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Rise from the Ashes: A Christian Workbook and Planner for Processing Trauma and Finding Hope.
- Angela Startz, MAHSC, CMCLC
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
I've been carrying this inside me for a long time. Not just my story, but the stories of so many brave souls who've walked through fire and still choose to keep putting one foot in front of the other; walking out of trauma and into redemptive healing.
Trauma doesn't announce itself politely. It crashes in, rearranges everything you thought you knew about safety, about yourself, and about God sometimes. For years, I watched it happen to people I love, to clients who sat across from me week after week, and honestly, to pieces of myself. The shame that clings, the hypervigilance that never quite turns off, the way a seemingly small trigger can send your nervous system right back to survival mode. I've lived it. I've studied it. I've walked people through the valley of it.
And through every layer, one truth kept rising to the surface: God doesn't waste pain. He redeems it. Not in a tidy, Instagram-quote way, but in the slow, faithful, sometimes agonizing process of transformation. Romans 8:28 isn't just a verse to slap on a wound. And it should never be quoted without including verse 29. It's a promise that the very things meant to destroy us are the raw material God uses to conform us more to the image of His Son.
Back in the day, I sure could have used a field guide. That's why I wrote Rise from the Ashes: A Christian Workbook and Planner for Processing Trauma and Finding Hope.
This isn't another self-help book telling you to "just think positive" or "pray it away." It's a structured companion designed to meet you exactly where trauma lives: in the body, the mind, the emotions, and the spirit. It draws from trauma-informed approaches (things like bilateral stimulation basics, nervous system regulation, Internal Family Systems concepts adapted thoughtfully, trigger processing, decatastrophizing) while keeping everything anchored in Scripture and the person of Jesus, who was Himself deeply traumatized yet emerged victorious.
You'll find sections that help you:
Understand how trauma literally changes the brain and why two people can experience the same event so differently
Learn practical ways to regulate fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses using breathwork, grounding, movement, and Vagus nerve stimulation techniques
Process memories and emotions safely through guided journaling (with my favorite tip: keep a separate "trauma journal" you can tear out and destroy pages so you don't re-traumatize yourself by re-reading)
Explore Biblical affirmations that speak directly against the lies trauma plants
Work through Internal Family Systems-inspired steps to befriend and heal your inner parts with compassion and curiosity, always inviting the Holy Spirit in
Build resilience through routines, soul care, self-compassion practices, and goal planning that actually fit real life
Track moods, appointments, medications, and progress without feeling like it's just another chore
Most importantly, it keeps reminding you: trauma doesn't define you unless you let it. God does. And He's been in the business of bringing beauty from ashes since the garden.
This workbook is meant to walk alongside your work with a trusted, trauma-informed Christian counselor, coach, or therapist, not replace it. It provides key insights, planners, goal-setting pages, and trackers to facilitate your therapeutic journey. It's the kind of tool I wish I'd had when I was piecing myself back together, and the kind I now hand to clients when they're ready to move from surviving to truly living.
If you're in that season where hope feels distant, where the past keeps showing up uninvited, where you're tired of white-knuckling through triggers, maybe this can be a small lantern for the next step.
You don't have to stay stuck in the ashes. You were made to rise.
Mental Health & Relationship Coach
