what Jesus said she can't do.

A biblical counselor will use the Bible, but also he will not only try to help the person to overcome depression or any struggle, but also to have a better relationship with Christ?

Yeah, basically, I would add that basically a person who has going through difficulties is exhausted.

So the biblical approach in therapy will let the person have hope again that is not in the strength, as Pastor Conant was saying.

So the biblical approach is really the only approach.

I'm not saying that secular counseling doesn't help, okay?

It's the first step, and making awareness always help.

People can be better, but a biblical person can help the person connect with God, even for eternity, not only to do well here for a time.

Pastor, kind of it's been talking about the theme of brokenness.

So what impact did the fall have in our brokenness?

Well, after our fall, our human nature changed.

And we read in scripture, also in the great controversy that that we became Aligned with a selfish nature we are inherently selfish But the gospel promise is that Christ would place enmity between us and Satan.

So that brokenness starts with our own human nature.

We are selfish and therefore our desires will take us in ways that are contrary to God's law and God's law protects us.

And in that brokenness, we have to recognize that love is not inherent in us.

Therefore, we need the source and that source is God.

So we have, we've heard a lot from a pastor kind of, so I want to bring in another voice with the theme brokenness.

So Yvonne or Gerondo, how does Jesus fix brokenness?

You can continue in this convocation until the end.

But as Pastor Conniff was saying this morning, the mission statement of Jesus is, I will heal the brokenness, the patterns that we have, because all of us, we need to come to the point to recognize that we are broken, and that's the most difficult thing.

Let me give you an example, which is something, let's speak about practical things.

A kid, probably a teenager, he's misbehaving.

So the mother said, please Yvonne, talk to my son.

I talked to the son and then I hear this story.

After hearing the story, I need to go with the mother.

And talk to the mother, because there are many things in the brokenness of a mother that is making the son what he is now.

But for me, it's easier to work with the rebellious teenagers and not with the parents.

Because the parents, and if they are religious, it's more difficult.

So, to answer your question, how can Jesus heal the brokenness?

First and 1 of the most important steps is awareness, recognizing that we are broken.

So when I tell the mother, your anxiety is letting your kid to look for drugs.

She said, but I have been working, I go to church, I've been doing all my life the best I can.

You see, it's very difficult because they don't recognize that it's like an umbilical cord.

Whatever happens in the parents go to the kids, period.

So that's 1 of the most, once the parents said, I'm willing to start working on my own.

I didn't know how to mess up my kid, but I'm gonna be working on that, that's the process and that's the work of the Holy Spirit, that we recognize sin, righteousness, and justice.

So once that takes place, Jesus can bestow all that.

Just recognize, and we don't need to change ourselves, but recognize the truth.

So I would say that Jesus can do it, but the hard work for us is saying, yes, I am.

I will say that when I met Pastor Conniff in 2012 as a psychologist, I understand the message of his ministry is straight to the heart how Jesus can connect his story with our story and after that I started changing everything in my own in my private practice.

At the time I was living in a ministry, but Jesus came to this earth so he can connect with our story.

We have experience of brokenness, but He can identify with us.

He is the truth and he can give us freedom for all the lies that we are receiving for Satan.

So in this way, we can see in every different situation of brokenness that Jesus can understand and he can identify with us and also that he can be a solution to our problems.

This is 1 of the questions that I really, really like.

It's actually a 2 part question from, from my reading And it says, are people meant to be expressing joy?

And the last part of that question, are joy and happiness overrated?

So again, are people meant to express joy?

How does 1 learn to love oneself, paraphrasing, and are happiness and joy overrated?

I would say there's a lot of expressions of joy in the Psalms.

In the Nativity story, there's lots of joy.

So to me, if I go to scripture, they're expressing joy quite a bit.

So I would say that God wants us to have joy.

Because yeah, that is definitely a distinction between joy and happiness.

I think happiness to me is more how am I feeling about the current event or future or past, whatever, joy to me has my trust and my confidence is in God no matter what.

1 of the best, there are many now, but 1 of the best health coaching programs is done by Harvard University Medical School.

And recently, they share in an article how to be joyful even in difficult times.

It's what the Bible says, but you know, Harvard University is secular, and I was really interested in going through the materials, because it's a health coaching material, and they make the difference.

Happiness is the feelings that we have when we get some news and we get like, oh, I'm so happy, I received 1, 000 extra dollars, you know?

But joy is a state of mind which has to do a lot with the decision, regardless what happened around us.

Q&A Healing from Trauma

Transcript

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