“Healing the Soul After Religious Abuse: The Dark Heaven of Recovery”

Because the book has a small distribution, “Healing the Soul After Religious Abuse” sells for $44.95. If you wish to read it but do not want to purchase the book, please contact your local library acquisitions and request the book:

You can also order your own copy through Praeger-Greenwood Publications: orders@greenwood.com, or call 800-225-5800 or fax 603-431-2214

Or order the book now on Amazon.com

About The Book & Mikele

Discrimination, persecution, shame, hatred, all in the name of God...Religious abuse is the physical, sexual or mental damage suffered by members of a faith community when its leaders exploit them. It devastates one's sense of self, principles or inner compass about your experience of the world, shame about your body, sexual orientation, inner values, relationships, and self care. The harm reaches even to the core of the spirit where often there is no longer a place for a god of love or a love of what was once divine. Yet, there is often a longing to connect with the deepest part of oneself, without the trappings of the institution, or even the name of God.

Mikele Rauch has treated survivors of religious and clergy abuse across the gamut of religions. She is a member of the Core Facilitator Team for the MaleSurvivor.org Weekends of Recovery for men who are survivors of sexual and clergy abuse, and has served on the Clergy Sexual Abuse Victim's Rights Committee of Boston. She has written for CANDID, the Missouri Review, the National Catholic Reporter, Cross Currents Magazine, Healing Ministry, and The New Therapist Magazine.

Her book, Recovering the Soul after Religious Abuse: The Dark Heaven of Recovery, speaks about he impact of religious abuse not only on the psyche but the soul, and how to recover the deepest parts of the self, rediscover the sacred within or without the institutions of religion, and create meaning again.

There are powerful interviews with persons from all five religions, who were survivors of sexual, physical and ritual abuse, as well as homophobia, racism, sexism and misogyny in religious cultures. It looks at shame and its place in individual development and religious community. Healing the Soul explores leadership and narcissism in religious clergy, especially the powerful and potential dangerous connection between spiritual guide and those he or she serves. There is also a special section for Buddhist and Hindus about the guru disciple relationship and how abuses happen there. The book grapples with the paradox of "holiness" and spiritual stature, and how persons with such stature still are capable of doing harm.

Healing the Soul has both a personal story and a larger viewpoint, clinically and spiritually, about hope and possibilities in the face of darkness and alienation.

It is a must-read book for recovering Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, those who have suffered in cults, and for the clinicians and clergy who work with them.