What we call “gut experience” includes bodily awareness of what Paul calls “the bowels of Christ”.  But interpretation of such experiences can be difficult, especially when there is a history of trauma or early childhood injury.  Bessel Van der Kolk wrote that, in trauma, “the body keeps the score.”  But how does the body conceal, and potentially reveal, the score?  And how can the Spirit help navigate and heal these deeper wounds? How does understanding this shape how we love and counsel others? 

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V. Ellsworth Lewis, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who is currently writing, teaching, and consulting. He began his career as Chief of Psychology Service at a U.S. Army Hospital. He then worked with severely emotionally disturbed children for Monterey County (California) Children's Services, before becoming Clinical Director of programs in eating disorders, sexual abuse treatment, and crime victim services at Gundersen Health (Wisconsin). He later became Psychology Supervisor at Lovelock Correctional Center, where he was also Sex Offender Treatment Coordinator for northern Nevada. He transferred to Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Service, where he provided psychological assessment and treatment for the Second District Court (Nevada) Mental Health Court. His current writing projects include focus on a phenomenological psychology that is distinguishably Christian while remaining planted in bodily experience and human longings. In Visceribus Christi (In the Bowels of Christ) was presented for the 2023 CAPS conference (the Christian Association for Psychological Science). He is married, with five adult children and three grandchildren.

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