With extensive experience treating complex trauma, Heather Gingrich and Fred Gingrich have brought together key essays representing the latest psychological research on trauma from a Christian integration perspective. This text introduces counseling approaches, trauma information, and Christian reflections for students, instructors, clinicians, and researchers alike.

What does the path to healing look like for survivors of sexual abuse? And how can ministry leaders, pastors, and counselors best help them as they walk this difficult road? Drawing on both his own experience and his wife's experience as survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Tim Hein presents clinical data and resources as well as practical guidance and empathy—for both ministry leaders and survivors themselves.

Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse help us face questions surrounding the issue of homosexuality squarely and honestly, examining how scientific research has been used within church debates--especially within Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Episcopal contexts.

Reflecting on the confusion, shame and grief brought on by her mother's schizophrenia, Amy Simpson provides a bracing look at the social and physical realities of mental illness. Reminding us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, she explores new possibilities for the church to minister to this stigmatized group.

James M. Houston and Michael Parker believe now is the time for the church to offer ministry to its increasing numbers of seniors and to benefit from ministry they can offer. They issue an urgent call to reconceive the place and part of the elderly in the local congregation, showing that seniors aren't the problem--they are the solution.

There are some things we just don't talk about. Pastor T. C. Ryan narrates the unsettling story of his lifelong struggle with sexual addiction, one that predated and pervaded his pastoral ministry—one that went on for years in secrecy and isolation. In light of his full experience of exile and healing, Ryan calls the church to a ministry of unsettling grace that is the worthy of the gospel.

Daryl E. Quick uses a step-by-step approach (enhanced by inspiring stories and practical exercises) to help readers learn new ways of thinking, feeling and acting that will replace the destructive patterns learned in childhood.