Curious Instead of Furious | With Alicia Freeman
Curious Instead of Furious: Creating Safety in Overwhelming Moments
What do we do when someone we care about is overwhelmed, hurting, or hard to understand?
Most of us want to help. But when emotions are big, whether in a child, a friend, a family member, or someone in our church, it’s easy to default to fixing, explaining, correcting, or quietly panicking on the inside.
In this episode of Neighbourly, Shannon sits down with Alicia Freeman to talk about trauma-informed care, emotional safety, and what it means to stay curious when things feel messy.
Alicia shares from her own journey as a foster and adoptive parent, as well as her experience facilitating CareImpact trainings with churches, camps, pregnancy resource centres, and community caregivers. Through honest stories and practical wisdom, she reminds us that care does not always begin with the right answer. Sometimes it begins with a steady presence, a thoughtful question, and the courage to stay with someone in the hard moment.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Alicia begins by reflecting on her childhood in a rural farming community, where neighbours were not necessarily the people living next door, but the families gathered around school events, shared rhythms, and everyday community life.
From there, she shares how foster care and adoption opened her eyes to the reality of trauma and the limits of traditional parenting approaches. As she and her husband cared for children with significant needs, they began learning new ways to understand behaviour, build safety, and offer care that could actually support healing.
One phrase that shows up in Alicia’s work is simple, but powerful:
Curious instead of furious.
That posture became especially meaningful during a training at a local pregnancy resource centre, where one participant began asking hard theological and emotional questions about overwhelming emotions, the gospel, and how God meets us in our pain. Rather than shutting the moment down or rushing to defend her content, Alicia leaned into curiosity.
What could have become tense became one of the most meaningful parts of the training.
The room moved from information to real learning.
When Care Doesn’t Rush to Fix
One of the strongest themes in this conversation is the pressure many of us feel to fix things.
When someone is sad, angry, anxious, dysregulated, or overwhelmed, we can feel an urgency to make the discomfort go away. We might talk more. Explain more. Offer advice too quickly. Reach for a Bible verse before the person is ready to receive it.
But Alicia gently reminds us that presence is often more helpful than pressure.
Sometimes care sounds like:
“That sounds really hard.”
“Of course you feel that way.”
“I’m so sorry you’re walking through this.”
“I’m here with you.”
It is not passive. It is not shallow. It is not doing nothing.
It is the quiet, steady work of helping someone know they are not alone.
Practical Ways to Offer Safety
This episode also gets practical. Alicia shares simple ways we can help people navigate overwhelming emotions with dignity.
For children, that might include playful breathing exercises, sensory tools, or helping them calm their bodies in gentle ways.
For youth or adults, it may look different. A deep breath prompt might feel patronizing in the wrong moment, but a walk, a drive, a quiet room, or a simple invitation to take a minute can create space for regulation without shame.
The heart behind all of it is the same:
How do we help this person feel safe, seen, and not alone?
Why This Matters for the Church
Alicia also speaks directly to the role of the Church in Canada.
Church communities are often present when people are walking through grief, trauma, family stress, crisis, and deep emotional pain. Sometimes churches care beautifully. Other times, even with good intentions, people experience judgement, pressure, or a quick-fix approach that adds to their hurt.
Alicia’s hope is not cynical. It is deeply hopeful.
She sees churches asking better questions, reaching out for support, and wanting to learn how to care for families and individuals in ways that are thoughtful, safe, and healing.
That kind of humility matters.
Because neighbourly care is not about having all the answers. It is about learning how to show up with compassion, curiosity, and dignity.
A Small Step This Week
Think of one person in your life who may be carrying more than you can see.
Before offering advice, try starting with curiosity.
Ask a gentle question. Listen longer than feels natural. Resist the urge to fix it too quickly.
Sometimes the most neighbourly thing we can offer is not a solution, but our steady presence in the middle of someone else’s overwhelming moment.
Episode Themes
Trauma-informed care
Emotional safety
Curiosity and empathy
Foster and adoptive care
Church and community care
Presence over fixing
Supporting overwhelmed adults and children
Faith in everyday care
About Neighbourly
Neighbourly is a CareImpact podcast about ordinary people showing extraordinary care. Through honest stories, reflective conversations, and practical takeaways, each episode invites listeners to notice the people around them and take one simple step toward neighbourly care.
Neighbourly is produced in partnership with CareCreatives Company, helping organizations clarify their message through branding, design, websites, and audio production for social good.
Produced By:
Episode transcript Read the full transcript
A Quiet Presence in Overwhelming Emotions
Alicia Freeman: Offering just my quiet, steady presence, even my presence in their emotions. When somebody else is sad and I'm willing to just sit in that sad with them and not try to tie it up with a pretty ribbon and find an answer or spiritually lead them to a place that they're just not ready to go to be willing to just sit in that and trust that, God's going to lead them to the hope, to the clarity that they might need. But I don't have to do that.
Introduction: Caring When Emotions Feel Bigger Than the Moment
Johan Heinrichs: What does it look like to care for someone well when their emotions feel bigger than the moment? Because most of us want to help. We want to be steady for the people around us, our family, our friends, our neighbours and our churches. But when someone is overwhelmed, hurting, or reacting in ways we don't fully understand, it's so easy to rush in with answers, advice, or a quick fix. Hey, everyone, I'm Johan. Welcome to Neighbourly, a podcast about ordinary people showing extraordinary care. Today, Shannon sits down with someone who is no stranger to Neighbourly, Alicia, a CareImpact trainer whose own journey through foster care, adoption and trauma-informed learning has shaped the way she helps others understand safety, presence, and compassion. But this isn't just a conversation about training. It's about a bigger question.
Johan Heinrichs: How do we become the people who can stay curious, offer safety, and sit with someone in the messy middle without needing to fix everything? Let's listen in and join Shannon and Alicia at the table.
Growing Up in a Rural Neighbourhood
Shannon Steeves: Alicia, I'm so glad that you are on the podcast today. You are not new to this podcast, you've been on a couple times. And Alicia, we love her at CareImpact. She's such a core part of this team. And I can't wait for our listeners to hear more of what you do and your heart for it. But before we get into that, we always start with the same question. Growing up, who was a neighbour that you will never forget?
Alicia Freeman: Yeah, this question was actually a little tough for me. And then I listened to the episode from last week and I thought, my answer is the same as hers. So I grew up in a very rural community, so I felt like my concept of neighbours was not like a lot of other people. My neighbours were not right next door. It was a little ways away. So I don't feel like we necessarily did a lot with, like, our neighbours, the people that were, next door to us, because really it was like a next field away. Right. It was a very agricultural community.
Alicia Freeman: But what did come to mind is that I went to a rural community public school. So really, everybody at my school was like the people in my neighbourhood, which was large, but in a rural community like that. It was really neat to have all of those families come together in that one place where basically all the kids in the community went to that same school. And so I remember, like, at Christmas time, there'd always be, like, the Christmas concert, and then all the families would be there. And because it was like a rural farming community, it was like moms and dads and siblings. Like, everybody was there. Even when we had, like, middle of the day events, like, we would have, like, a school picnic at the end of the year, and the families would be there. And so, like, looking back now, I realize how unique that was.
Alicia Freeman: It really did give me that sense of neighbourhood when I was at my school every day. Like, all the kids were living similar lives to me. So, like, we were all coming from these farms in the community and we lived that same lifestyle.
Why Trauma Care Training Became Personal
Shannon Steeves: Yeah. Oh, that's beautiful to think about growing up with other families and living life with other people in that similar season of life, I'm sure is so special to think back on. Well, I'm really excited to get more into this episode and really hear your heart, because we're talking a lot about some of the trainings that we do, trauma care training, relational care training, and you are a big part of that. And so I'd love to hear what led you to even want to facilitate trainings like this and why is it important to you?
Alicia Freeman: My husband and I chose to begin building our family through adoption as well as providing foster care for vulnerable children in our community. And so when we first began our journey of foster care and adoption, we were very young, like in our early 20s. And some of the first children that God brought into our home were significantly challenging children. They had significant needs due to, things like prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs or major attachment disruptions, exposure to domestic violence and abuse, things like that. So as we attempted to care for these children, we quickly started to realize that many of the traditional parenting techniques that we were seeing other parents using or that we had been raised with were really not as effective as we hoped or possibly even made things worse sometimes. So we knew that we needed help. And so we started to seek out that education and community among other Christians who were fostering and adopting at the time. And through that, we were invited to join a few of the people in taking a training called Trauma Competent Care through Trauma Free World.
Alicia Freeman: And then at the same time, we also started attending the Replanted Conference in Chicago each year. And through those experiences, we began to learn more about what it was that our children really needed from us and how to help them feel safe and experience healing and why their behaviours were sometimes really baffling to us. So this gave us so much hope and clarity in our parenting journey, and I'm just so grateful that we were given those opportunities to learn. And so the more that I learned, the more that I wanted to be able to share this information with other families and not just for foster and adoptive families. What we really started to realize was that this information is really for everyone everywhere. And that's what I tell people about trauma care training. I really believe that it's for everyone everywhere, especially people in the church, because trauma is so common in today's culture and for the church, as we want to come in and impact and interact with people who are hurting, what we want is to be equipped to do that in ways that are truly helpful and healing.
Shannon Steeves: Yeah. Thank you so much for bringing it back to your story and where that really started for you. I think there's a couple other episodes where you share a little bit more about what that journey has been like specifically, but I love where you brought it, because as you were talking, I was thinking about those who may not be, adoptive parents or foster parents listening and thinking, well, how does this content, how would these kinds of trainings apply to me? But I think you. You said it right there. It is for everyone, for everywhere. And especially as believers in the church who were wanting to welcome in hurting people broken, lost, and needing to create an environment that is emotionally and mentally safe for people who've experienced a lot.
Inside a Pregnancy Resource Centre Training
Shannon Steeves: Is training like this is so important? So recently, you facilitated a training at a pregnancy resource centre, and I'd love to hear a little bit about just what was it like walking in? What did the day feel like when you arrived and when you got there?
Alicia Freeman: This particular training, the Pregnancy Resource Centre, is really close to my heart, because this centre is located in our small town, and I know so many of the people who are investing their time and their energy and their resources in this ministry. And I know that this centre is also serving a vulnerable population that is really close to my heart as well, especially as a foster parent. So I'm just so grateful for the way that they have come alongside these young women and men and families to try to build in upstream supports. So this centre has been so eager to host me over the past couple of years and inviting me into their space to train their staff and volunteers and just to provide a space where they can talk and learn and really work to understand their clientele better. So when I came into the room, I really was walking into a space where there were several people that are very familiar and dear faces who I felt comfortable with, which was really nice. My friend worked to help me set up, and we ended up using a couple of diaper boxes to set up my computer so that it would be, like, at the right height for my presentation because we didn't have quite the right size of table or stand. And so that was funny because I thought, how fitting is this that as we talk about this together, I've got my computer propped up on diaper boxes that have been donated by these generous community members at the Pregnancy Resource Centre.
Alicia Freeman: So I'd say everyone came in feeling pretty light and friendly. They were chatting and pulling out snacks and exchanging hugs and conversation. That environment, it was. It was really comfortable.
Creating a Room Where People Can Learn Together
Shannon Steeves: Yeah. When you're getting ready for these kinds of trainings and you're thinking about prior experiences of it, what have you learned? Helps you to really facilitate a learning experience that goes deeper and goes beyond some of that surface level.
Alicia Freeman: I think one of the key aspects is just, making sure that as we all come into that space and particularly as I, begin my presentation, that they can really see me as another human being. That sounds funny, but, that I'm not just standing there as the trainer, that I'm here with them. And so often what I try to present near the beginning is, a little bit about my story and what's brought me here. And really trying to help people understand that when I'm in the training room with them, I'm here to learn alongside and that I really want to hear from them as well, because there's a lot of people that I end up, training who hold a lot of pieces of knowledge and. And some that I don't have. So it's really beautiful when we're able to step into that conversation and end up learning from each other. But I feel like it's really important for participants to feel that comfort that I want you to share. I want you to even disagree or have different opinions.
Alicia Freeman: And let's talk it through. Let's figure out what are your questions, what are your thoughts, or what are your learning experiences that would contribute to this conversation.
Shannon Steeves: Yeah, I'd love to hear some of those more specific moments that stood out to you, but to maybe give our listeners a little bit of context, in a nutshell, what was some of the content that you were training or sharing with this group? Just generally speaking.
Navigating Overwhelming Emotions
Alicia Freeman: my content at this training was called navigating overwhelming emotions. And so we were really talking about, first of all, what do we do with our own overwhelming emotions? So when we are having overwhelming emotions, what's going on in our brains and our bodies, our nervous systems? What might we be experiencing on a holistic level? And then how does that impact our ability to interact with other people around us? So, really, even though I was definitely coming to serve as far as helping to equip them in navigating overwhelming emotions with other people, but what we ended up talking about a lot is our own overwhelming emotions. And I think the more that we understand what to do with our own emotions, the more compassion and empathy that we have for other people's big emotions. And it just helps us to have better clarity as to, like, what approach is needed. If I know what works for me when I'm feeling overwhelmed and I'm comfortable with my own emotions, then it really does help me to be able to enter into somebody else's experience and not feel easily threatened or triggered by that.
Shannon Steeves: Yeah, that's so good. I think about how helpful that would be for me. And I'm not even a parent. I'm just thinking about daily life, and that's so good. So I'd love to hear then, what were some of those moments from. From that training that really stayed with you of what people were learning and what was just coming to mind for them?
Curious Instead of Furious
Alicia Freeman: So one of the moments that really stayed with me from this training was when one participant was really digging into the content and asking some really good and hard questions about our emotions and how God sees our emotions and what it looks like to understand our emotions in light of the gospel and the Holy Spirit's work in our lives and sanctifying us, all of that. And really, she was gently but persistently disagreeing with the approach that I was taking to the content. And it was just that sort of moment where you feel this tension build. Right. But one of the things that I love most about the time that I've spent learning about trauma and its impact on people is that it's really helped me to learn how to exercise curiosity. A phrase that we often repeat is curious instead of furious. And this little line really is so helpful in practising active listening and offering those felt safety strategies. And honestly, just this posture of humility.
Alicia Freeman: So it was really encouraging because I felt like I was able to really just lean into this participant's questions and perspectives and, and open up conversation and allow the rest of the group to provide their feedback as well.
Shannon Steeves: That's a great example of. We talked about this on our last episode a lot about remaining curious and related to making assumptions about others, but just that same concept of maybe easy. You're probably navigating your own emotions in that moment and thinking, okay, pause, let me hear where this person's coming from. Let me really ask good questions to help you know them learn, but also yourself learn. And yeah, that's such a great a learning opportunity, I think, for everybody. So, Alicia, as you were going through that moment, what are some of the things you noticed either in the room or in yourself as you were walking through that with that participant?
Noticing the Urge to Fix
Alicia Freeman: Yeah, in myself, I really sense this, like, urgency to try to fix it, talk more, explain more, which is so often what we feel when we sense some threat to our own perspective or our own experience. But I also sense this calmness and confidence that was really neat to feel. I still really think of myself as an amateur on all these topics and on training, so I feel like I can easily be derailed by someone going off topic or. Or asking a hard question that I wasn't anticipating. But this time, I really just sensed this deep, grounded assurance that I needed to lean into this and that the content would speak for itself. And one of my fellow CareImpact trainers, Amy Jo, always reminds me, you can trust the content, and I really find that to be true. When we know that what we're presenting is valuable and trusted and wisely sourced, we can present confidently and really rest in that knowledge. So, yeah, as I resisted that urge to jump in and fix it all, I was able to ask questions and really listen to this participant and understand her perspective and allow others to be part of that learning moment and just let the conversation play out a little bit.
Alicia Freeman: And I felt like everyone else really leaned in then as well, which was so beautiful to watch. And I think we were all pretty invested at that point in figuring out, like, how do these pieces fit together?
Johan Heinrichs: Wow.
Shannon Steeves: Yeah, that's so good, because it makes me think about when we lean into the messy moments or maybe even think of it of, like, wrestling with God a little bit of, like, trying to work out our faith and these concepts and God, how does this fit and how does this make sense that is actually like where so much growth happens. And that's really what it sounds like was happening in that moment. Why do you think that moment itself really mattered?
Alicia Freeman: Yeah, it just, it turned into such a beautiful piece of the training that really helped us all to engage on a much deeper level. And I really felt like we were able to learn together and see how the content actually brought us full circle versus just me standing up there and talking the whole time or claiming to have all the answers. And. And what I noticed was that everyone really started experiencing what we were talking about, overwhelming emotions. So as they process the content in more personal ways, I think we really experienced something special that, that day that, that just held a lot more weight than it would have if we hadn't been willing to dig into those harder questions.
Helping People Feel Safe Enough to Process
Shannon Steeves: Thanks for sharing more about that. In that specific training or even if you think back on some of the others that you have done, what have you learned that it can look like to really help somebody feel safe when they're coming into this learning experience? Maybe not knowing totally what to expect if, their pastor signed them up or their boss signed them up for this thing. What are some of the things that you've learned to help people as they come into the room?
Alicia Freeman: Yeah, one of the things that I always like to do at the beginning is really help people find their own personal why for being there. People feel safer when they feel like they're not expected to all be coming for the same reason or with the same story. And so to try to, to share my why for being here, but then really opening it up and giving them a chance to actually, often I'll have them maybe draw something or sketch something or write something down or actually like physically taking some time and space to think about, like, why am I here and what are my expectations for this. I think just really allows people, right. Right from the get go to be honest about their experience and how they're feeling about being here. And then like we talked about before, just curiosity, asking questions, making sure that people have opportunity to speak. I tend to, I prepare the trainings and I've been so invested in. I've been studying all the material and prepping the slide notes, all of the things.
Alicia Freeman: Right. And then I have so much that I want to say and usually like such little time and it's so tempting for me to just talk the whole time. I'm like, I've got content to move through and it's also great I just really want to move through it. But again, something I've learned from my CareImpact team is just the value of asking really good questions and making sure that I'm giving time and space for people to process at their own speed. And that might look different than what I prepared. It might look different than what I hoped for and thought was what they needed. But people really do learn best when they're given the freedom to process things at their own pace and have some time to be able to learn together. That's the other thing.
Alicia Freeman: We usually try to do some group work in our trainings to make sure that people have time to stop and have conversations with the people who are next to them or a pre-assigned group, whatever it might be, so that they're not only learning from the presenter and the slide deck, but they're also having conversation with each other as participants and they're asking each other questions. They have more time to speak.
Trauma Care Beyond One Setting
Shannon Steeves: Yeah. And to give our listeners a bit of a picture because I'm thinking about how they could see themselves in this, as they're hearing you talk about people, coming into the room. Aside from a Pregnancy Resource Centre, what are some of the other types of groups that you have done this training or similar trainings with?
Alicia Freeman: I don't feel like I've ever had a training that is just one group of people. Even with this training, even though the reason we were all there was because they were all connected to the Pregnancy Resource Centre, what I found is that they were applying the material across the board in their lives. So they weren't just thinking about this material in, in regard to their relationship with the clients or their work at the Pregnancy Resource Centre. They were thinking about it, about it with their family and their friends and the people they go to church with and their neighbours. So in other trainings as well, there are often foster families, adoptive families. I've done some training with different camps in working with that type of ministry, girls clubs, boys clubs, people who are working with children or youth who have experienced significant trauma. But I feel like the repeated question that I've had every time I do a training because I'm a parent and I'm parenting children who've experienced trauma.
Alicia Freeman: I tend to use a lot of examples of my children or my experiences with children, but inevitably people are always asking, like, What about other adults in my life? What does it look like for my brother or my nephew or my neighbour who I'm close with who I know has experienced traumatic things. What does it look like for me to translate this to them? So one of the things at CareImpact that we've become really passionate about is really making this material really easy for people to translate into the experiences that they're having with all those different people in their lives and just broadening that language a little bit. Because the same types of strategies that we would use with kids are the strategies that we are going to use with adults as well. But sometimes we need help connecting those dots, right? And figuring out what would it look like to provide safety to an adult who doesn't feel safe? Or what does it look like for me to really listen and like active practice active listening with another adult versus a child? Or what does it look like when an adult's brain and body is overstimulated or dysregulated? What does that look like and what should I do in that moment? Because a dysregulated adult looks a lot scarier than a dysregulated five-year-old. Right? And so even though we're using the same types of strategies, sometimes it's worth really having those conversations and digging into that.
Showing Up Well for Overwhelmed Adults
Shannon Steeves: That's really helpful. And I think that's really important for those who are listening because I think that is really relatable for a lot of people that whether they're working in spaces with children and youth or foster adoptive families are not. That's something that we can, I think, all relate to that there are adults in our life, whether they're close or not, who have experienced some really hard things in life and we want to show up well for them. So not to try and give you a, do a whole training in two minutes right now, but what are some of the things that you say when people ask that question of, if you're in a moment with someone who is overwhelmed or hurting, especially an adult, what can it look like to show up well and care well for them in that moment?
Curiosity, Regulation, and Simple Support
Alicia Freeman: That's such a great question. I feel like, I'm so grateful in my own life for the Holy Spirit, because I think first of all, we need the Holy Spirit to be able to guide us in those interactions and help us to know what's really going to speak to this person. But I feel like I keep bringing up the same things. But that, that curiosity again, like, I feel like I can't think of a situation where the first approach isn't going to be curiosity, like to just whether that's outwardly or just internally to just really take that pause and ask that question like why, why is this person feeling this way? Or why is this person behaving in the way that they are? And what I love about curiosity is that it really just unleashes empathy in us. I think as soon as we are willing to be curious, we step out of that protective mode, we step out of that defensive mode, and we're able to really start thinking, oh, wait a minute, this person has their own perspective and their own experience. And I wonder what that is. And oftentimes when we do that, the other person can sense that. And if we're able to ask questions like, I'd love to understand more about that, can you tell me more about that? Or just really, really validating their, their experience, if they're able to share with us to say, well, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Alicia Freeman: Of course you feel that way. I think I would feel that way too, to doing that, that relating to them and trying to help them feel like they're, they're not alone and they're not crazy for, for feeling the way that they do is really helpful. So yeah, curiosity helping them to, to feel like they're not alone. And then really if it's the relationship where you're able to really try to offer those regulation type strategies. So, we all know that sometimes just taking a deep breath can be really helpful. If it's a child that you're working with, you might be able to say it that's simply like, hey, can you take a deep breath with me? Or there's lots of different fun regulation tools that we have, especially for younger kids. Things like a bowl of hot soup or a mug of hot chocolate where you're gently blowing to cool it off and then gently inhaling to smell it and those kinds of strategies. Figure eight
Alicia Freeman: Breathing, things like that. Obviously with a youth or with an older youth or an adult, it might not feel as comfortable to prompt them to take a deep breath. They might feel judged if you do that to them. Right? But there's still ways that we can notice that dysregulation that's happening in their bodies and figure out how to work that out. So maybe it's even just like, hey, do you want to take a walk? And just walking as you talk is going to allow their bodies to move around a little bit instead of feeling so stuck. Drives, I find, are also great. If you're in the car talking to somebody and you don't have that direct eye contact. Sometimes offering, like, do you need a minute? There's a space over here where it's quiet.
Alicia Freeman: Do you want to just take a break for a minute? Things like that can be really helpful in just helping somebody to be able to step away from that moment for a little bit and not feel the pressure.
Presence Instead of Pressure to Fix
Shannon Steeves: Yeah, that's so good. So many practical tips there you've just shared. And one thing I think about, you mentioned this earlier too, is I can sometimes default into wanting to fix a situation or fix something. And I'm really trying to work on not defaulting to that. And so in that same vein, maybe what is something people don't need to have figured out before they step into, a situation like that where they don't need to have that pressure of going in, trying to fix something. Any thoughts around that?
Sitting in the Sad
Alicia Freeman: I love that because even for me, I've spent so much time now in this material and I feel like I should have a great toolbox. But sometimes in the moment, all of that is gone. I can't remember. I don't know what's going to be helpful. But this is where I just. I love the practical ways that we can love people is often just listening and being willing to really sit in that space with them and not try to fix it and not try to sort it out. I think one of the things that I've really learned over the last few years in my own life and walking with others who have been through some really difficult things is that offering just my presence and just my quiet, steady presence, even my presence in their emotions when somebody else is sad and I'm willing to just sit in that sad with them and not try to tie it up with a pretty ribbon and find an answer or spiritually lead them to a place that they're just not ready to go to be willing to just sit in that and trust that, God's going to lead them to the hope, to the clarity that they might need. But I don't have to do that.
Alicia Freeman: And I can relate to you, Shannon. I like to fix things. That's been a real challenge for me to learn that skill. And that's something that I'm working really hard to learn. And God's been really faithful to bring me into a lot of experiences where I get to practice that over the last few years. So, yeah, I think that I'm slowly getting better at that. But to be able to just say, oh, that sounds really hard. Like, I'm sorry.
Alicia Freeman: I'm really sorry that you're walking through that. Or that makes sense. That makes so much sense that you would feel that way, even just offering, that the little line like. Like, of course you do, like, of course you feel that way. And we all need to feel like we're not alone and we're not crazy when we're having overwhelming emotions. And I think that offers a lot of safety and connection.
Hope for the Church in Canada
Shannon Steeves: good. Well, we're getting to the end here of our time together. Is there anything, Alicia, that I haven't asked or anything just on your heart to share that you want to say before we close today?
Alicia Freeman: I'm thinking about. We talk quite a bit about this training, and we alluded earlier to that idea that trauma care is really for everyone everywhere. And we talked a bit about how important it is for the church in our role, in the ways that we're trying to step into community. But I think that's really been on my heart lately, and something that I've really come to notice and see. And, as I've walked through hard experiences in my own life and as I've watched other people walk through difficult experiences and really seeing the church, I think I've seen it both ways. I've seen experiences where the church really stepped in and was able to care in really, really wonderful, thoughtful ways and really come alongside and support people in navigating those difficult circumstances. And then I think most of us have also seen the alternative where we see the church step in and instead of finding safety, that that person feels a lot of judgment or feels a lot of that fix-it culture where, we want to slap on our. Our programs and our.
Alicia Freeman: Our agendas onto. Onto other people in their situations. And, yeah, I guess I just. I'm really hopeful for the church in Canada. I think that a lot of people are asking a lot of really good questions, and I think that there is a willingness and an eagerness to learn new things. And I'm so excited every time I get a peek at that. I'm thinking of one training in particular, where it was a connection through a camp, and really there was a family who was really struggling, and their church reached out and said, would you bring this training to us? Because we just really want to wrap around this family and this child. And that was so encouraging to me because I thought, wow, that's.
Alicia Freeman: That's just. That's what church is supposed to look like, like they, they knew that they didn't have the answers, but they really wanted to be helpful and they were really mindful of helping in the right ways. And so they reached out, they took the initiative to say, like, I wonder if this is something that would be helpful to us. Would you help us to understand better? And so I'm really excited for, for the different opportunities that have been coming our way at CareImpact. And we love the church in Canada and we want to help. We want to help come alongside everything that the people are already doing. There's so many wonderful ministries and work that is happening and we really want to come alongside and support that and help everybody feel like they're equipped to do that as well as they can.
Shannon Steeves: That's right. Thank you so much, Alicia, for coming on today. You said it exactly: Our heart is for the church in Canada and to help equip her and empower her to care well for community. And that's what this is all about. So thank you. Thanks for sharing your story and your wisdom, and I hope to have you back on again really soon.
Alicia Freeman: Thank you for having me. It's always so fun to talk to you.
Closing
Johan Heinrichs: The stories we share here remind us that CARE does not have to be perfect to be powerful. It just has to be present. Neighbourly is an initiative of CareImpact, a Canadian charity equipping churches, agencies and communities with technology and training to care better together. This episode was produced by CareCreatives Co., a social enterprise of CareImpact. If you're building a podcast and want help with strategy, editing or full production, visit carecreativesco.ca to connect with us. I'm Johan. Thanks for listening and keep being the neighbour someone will never forget. In a good way.
