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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8583 EAN: 9780060551056 ISBN: 0060551054 Label: Harpercollins Manufacturer: Harpercollins Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 493 Publication Date: 1988-03 Publisher: Harpercollins Studio: Harpercollins
Editorial Reviews for The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
The Courage to Heal is an inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and encouragement to every woman who, was sexually abused as a child -- and those who care about her. Although the effects of child sexual abuse are long-term and severe, healing is possible. The authors weave personal experience with professional knowledge to show the reader how she can come to terms with her past while moving powerfully into the future. They provide clear explanations, practical suggestions, a map of the healing journey, and many moving first-person examples of the recovery process drawn from their interviews with hundreds of survivors.
Definitive in scope, The Courage to Heal speaks directly to the survivor in a warm and personal way:
TAKING STOCK -- outlines the effects of child sexual abuse and the ways women cope over time.
THE HEALING PROCESS -- explores each stage from the decision to heal and remembering through breaking silence, knowing it wasn't your fault, nurturing the inner child, and grief and anger, to resolution and moving on.
CHANGING PATTERNS -- offers in-depth guidance for shifting self-defeating patterns in specific areas of one's present life, including self-esteem, feelings, intimacy, sexuality, and dealing with families.
SUPPORTERS OF SURVIVORS -- provides insight and strategies for partners of survivors, family members, and counselors.
COURAGEOUS WOMEN -- profiles survivors who share the challenges and triumphs of their own healing journeys.
HONORING THE TRUTH -- a substantial new Afterword that refutes the "false memory" argument and presents a thorough and enlightening response to the backlash.
RESOURCE GUIDE -- fully updated for this edition -- informs readers about therapy, healing activities, recommended reading, support groups, self-help programs, and services and organizations.
Consumer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Incredible book - highly recommended Comment: I highly recommend this book. It is great to see the 20th anniversary edition of this book come out this year. This book with its accompanying workbook was instrumental in my healing process.
The Courage to Heal with other books started a generation of helping empower survivors of child abuse and children to heal from the crimes of pedophilia. It also encouraged those fighting to promote the rights of children against sex crimes.
It was unfortunately attacked by those that do not want to see survivors of sexual abuse and children supported. These attacks in essence help promote pedophilia, by eliminating support systems for survivors and children that have suffered sexual abuse.
But the book has stood the test of time and twenty years later, is still a classic and one of the best resources available for sexual abuse survivors. ritualabuse.us Customer Rating: Summary: BAD SCIENCE Comment: I think this book has caused a lot of needless pain. I don't address these ideas to those who have always had memories of their abuse, however:
Any book that encourages people to believe they were abused with absolutely no concrete evidence is DESTRUCTIVE. Any book that encourages people to get as angry as they possibly can, as sad as they possibly can, and let their abuse define them and take their lives over is destructive. This book has been successful because people feel empty and confused, and they need something to hang onto. How does it help to decide all your problems are caused by abuse in your childhood? This is NOT the answer.
Customer Rating: Summary: The Courage to say "This book doesn't work!"; the courage to get negative ratings for my review Comment: I purchased this book to "heal" from sexual abuse at the hands of a boyfriend during my high school days. I've since realized that "healing" is a broadly-used term for a trendy concept. The authors, Bass and Davis, never really define healing. Well, maybe they don't because they aren't psychologists, psychiatrist, neurologists, or pastoral counselors. They really don't know what to say!
Yes, this book includes A LOT of vulgarity. I do not believe that we need to be so vulgar when we're discussing sexual abuse. Especially when there are very sensitive women trying to read this book. The vulgarity comes off as "angry womyn" syndrome- don't we want to overcome that stereotype?
Yes, this book is amateurish! The advice is very basic. If you've read other self-help and pop-psych books, you won't find anything new here. Observations of the obvious with "feel good" statements thrown in.
No, this book does not promote forgiveness. Forgiveness has nothing to do with condoning the action. It means not allowing the memory of someone and his/her actions to live in your head forever. Check out the books by the Linn brothers for true forgiveness and healing, from a healthy, biblical perspective.
Yes, this book promotes witch craft. Rachel Bat Or changes her name from Ruthann Theodore. To honor this changes, she holds a Neopagan ceremony. I do not recommend showing this to women, as many are too fragile to work through said ceremony without attracting negative energy. (Pagan lit states that you have to be in a certain frame of mind before rituals!!!) Also, be careful what spirits you invite into your circle- you could pick up very bad energy that plays upon your mind. NEXT, there's the troubling story of Kyos Featherdancing. The woman is bitter, angry, ugh! I don't think women will learn much from her- except how to create more anxiety, ulcers, depression, etc. Kyos, a Native American, follows in the religious footsteps of her pagan grandmother. Be careful that you don't misappropriate their culture and get involved in Native American rituals- you don't know what you'll conjure up.
I was a little weirded out by grown women holding each other in their laps. That happens at workshops and it is recommended for survivors. It's also appalling that the others encourage women to confront their abusers w/o any evidence. Check out other reviews for how this goes against the constitution.
This book will definitely appeal to Neopagan feminists who don't want to go through a healthy healing process. For women who reject traditional thought processes, want something intuitive, and don't want to play by the rules, The Courage to Heal is the book for them. That's why I give it 2 stars- it fits a niche. This book did not help me grow. I stuck with it, but threw it out after S.R. Benjamin's story.
Customer Rating: Summary: Bashing Comment: I read so many reviews on here that say that this book is filth and a horrible buy and that whomever is interested should seek professional help and advice. I am currently seeing a licensed therapist and conferred with her over whether or not this would help and she supported it 100%. Yes admittedly there is such a thing as 'bad therapy' where they foster and encourage mistaken beliefs of abuse but to throw ALL accounts of abuse into that category is nonsense and absolutely ridculous. The ppl that write these reviews are the same ppl that proposed the idea of 'false memories' If you remembered the abuse before you entered therapy then it is NO fault of the psychiatrist that you feel and think like you do. I am a sexual abuse survivor myself and I am absolutely appallled at the backlash survivors are getting when attempting to seek help. The authors prior occupation as a creative writer matters not in the fact that all this book is intended to be is a place to read excerpts from others like you. Its only purpose is to let you know that your not alone and that with work it does get better. People would sooner think your lying than face the fact that humanity breeds filth. I would recommend this book for anyone already seeing a therapist so that you can work together to work through it. The best advice on knowing if it happpened or not is to listen to your heart. Only you can know for sure, if it feels like it did than im sure that there is some truth to it. Do what you feel is best for you regardless of what you hear or read anywhere. Your never alone. Whichever decision you come too you are never alone. Customer Rating: Summary: help in healing Comment: this book is a great resource for survivors of sexual abuse. a perfect accompaniment is The Courage to Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women and Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. the books have an appropriate level of overlap, but each is enough different from the other to make both very helpful and informative. they can be read in succession or simultaneously because they build on each other either way. the book breaks the healing process down into more manageable parts and begins at the beginning, which i find much more helpful than jumping right to "forgiveness" or "moving on." one caveat is that the book can be overwhelming for some people, and other treatment to break into the territory of recovery may be necessary first.
Sexual abuse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bass, Ellen and Laura Davis, 1988 (3rd ed. 1994). The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. Harper Collins Publishers. Aba, C. (1992). Sexual Assaults ...
EDVP About Domestic Violence: Suggested Reading Bass, Ellen, and Laura Davis. The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. De Becker, Gavin.
The Recovered Memory Controversy Bass, Ellen and Davis, Laura. The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (3rd edition). (*) A large and hugely influential book that has become ...
Reviews: Books — The Courage to Heal Return to: Table of Contents. News and Views Home. News and Views. Reviews: Books. The courage to heal: A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse (3rd edition)
