Resources for Survivors

There are many resources out there for survivors of child sexual abuse. While many of these may be for male survivors, some of them would equally apply to female survivors as well. By no means is this list complete and to make it complete, I'm sure it would easily become a book.

If you have a resource that helps survivors heal, please feel free to email me and I'll update the list or just leave a comment with the information in it and I'll publish it that way. Either way works fine but my goal is to provide as many resources for survivors as I can along with links to more information or various books.

This may become too large for one blog post and if it does, I'll put this all in a pdf and upload it with a link. I'm not sure how large this will get but I'll keep adding to it until I find I need to change the format in how it is displayed.



BOOKS:

1. Hope And Possibility Through Trauma by Don Shetterly

2. Father's Touch by Donald D'Haene

3. Victims No Longer by Mike Lew

4. Leaping Upon The Mountains by Mike Lew

5. The Fishfly by Rob Maniscalco

6. Boys Cry Too by John Mark Clubb

7. Unpinned by Grant Watkins

8. Unraveling the Threads: ... by Ginny Moye

9. This Tangled Web by Kate Swift

10. Men In My Town by Keith Smith




BLOGS

1. Mind Body Thoughts Blog
A blog dedicated to healing and development in the area of how our minds and our thoughts connect with our awareness.

2. The Beckstead Group
Inspiring and Motivating people to enhance the best Human Beings that they are.

3. Men In My Town
A blog about the book, "Men In My Town" written by Keith Smith




ORGANIZATIONS

1. Male Survivor.org

2. Men Thriving.org

3. 1 in 6.org

4. Surviving Spirit.com

5. RAINN

6. Survivors Of Incest Anonymous

7. Women Speak Out

8. Just Tell.org

9. Stop Abuse Campaign

10. The Coming To Life Project




THERAPISTS

1. Dr. Howard Fradkin - Columbus, OH.

2. Mike Lew - Jamaica Plain, MA.

3. Dr. Paul Canali - Miami, FL.




SUPPORT GROUPS

1. Men's Peer Support Group (Toronto) - Stephen MacDonald




TV & MEDIA

1. Oprah - Resources For Male Survivors

2. Big Voice Pictures - Boys And Men Healing

3. Boyhood Shadows Project - Boyhood Shadows: The Film




OTHER

1. The Child Abuse Survivor Monument Project



MUSIC

1. Music About Life - Michael Skinner Music

2. Relaxing Piano Music From The Heart - Don Shetterly




SURVIVORS AND FRIENDS

1. Survivors And Friends.org



Note: Please feel free to link to this list or use these resources to help advance the recovery and prevention of child abuse. I will try to update this information as I hear about things, so please keep checking back. If you use this information, I would greatly appreciate a credit or link back to this blog at: http://mindbodythoughts.blogspot.com/

Burn The Books

I remember an episode (Video of Season 5, Episode #5 on Youtube) of Walton's Mountain where the community was enraged over some of the things that John Boy was publishing in the newspaper. He was publishing excerpts from Mein Kampf because Hitler at the time was rising to power. While everyone thought that what he was doing was a deplorable action, they were ready to do whatever it took to silence John Boy. Actions that were escalating to dangerous forms of violence brought the entire community to a breaking point.

So the Rev Matthew Fordwick decided to bring the community together where they could burn any and all German books. They felt that since the Nazis were burning our American books, that the action should not go unprotested. Reverend Fordwick wanted to have a symbolic book burning of their own. As he emphasized in the show, Hitler wanted to replace the bible with his book but that they would never allow it to happen in our country.

As you go on into the show episode, you quickly see what happens. They were beginning to throw books into the fire out of ignorance until John Boy risked his life and reputation to stand up for what he believed in. As he looked down at the pile of books on the ground, one caught his attention. He asked if there was anyone who could read German and when a lady finally got the courage to stand up and be recognized as a German, she began to read a section from the book in German. Up until this point, this lady had to hide the fact that she was German because of what people in our society would have done to her at the time. So, it was a big step for her to come forward and acknowledge who she was. Then, John Boy had her translate what she had just read into English and everyone quickly heard the beginning words of the Bible. It was a Bible written in German that they were going to burn. It was going to be burned out of ignorance and fear.

At the time, the enemy of the people of the United States was German. People wanted nothing to do with the Germans and considered them an evil people that were going to destroy our way of life. Does anyone see any parallels with today? What about any parallels with other groups of people like the Native Americans, the French, the Spanish, the British and the Japanese. At one time or another in our country's history, we have fought wars against people who we believed were going to destroy our way of life. When I was young, it was the communists. Now, it is the Muslims that we are taught to hate because of what a fringe group of people did that happen to be Muslim. Okay, you could strongly argue that they did the horrible atrocities on our soil because of their religion but again, it was a fringe group, not Muslims in general. Yes, you can argue your political points all day long and draw different conclusions but if you look at our history in this country, we are traveling down a similar path that we have traveled before.

Now a church in Gainesville, Florida called the "Dove Outreach Center" is proposing that we begin burning the Koran (the Holy Book of the Islam Religion). It does strike me as odd that the name of their church indicates a place of peace and love, yet what they are doing is anything but that. I would like to know where in the Bible, it describes Jesus participating and endorsing book burning such as what is being done. I'm sure they have some scripture they would quickly state that more than likely twists the words around for justification.

What disturbs me more is that they condemn and are angered by the way these other religions and countries burn our books and burn our flags. Yet, they are doing the very same thing. They are calling these other religions radical and extremist and hating what they do but the actions they are doing are the same as that which they hate. Am I the only one that can see this or are there more that are tired of the fringe in our country.

One would think that a "Dove Outreach Center" Church would truly practice love and peace, not hatred and acts of violence. I guess if they are going to burn their church hymnals, bibles and flags at the same time, than maybe it would make more sense. However, I doubt they will do that because it is not in their best interest to take this course of action.

I am saddened though that there is so much hatred against a people as a group for what a radical element perpetuated on our country. Yes, I do not stand by idly and think in any way that what happened on 9/11 was okay for these terrorists to do. But 20 people do not represent all parts of Islam or Islamic countries. Sure, I don't agree with many things taking place in some of these hard-line Islamic countries but I'm sure there are many things that other countries don't agree with the United States. Does that mean we have to hate? Does that mean we have to show our intolerance for others? Does it mean that we bastardize what love truly means?

Each of us should have the freedom to believe and live our lives in the way that we want to. This concept goes beyond our own liberty we participate in with our founding fathers. It is a basic human right that should be available to us regardless of laws, political affiliations, religious institutions and between the borders where you live. We weren't born to be controlled by anyone, no matter who they are.

Today, we have entered a time in our country where a few seem to feel they speak for many. Unfortunately, we have lost the individuality of ourselves as a human race where we can think for ourselves and speak for ourselves without following some political ideology or religious institution. We get so locked in to what the news media reports as true fact when there is hardly a moment where fact prevails. We have become mindless humans following the rest of the heard as if we were sheep walking out to a pasture.

My only hope is that we as a human race will wake up. I'm not talking about a particular country, religion or political party. These are lessor parts of the human race. What I am hoping is that we will all become aware of our short comings and how the actions we take impact the world as a whole. If we want to heal the world and bring peace to it, our actions must first begin with ourselves.

We are all connected together and our actions affect out entire civilization. We are approaching a time where we truly need to understand what this means. Following blindly what others say is not awareness and it is not an evolution of our species. We are meant to evolve but in order to do so, we must wake up. May we all wake up before it is too late.


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