Chrysalis: A Survivor's Prayer Book

Families and significant others of abuse victims often feel powerless to help the ones they love. They see the signs of depression; the struggles with self-abusive cutting/eating/drug usage/harmful relationships and long to bring safety and peace to the woman/man they dearly care for. That was the impetus for writing this book. It is not a quick fix or a cure all. It is a book of truth about what the spiritual damages that can result from victimization. It offers several practices which are intended to assist the abused individual to understand how they came to sustain spiritual damage. How they can connect to the Divine in new ways of prayers. How they can utilize meditation as a tool for healing. This book is intended to address the realities of hopelessness; despair; depression; and self-rejection as experienced by many survivors. I am a creative, vibrant, faith-filled woman who also is a survivor in the process of learning to be a thriver. My professional life has included being a nurse mostly in psychiatric settings; a pastor; a spiritual director and public speaker on theological issues pertaining to LGBTQI. During my undergrad work on my BSN and then on my MSN, I did internships at domestic violence shelters as well as volunteering afterwards by running survivors group sessions. Raised in an era where incest, clergy abuse and molestation were not spoken about nor acknowledged, formed the person I have struggled to become today. I see myself as a human butterfly, who has survived the chrysalis of recovery from powerless victim to a resurrected thriver.