Book Overview

In healing of a violated spirit, I write of the devastating impact of sexual, spiritual, and emotional abuse. Instead of telling the reader about deep woundedness and relational struggles, I bring the reader into my once emotionally and spiritually confused existence - into the marriage and family struggles - into my distancing from God and Jesus.

Within the pages of healing of a violated spirit, I share of the healing-recovery-reconciliation journey as seen through my eyes. The book is also my husband's and my story. With his support, I share of my once emotional turmoil and our relational difficulties. I write of the entire journey - the intertwining complexity of emotional, spiritual, psychological, physical, relational, and sexual challenges.

I also freely share of my once deeply rooted fear of God, my anger toward God and my feelings of abandonment by Jesus. From my experiences as an abuse survivor, and my husband and my experiences as marriage survivors, I share a wealth of insights, understanding, and learning.

healing of a violated spirit is not a make-one-feel-happy-book. It is not a quick-fix-to-serious-problems book. The book is intended to be an aid in understanding for a wide audience of readers - counselors, ministers, survivors of abuse, family members, and anyone who wants to understand and help a person bearing deep woundedness.

Hope is threaded throughout the pages. Emotional wholeness is possible after abuse, trauma or victimization. Enjoying relationships can happen. And for those who have been spiritually wounded, reconciliation with God is possible.

healing of a violated spirit is a story of love.

Book Cover <i>healing of a violated spirit</i>

About the Cover

The cover was designed by a friend, graphic designer Melissa Cohick. For seven month after my asking her to design the cover, she had no creative thought. Then one morning the design came to her "in a whirlwind." Within hours the picture in her mind became the artistic design in her computer.

For me, the barren tree in the foreground represents emotional and spiritual woundedness, the end result of childhood victimization - the unloving acts that sealed my unworthiness - the filth that estranged me from God and Jesus.

The background image is a heart.

The outer edges of the heart flow to the deepest, darkest depth of the tree - the core of pain, sorrow, and woundedness. For me, part of the healing process was to learn and trust (in my timing) that even if my life felt shrouded in darkness, God and Jesus would not abandon me.

Between the heart and the barren tree are the wings of a dove.

The Holy Spirit, symbolized by a dove, was significant in my emotional/spiritual healing. As I learned to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit, my fear-shame-guilt-angry relationship with God and Jesus was changed to a relationship of trust, love, and closeness.

One reader noted the irregular upper edges of the heart. She expressed what I have experienced to be true. "Joy of the heart cannot be contained when a person experiences God's healing touch."