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Healing the Soul after Religious Abuse The Dark Heaven of Recovery
Mikele Rauch
ISBN: 0-313-34670-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34670-5
189 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 3/20/2009
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Recent scandals of clergy sexual abuse have brought attention to the victims and their responses to and recovery from their abuse. But few have considered the effect of the abuse on a victim's soul and religious outlook and beliefs. Healing the Soul after Religious Abuse, offers a unique perspective of recovery and restoration of the soul after religious abuse. The author argues that religious abuse often stops not only psychological growth, but also inward development. The effect is not simply emotional, because the devastation reaches to the core of the spirit. Often there is no place for a God of love or a love of what once was divine. Through a series of personal interviews with persons from the five major religions, Rauch considers various ways that religion can do harm.

The stories told in this book include the road to restoration in the wake of institutional abuse and how inner experience is sometimes confused with religious training; the sacred task of spiritual leadership and how to restore trust when there has been a violation; an exploration of sacrifice and a clarification of the notion of shame; a look at the impact of religious bigotry in the areas of race, sexuality, and tolerance; an overview of sexuality and the place it holds in both celibate and family life; the pernicious issue of clergy sexual abuse and the signs of spiritual trauma in response to such violation; a roadmap for restoration and a challenge to religious institutions; and, lastly, ways to reclaim the sacred and rewire the spirit. Through interviews, research, and personal stories, the author tells a story of recovery of the most delicate kind, offering pathways through the dark night of religious violation to a restoration of the soul and its immense possibilities.
Table of Contents:
  • Series Foreword
    Acknowledgments
    Chapter 1 Introduction: The Nightmare of Light
    Chapter 2 Trouble in the House of God: Trauma and the Life Cycle
    Chapter 3 Hells Prayer Room: When Religion Is the Abuser
    Chapter 4 Spiritual Leadership and the Trance of Religious Power
    Chapter 5 The Blood of Angels: Psychological and Physical Abuse in the Name of God
    Chapter 6 This Is My Body: When Religious Violate in the Name of GodSexual and Ritual Abuse
    Chapter 7 The Water You Want: Recovery in Four Directions
    Chapter 8 The Water of Life
    Resources
    Glossary
    Notes
    Bibliography
About the Author: Mikele Rauch is a licensed marriage, family, and child therapist with Brookline Psychological Services dealing with trauma, male and female sexual abuse, and clergy abuse. In 2004, she served on the Victims Rights Committee as a part of an Independent Review Board overseeing the Catholic Church's policies and procedures regarding survivors of clergy sexual abuse. She is a psychotherapist specializing in psychotherapy with male and female survivors of physical, sexual, and clergy abuse. She is a member of MaleSurvivor, the National Organization against Male Sexual Victimization and its International Retreat Team. She has written for the Missouri Review, the National Catholic Reporter, Cross Currents Magazine, Healing Ministry, and The New Therapist.
LCC Class: 201'.7622-dc22
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Public Library Spring 2009.pdf
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