by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: August 01, 2009

The idea of a child having to go through abuse from an adult is abhorrent. It's an uncomfortable subject for a book, which certain writers have cashed in on as a means to win the sympathy vote from readers. In the case of this book, the author has gone through a healing process and the work is valuable from several viewpoints. One is that in writing the book, the writer was able to go through facing some of her demons. The other is that the book may help those who have experienced similar situations.

When such a private thing happens to a child, what they are faced by is a certain element of isolation from their peers and from adults. After all, it is the adult who betrayed their trust in the first place, and peers would not understand this element of abuse to a child not even old enough to understand the significance of what has happened to them.

This book tackles the subject matter in a down to earth manner, and is an account of how the author lived through the process of healing. What is interesting to note is that the symptoms and signs described in the book, and the thought processes which follow trauma are very similar to those faced in other kinds of trauma. The body protects itself by shutting down those areas which are not comfortable to deal with. As described in the book, the layers of memories which are hidden in each person take time to uncover and to unfold, in order to commence the healing process.

The description of the different processes tried and the effects they had on the author were also very astute. Let down by the church and by those she trusted to be guardians of people's feelings and emotions, the author took many roads which lead to eventual recovery, and it seems that the book was a great stepping stone in the recovery process, just as in traumatic cases such as those experienced by Sabine Dardenne in Europe, although in a very different way.

The benefit of reading books such as this is that sufferers can relax in the privacy of reading and find solutions which work for them. In this case the discovery of the Unity Church was to be a turning point for the author, and for her it worked to entrust those who worked within that church, eventually becoming a chaplain for the church she started to believe in and be comfortable with.

To give away too much of the plot would detract from the book itself. Suffice to say that this was the worst kind of child abuse, since the perpetrators of the abuse involved trust issues

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