A Compassionate Companion for Healing from Spiritual Trauma

Spiritual trauma or harm doesn't just live in your mind. It settles into your body, your emotions, and your sense of self. When Wounding Strikes the Soul offers you a warm, therapeutic pathway to access, process, and move through that pain, however your healing journey unfolds.

Written by therapist A. C. Seiple, this book draws on both clinical insight and personal experience to gently meet you where trauma actually lives: in your gut, your emotions, and your embodied experience. Through raw personal reflections, therapeutic poetry, and invitations to embodied practice, Seiple gently guides you toward reconnecting with your body, reclaiming your voice, and cultivating hope and wholeness.

What you'll find in When Wounding Strikes the Soul:



- Therapeutic poetry written to help you access your emotions

- Embodied practices designed to reconnect you with your body

- A trauma-informed approach offering insight from both professional and lived experience

- Reflection questions designed for individual contemplation or group discussion





When Wounding Strikes the Soul is your invitation to reconnect with your body's wisdom and gain practical tools for your healing journey. If you've felt stuck in your healing process, disconnected from your own body or emotions, or silenced by spiritual harm, this book offers you a gentle place to begin again.



Anna Christine (A. C.) Seiple is a licensed counselor, retreat leader, and researcher. She holds two master's degrees—one in clinical mental health counseling and one in ancient languages—and is the author of The Sacred Art of Slowing Down. She is currently a postgraduate researcher at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, exploring ancient contemplative practices and present-day mindfulness interventions.



Before You Begin



Grounding Practices to Enter and Exit the Pages Ahead

Part One: Pain Makes Her Way to the Surface

Opening

Invitation: Exploring Structured and Free Movements



Everyday Reminders

Invitation: Linking and Unlinking Cues

Waves of Grief

Invitation: Invoking Voice

Part Two: The Voices We Trust

Emotions Are Honest

Invitation: Authentic Expressions



Our Bodies Haven't Been Trusted

Invitation: Parsing Through Mixed Messages



Who to Listen to?

Invitation: Choice and Consent

Part Three: When Control Is in the Fabric



Looking Back

Invitation: Both-And

Levels of Control

Invitation: Releasing Control's Grip



The Underbelly

Invitation: External and Internal Forms

Part Four: Responding to Harm



Reactions

Invitation: Was I Seen?



Bridging Then and Now

Invitation: Connecting with Our Younger Selves

Holistic Health and Harm

Invitation: Nourishing Neglected Bodies

Part Five: Unraveling

Left to Pick Up the Pieces

Invitation: Construct and Reconstruct

Still Practicing and Done

Invitation: Embodying Internal Conflict

Autonomy, Shame, and Doubt

Invitation: Tapping into Inner Wisdom

Part Six: New Light



And Still, It Hurts

Invitation: Exploring Lost and New Supports



Survival and Safety

Invitation: Titrating to the Warmth of Safety



Whole-Bodied Connection

Invitation: Whole-Body Freedom

Afterword



Acknowledgments



Additional Resources



Notes



"A. C. Seiple has written an astounding book. I haven't read anything like it in a very long time. It slowed me down and invited me to feel on every page. There are books that explain spiritual trauma but few that offer right-brained pathways into pain, grief, and embodied knowing, particularly when explanations fail. I trust A. C. as a guide because she writes, not from a distance, but from the lived wisdom of her own journey and her years of accompanying others through theirs."



"When Wounding Strikes the Soul is an essential companion for healing from spiritual trauma. Through evocative poetry, reflection, and embodied practices, A. C. Seiple gently helps us engage our wounds with honesty, tenderness, and courage. This is a book to be experienced, not simply read—creating space to recover our voice, reclaim our agency, and come home to ourselves. In the truest sense, it can restore what has been wounded and help set you free."



"A. C. Seiple has written a book of psalms for those who feel forsaken. Each word is a portal through which readers can enter to experience the compassion of the Creator God. When Wounding Strikes the Soul is rich with insight, creating space to foster healing. May the words herein bless what aches within us."



"When Wounding Strikes the Soul invites readers into a beautiful, relational journey of healing. A. C. Seiple brilliantly weaves together her personal reflections and clinical wisdom, gently guiding the mind, body, and soul toward greater awareness. She brings tenderness and clarity to the sensitive yet essential work of addressing spiritual wounds and their multilayered effects. This book feels like a sacred conversation with a dear friend, paired with the deep insight of a trusted guide."



"This beautiful offering from A. C. Seiple invites you into reflections, poetry, and embodied practices that allow you to connect with the living legacy of spiritual trauma or harm in your body. Like with a cup of warm tea and a cozy blanket, readers will find themselves comforted by the trusted wisdom of a therapist and the vulnerable confessions of a friend who has walked this journey herself."