Trauma Relief - Prayer and Mediation

PREPARATION:

Bible, pencil, notebook
Same time and same comfortable place daily, if possible
Two ideas to deal with distractions
- Take the phone off the hook
- Have paper for TTD (things to do) when distracting thoughts of duties interrupt your concentrating on the Lord
Try to have a place where you're free to change posture to kneel, prostrate yourself, as the Spirit leads; and to make noise cry, sing, etc.
Allow the same amount of time each day, and stick with it whether you feel you're getting anywhere or not. Let this be your offering of yourself to Jesus; an offering which you make for His sake regardless of your own satisfaction, if need be.

GETTING STARTED:

Claim James 4:7. Cover yourself with the blood of Jesus and refuse all involvement of Satan in your life as you commit to God.
Offer a prayer to God, asking Him to grant you this as His gift:
    May my intentions
                 actions
                 operations
                         be to the praise of Your glory.
Intentions:   the will, desires, power of choice, decision-making
Actions:      just what it says. (I include speech here, also.)
Operations: emotions, imagination, intelligence, memories, conscience--all my human gifts and powers
Sometimes, in addition to this, I give myself to the Father "mind, will, and emotion; body soul and spirit."
Ask the Holy Spirit to grant as His gift that I would allow God to let me see myself as He sees me be open to however God wants to come to me

NOW, OPEN THE SCRIPTURES:

Read your chosen passage of scripture slowly and prayerfully. Try in every way to put yourself into the passage, so you're not reading what Jesus said to the Jews 2000 years ago, but what the Holy Spirit is saying to you, today! Use all 5 senses to make the passage come alivo sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. This is especially easy to do in the gospels and with the parables.
Ask yourself what grace or gift or power you most need and want from God today.
Then, listen.
Talk to the main person in the scene about questions that come up as you read, or the grace/gift you're asking for.
Then, you just "be there", and whatever happens, happens.
You may feel led to take notes about what you've heard.

IF YOU FEEL LIKE NOTHING IS HAPPENING:

That's just fine. Don't fret. The Holy Spirit is receiving your offering of yourself whether you feel like it or not. Isaiah 55 assures us the Word of God is never wasted
Never try to "make something happen".
It's probably unwise to try to learn to listen on a day when you're desperate for an answer. This type of prayer is a discipline to develop slowly and patiently as the Spirit guides.

AT THE END:

Offer a closing prayer to seal the work.
For myself, saying a personalized version of the Lord's prayer serves as a quick spiritual checklist.
Several benedictions from scripture also come to mind, for example, the one from the end of the book of Hebrews.