CASE STUDY
A New Model for Faith-Based Healing: GPS & St. Thomas Lutheran Church
In 2025, St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Indiana, partnered with GPS Group Peer Support (GPS) to strengthen mental health and healing within their congregation and broader community. The church received a grant from the Center for Congregations in Indiana through its Mental Health Initiative, allowing St. Thomas to build sustainable, trauma-informed programming by training clergy, congregation members, and local helping professionals to lead peer support groups.
Under the leadership of Reverend Adrianne Meier, St. Thomas reached out to GPS after recognizing the deep need for spiritual and emotional healing among those who had experienced religious trauma and exclusion within faith communities. Their goal was to create faith-rooted spaces that fostered connection, compassion, and restoration — where grace could be practiced through listening and shared humanity.
Challenges
Before partnering with GPS, St. Thomas Lutheran Church faced challenges common among faith-based organizations seeking to respond to trauma:
- Lack of structured, trauma-informed frameworks for facilitating group healing within a religious context.
- Community members experiencing deep spiritual and identity-based harm, often linked to judgment, exclusion, or misuse of religious authority.
- Need for sustainable support systems to help clergy and lay leaders hold space for others without burning out themselves.
While St. Thomas had built a welcoming and affirming community, they recognized that inclusion alone was not enough — they needed a clear, evidence-based model to guide the process of recovery and connection. GPS offered a pathway forward, bridging faith and psychology through compassionate group facilitation.
Experience
Working with the GPS team was described by St. Thomas leaders as collaborative, compassionate, and transformative. The GPS approach aligned seamlessly with the church’s mission of grace and inclusion, offering a model that was both spiritually resonant and psychologically sound.
GPS Solutions Provided:
- GPS Facilitator Training: A two-day, in-person training that prepared participants — including clergy, congregants, and local professionals — in trauma-informed group facilitation, active listening, and creating safe, structured spaces.
- GPS Skills Sessions: A five-part follow-up series that allowed participants to deepen confidence, practice facilitation techniques, and integrate GPS principles through real-time feedback and peer support.
Throughout the experience, GPS trainers emphasized structure, reflection, and empowerment, allowing participants to build skills they could immediately apply in their congregational and professional work.r of preparation, Subasic launched Serbia’s first GPS-based group—an 8-week program meeting weekly for 90 minutes.
Impact & Transformation
The collaboration between GPS and St. Thomas resulted in a powerful transformation, both within the training cohort and across the broader congregation. Participants reported a deeper understanding of trauma-informed care, enhanced facilitation skills, and renewed confidence in their ability to support others with compassion and presence.
Key Outcomes:
- 93% average increase in confidence across all measured facilitation skills.
- 82% increase in confidence creating trauma-sensitive group environments.
- 100% of participants rated the GPS model and trainer expertise as “excellent/good” and would recommend the program to colleagues.
Participants described the training as “transformative,” “immediately applicable,” and “a powerful framework for healing conversations.” Many have already begun incorporating GPS practices into their community and ministry work, expanding trauma-informed peer support within and beyond the church walls.
Since facilitator training, St. Thomas has launched support groups for their parishioners including groups for new parents, those who have lost a parent, complicated family relationships, bereavement, allies to the LGBTQIA+ community , and supporting those who have experienced religious trauma. Rev. Meier already plans on incorporating the GPS model not only in formal support groups, but in church events and community interactions as well to ensure that all gatherings hold the community with tenderness, creating space for true connection and provide opportunities for healing.
Through their partnership with GPS, St. Thomas Lutheran Church has not only equipped a new generation of facilitators but has also become a model for faith communities seeking to integrate spirituality and mental health through evidence-based, compassionate group work. Together, GPS and St. Thomas are transforming religious trauma into collective healing — proving that grace and connection truly restore.
