
Welcome! I’m Rebecca Winfrey. Thank you for visiting my site.
You’ll find:
Short Reflections for when you have a quiet moment, longer stories I’ve called Life Questions and articles I’ve written about moving from shame and trauma to trust, of others, ourselves and God.
Having been a hospice doctor and studied for a diploma in counselleing and a masters degree in pastoral theology (thoughts about God applied to real life), I’m passionate about questioning things people say about faith whenever they appear to jar with my life experience or that of my patients, clients or friends. One area in which that happens is shame. Shame is often connected with trauma, and shame and trauma affect our ability to trust others, ourselves and God. Shame is often ignored by the church, but shouldn’t be, and it’s an area of particular interest for me. There’s too much tragedy in the world to be satisfied with pat answers that don’t take account of people’s real life experience.
I hope you will find questions to ponder here, and that you will join me in my search for wisdom. Please note that the views expressed are my personal views alone, and are not necessarily those of organisations I work with.
Latest from my blog
How can we avoid unwitting spiritual abuse?
Most of the time churches are friendly, kind places where people can grow in trust because they are supportive. However, as thinking about safeguarding has developed over the past few decades, and churches have had to come to the humbling realisation that abuse of many kinds goes on in their congregations, the category of spiritual…
Read MoreHow can we create non-shaming churches for those who have been traumatised?
For those who have been significantly traumatised it is important that churches are non-shaming environments. Memories of traumatic events can leave any of us feeling deep shame for not being able to avoid or protect oneself from what happened. However, creating church cultures which do not reinforce shame often has a long way to go.…
Read MoreA Trauma-informed gospel: moving from shame to trust
My training as a cross-cultural mission partner taught me that there are many ways to talk of the gospel. The book of Acts shows St Paul adjusting his message depending on who he was talking to. For Jews he spoke of their history (Acts 13); for the Greek philosophers he uses their altar to the…
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