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Anne Marie Miller is a survivor of childhood clergy sexual abuse and has shared her journey toward healing with audiences all over the world. Healing Together is a practical guide for helping supporters of sexual abuse survivors--a family member or friend--understand the basics of abuse and trauma while providing a path toward healing and hope.
List of contents
Author’s Note
Preface
Part 1: Understanding the Basics of Abuse and Trauma
1. Chapter 1: My Story of Childhood Clergy Sex Abuse
2. Chapter 2: Understanding the Basics of Abuse
2.1. Types of Abuse
2.2. The Profile of Predators
2.3. Spiritual Hunting Grounds
2.4. Ethics, Morality, Crime
2.5. Who are survivors?
2.6. Why Survivors wait to talk
3. Chapter 3: Understanding the Basics of Trauma
3.1. What is trauma?
3.2. How trauma affects us uniquely
3.3. Trauma in the brain, body, mind, heart, and spirit
4. Chapter 4: Understanding Traumatic Memory
Part 2: Guides for Helping and Healing
5. Chapter 5: Healing Together: The Role of Supporters
5.1. The Call to Help
5.2. Family and Friends
5.3. The Church’s Role
5.4. Enlisting Professional Help
5.5. Being Strong Enough to Carry: Staying Healthy
5.5.1. Body
5.5.2. Mind
5.5.3. Heart
5.5.4. Spirit
6. Chapter 6: Help for Supporters and Survivors
6.1. Proactive and have a plan before you need one
6.2. Check: Immediate safety and wellbeing
6.3. Call: Authorities when needed, otherwise a second trusted person
6.4. Care:
6.4.1. Body
6.4.2. Mind
6.4.3. Heart
6.4.4. Spirit
7. Chapter 7: Recognizing and Responding to Child Sex Abuse
7.1. Signs of Abuse
7.2. An Organization’s Response to Abuse
7.3. Preventing Abuse
7.3.1. Background Check
7.3.2. Going Beyond the Background Check
7.3.3. Training Leaders
7.3.4. Equipping Parents
7.3.5. Partnering with the Community
Appendix
Key Legal Terms
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
About the author
Anne Marie Miller lives with her husband, Tim Miller in Franklin, Tennessee. Under the name Anne Jackson, she wrote two books: Mad Church Disease and Permission to Speak Freely. Anne speaks at colleges, conventions and churches on the topics of social justice, sexuality, health, addiction, and biblical themes of grace and restoration. She writes for Relevant Magazine, and has been featured in publications such asChristianity Today and Outreach.
Summary
Sex is such an intimate topic historically wrapped in shame and when someone shares they were sexually abused, we may not know how to respond.
With recent #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, we are learning just how many men, women, boys, and girls have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted person, often family members or leaders in the church. Sexual abuse is rampant in modern society and now--sometimes many years later--sexual abuse survivors are sharing their stories.
Anne Marie Miller is a survivor of childhood clergy sexual abuse and has shared her journey toward healing with audiences all over the world. After speaking with thousands of survivors and their loved ones, she saw the need for a fundamental and practical guide for helping supporters of sexual abuse survivors understand the basics of abuse, trauma, healing, and hope. Drawing from her own experience as a survivor and evidence-based research, Anne addresses these questions and more in Healing Together:
- What is sexual abuse?
- How can I help survivors?
- Who are predators and how do they groom victims?
- How does trauma affect survivors?
- What happens when someone doesn't remember the details of their abuse?
- How does abuse wound the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of people who have been abused?
- When and how should authorities be contacted?
- How do you talk to your children about sexual abuse?
- What are the warning signs of abuse?
- Is healing possible?
Whether you are a spouse, a family member, a friend, or a church leader looking for easy-to-navigate resources to understand and support sexual abuse survivors, you'll find answers and hope in these pages.
