Click on the title below to read survivor stories - or click on the button above to submit your own.
Once in a while a voice is heard that needs to rise to the top. This is that voice for us, today:
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This woman is my hero, and she speaks for me. She speaks for all of us. Listen.
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Kris tells her story: ~ I belonged to my parents. I was wrong, because they were right. They narrated life. They taught me to be unkind to their next victim, my sister. Out of fear that I would tell the truth, I was diagnosed with mental illness, and my life was in their hands. And they were very generous, in increasing measure, to trap me. I dealt them a blow earning an MSW. At just the time I may have gotten away, I fell into their hands through a deadly battle with anorexia. I lived. They layered on guilt and presented me to others as unstable and ungrateful. I was the difficult family member. It is Truth that drives me now. I do not conform. My Lord is King. Jesus reigns, and He knows. I will not be bullied again. I deserve to be an aunt and stand tall. They are forced to look into my eyes, knowing I know them. My mother asked my forgiveness, and she is free. My father is a prisoner of his own pride, but he doesn't bother me. It is his own choice. He is disconnected, separated, while everyone else is laughing and relating. A shame, when forgiveness is there. I don't hate my sister anymore. We are friends and sisters in Christ. ~
Thank you, Kris, for sharing. One of the weapons used against the victim child is the adults' ability to discredit the child among others who might otherwise help. It is one of the reasons that child abuse is so rampant and yet undetected, and one of the reasons that survivors enter adulthood sometimes not quite sure about their own reality. I am so glad you found help, healing, and hope. Keep that Truth before you, and let's all stick together!
With love and hope, Another Mother
Thank you, Kris, for sharing. One of the weapons used against the victim child is the adults' ability to discredit the child among others who might otherwise help. It is one of the reasons that child abuse is so rampant and yet undetected, and one of the reasons that survivors enter adulthood sometimes not quite sure about their own reality. I am so glad you found help, healing, and hope. Keep that Truth before you, and let's all stick together!
With love and hope, Another Mother
New Memoir Explores Healing Through Faith
Please read our interview with the author, here:
Life Soup
Unique Memoir Format Breaks New Ground for Healing
Survivor Geri Henderson, Ph.D. and her former therapist, Seanne Emerton, LMFT, LIMPH, LPC have formed a unique collaboration to write their book, Healing from Incest: Intimate Conversations with My Therapist. The book is in an unusual collaborative format, where Ms. Emerton gives her analysis of the narrative memoir written by Dr. Henderson. Each writer has her own, distinct voice, and in places they even disagree, which serves to lend credibility to the text and invokes admiration for the trust and respect that obviously was inherent in their relationship and continues to this day. Dr. Henderson's story is painful to read, yet uplifting and absorbing. One can only be fascinated by the instant access to the clinical discussion of the story as Ms. Emerton deconstructs the process of healing the developmental, psychological, and emotional wounds engendered by the horrific abuse suffered by Dr. Henderson.
This book will be helpful to survivors, especially those who still are considering seeking therapy. Healing from Incest demystifies the therapeutic process and even, through discussions about other therapists involved in the heroine's care who made some pretty heinous mistakes, might help some survivors learn how to find a therapist whose attitudes toward sexual abuse are helpful and informed, rather than harmful. We especially see this book as a potential help to therapists, social workers, and people in charge of our justice system; they desperately, all of them. need to learn how to treat survivors with respect and with an awareness of the seriousness of the offense.
Healing from Incest can be found at all the usual book outlets online, or can be ordered from most brick-and-mortar bookstores. The publisher is MSI Press, LLC, and the release date was June 1, 2015.
This book will be helpful to survivors, especially those who still are considering seeking therapy. Healing from Incest demystifies the therapeutic process and even, through discussions about other therapists involved in the heroine's care who made some pretty heinous mistakes, might help some survivors learn how to find a therapist whose attitudes toward sexual abuse are helpful and informed, rather than harmful. We especially see this book as a potential help to therapists, social workers, and people in charge of our justice system; they desperately, all of them. need to learn how to treat survivors with respect and with an awareness of the seriousness of the offense.
Healing from Incest can be found at all the usual book outlets online, or can be ordered from most brick-and-mortar bookstores. The publisher is MSI Press, LLC, and the release date was June 1, 2015.
The Car Analogy of Survivorship
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34 YearsThe caged bird sang for me long before I ever met that sacred sister, Dr. Maya Angelou.
It spoke to me - I could play that song by ear. I heard its voice and, yet, it took me 34 years to fully understand that my body is a crime scene. My very body. The temple in which I stand. Is a crime scene. The yellow tape is faded and flaps in the wind, now. The detectives never came and, eventually, the rain washed away the chalk outline of the awkward, lonely 13 year-old girl who just wanted to be special to someone. Just wanted to be noticed by someone. And now many years have passed. Babies came on through from time to time, and they bear their own set of marks from struggling out of this body's ragged depths, its ambivalent hospitality. I look like just any old anybody now - just another old lady on the street. But on rainy nights I can still feel that cold, wet asphalt under my cheek, and hear that damned bird. Singing. - Another Mother, 2015 My Journey of SurvivalFragile, uncertain, isolated. The smell of fear.
Hiding under desks, tables and in closets. Avoiding fun and open places; too risky. Being found, unwilling witnesses and dark basements. Shadows, dark and musty smells, trapped. A single chair, small ropes; lack of circulation. Needles and soft rubber tourniquets. Blood, razors, knives, and threats. Spiders crawling down my arms and hair. Screwdriver handles, fingers, hands. First pain, then numbness. Lack of all emotion. Threats, promises, emotional blackmail. Fear of mirrors and reflections through dark windows. Whispering while hanging upside down from the deck. Waiting for arms to reach through the darkness. Resigned to die. Hoping it will be quick. Somehow finding inner strength to fight back. Confrontation, determination, obstinate. The guilty show their anger, despair and depression. Suicide is their easy way out. My family is in mourning. I’ve lost my childhood, but I am no longer his victim. Years of sleepless nights. Tossing, turning. Avoiding knife thrusts as I dream. PTSD follows me, but I pretend it isn’t there. Acceptance, forgiveness, letting go. Standing tall, controlling my destiny. I have many scars, but I’m free. Thirty years before I can look at his photo. He can’t hurt me anymore. Evil has a name; it is still not spoken. Submitted by: Anonymous Thank you, Dear One, for your courage to share - and for surviving to share it. You are not alone. You are loved. -Another Mother Upward Trajectory
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