thedrifter
10-04-07, 08:31 AM
Posted October 4, 2007
Clergy, counselors learn to how to help returning vets
By Carrie Hutton
Wausau Daily Herald
chutton@wdhprint.com
ROTHSCHILD -- Even the most experienced counselors and church leaders struggle to minister to soldiers as they return home after having witnessed the horrors of war.
"They can never be what they were because of what they've experienced," said Dan Farley, a chaplain for the Wisconsin Army National Guard. "What we can do, as these thoughts and images keep on coming back into their minds, is help them now to process them in a healthy way."
Farley, one of seven National Guard chaplains in the state, led a multi-demoninational forum Wednesday on ways mental health professionals and clergy members can help heal the emotional wounds of soldiers.
Farley proposed the Christian Ministry Leaders conference to encourage clergy members to be proactive in fighting long-term consequences of military conflicts. Symptoms can include drug and alcohol use by soldiers who might try to numb their problems rather than deal with them.
"We need to surround them with love, offer to listen and help them go deeper," Farley said.
As a member of the Guard's 1-120th Battalion stationed in Iraq, Farley personally has counseled soldiers in war zones who blamed themselves for not being the one in a unit killed. He described the post-traumatic stress that many soldiers experience as a "woundedness of the soul."
Dennis Pegorsch, a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Wausau, said he was planning to share what he learned with the ministry staff and develop a way to reach out to military families in the area who might need emotional and spiritual support months or years later.
When Dan Weigel of Wausau returned in May 2003 from his service in Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, he chose not to tell his wife the details of the atrocities he saw.
Weigel, 26, said he believes many more soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress than what the military reports. He said he deals with residual effects of his service, even more than four years later, in his civilian life.
"A shiver will go up my spine the first time I hear gunfire (during deer hunting season)," Weigel said.
Ellie
Clergy, counselors learn to how to help returning vets
By Carrie Hutton
Wausau Daily Herald
chutton@wdhprint.com
ROTHSCHILD -- Even the most experienced counselors and church leaders struggle to minister to soldiers as they return home after having witnessed the horrors of war.
"They can never be what they were because of what they've experienced," said Dan Farley, a chaplain for the Wisconsin Army National Guard. "What we can do, as these thoughts and images keep on coming back into their minds, is help them now to process them in a healthy way."
Farley, one of seven National Guard chaplains in the state, led a multi-demoninational forum Wednesday on ways mental health professionals and clergy members can help heal the emotional wounds of soldiers.
Farley proposed the Christian Ministry Leaders conference to encourage clergy members to be proactive in fighting long-term consequences of military conflicts. Symptoms can include drug and alcohol use by soldiers who might try to numb their problems rather than deal with them.
"We need to surround them with love, offer to listen and help them go deeper," Farley said.
As a member of the Guard's 1-120th Battalion stationed in Iraq, Farley personally has counseled soldiers in war zones who blamed themselves for not being the one in a unit killed. He described the post-traumatic stress that many soldiers experience as a "woundedness of the soul."
Dennis Pegorsch, a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Wausau, said he was planning to share what he learned with the ministry staff and develop a way to reach out to military families in the area who might need emotional and spiritual support months or years later.
When Dan Weigel of Wausau returned in May 2003 from his service in Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, he chose not to tell his wife the details of the atrocities he saw.
Weigel, 26, said he believes many more soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress than what the military reports. He said he deals with residual effects of his service, even more than four years later, in his civilian life.
"A shiver will go up my spine the first time I hear gunfire (during deer hunting season)," Weigel said.
Ellie