Customer Reviews

Strong at the Heart: How It Feels to Heal from Sexual Abuse

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How I wish I had had Strong at the Heart in my house during the ten years I was wrestling with incest memories and trying to rebuild my life. I might not even have needed to read the book, although its words are amazing solace and inspiration. If all I had had were the photographs of these survivors to look at, I would have been so encouraged to believe that I, too, could recover. They are so clear-eyed! They look exactly like themselves, which is one of the gifts of recovery. You lose so much when you are, or find out you were, abused - it is soul-shattering, and feels so impossible to get over. But what you find if you can keep going is that you become/create/discover a new self, much more together and vivid and real than the old one. It's clear from their faces that these survivors have found their true selves. When you read their stories, you'll see how brave they are to have endured what they had to. I'm so proud of them! Strong at the Heart is courageous, inspirational, and beautifully done. My love to the teens and young adults who told their stories so others of us could be healed, and to Carolyn Lehman, for bringing them to us with such generosity.

As a therapist who has done considerable work with incest and sexual abuse, I give this the highest rating. I think it makes an important contribution to the field and particularly to people of any age, gender or sexual orientation that are dealing with their own recovery. It is sensitive and soulful.

Like many women, I have had a lot of friends who were sexually abused. If you are anything like me, you want to be there for your friends, reassure them that you believe them, are there for them, and love them, but it is very hard to know what you could possibly say and do to help someone you love get through something like this. It is hard to know what someone might want or need from their friends in order to help them recover.

So for me, reading about these incredibly strong, interesting, and diverse men and women really helped me know what someone might be feeling and thinking but feel unable to express. I saw what people said and did for them that was helpful in their recovery, and it helped me feel more prepared to talk with my friends about sexual abuse and to support those who are recovering from it.

The book is written for teens on up, but doesn't talk down to you or oversimplify the feelings and issues involved, so it is a great resource for adults as well. The conversational style makes it a quick and simple read, so even people who don't enjoy reading would still get a lot out of this book.

I particularly liked the diversity shown. There are people from many races and ethnicities, men and women from different cultural and religious backgrounds, people who were abused at different ages and by different kinds of people in their lives. The diversity didn't feel like tokenism; I felt like we really got at some important kernal of humanity and shared experience which made every single entry an experience that anybody could relate to.

I recommend this book for survivors, those who work with children, teens, and young adults, and people like me who would like to help their friends or relatives in their recovery but aren't sure what support we might be able to offer that would be of value to our loved ones.

The author's website offers additional resources:
http://www.strongattheheart.com/

I have not suffered childhood abuse but was recommended this book as a source of inspiration and education on helping people to face and overcome the abuse they've suffered and suppressed for years. This book is a breath of fresh air for victims and friends interested in helping loved ones heal persistent, bottled up wounds; it provides hope and can be a great source of inspiration for all readers.

Strong at the Heart presents very personal stories. These individual stories together present the resilency of the heart. Very moved and inspired to continue my work as Rape Crises Counselor

This book opened my eyes about the prevalence of sexual abuse. I had heard the statiistics, but with Strong At the Heart, the numbers became people as I was presented with survivors: strong, insightful, inspiring survivors. I was specially touched by the story of a woman wheo was abused by her father for years during her childhood. Yet, when he was an old man, she had the courage to forgive him and to take care of him in his final days. It is this kind of amazing grace and strenght that makes this book so special.
As a mom I find this book an important tool to be aware of the depth of the problem. I was heartbroken to see that many victims felt that they could not talk to anyone because no one would believe them. As parents we should give our kids the tools to speak up agaings thinks that are making them uncomfortable.
Finally, even if the book is heartwrenching at many times, it is hopeful as a whole, in the sense that it shows that is is possible to survive and live rich lives even after suffering abuse. Survivors show that they are marked by the abuse, but their lives are not defined by it. In every case, they all talk about the imporance of getting help.
This is a very important book.

Strong at the Heart is a powerful and uplifting book composed of the personal healing journeys of a diverse group of women and men from the U.S. and Canada that have survived and overcome incest, sex abuse and rape.

Each person's story evokes a wide range of emotions - compassion as well as respect for their strength, and contains wisdom and insight into healing.

This is both a healing book for survivors, like myself, and educational for allies. The very last story was about a group of college students who were a part of SAFE: Survivors and Allies For Education on Childhood Sexual Abuse and Incest at Smith College. It is so valuable to have groups like this at colleges and high schools and for young people to seek them out or be inspired to form groups. For many young people college is their first time experiencing distance from their families and childhood and they begin to feel ready to speak out and heal from trauma in their past. This is often a necessary step in order to successfully engage in the learning and growing process of the college experience. Although for a lot of people it is better for them not to open up the past wounds too much while trying to navigate the college years. Either way, survivors need a supportive environment and groups like this can educate and help prevent sexual abuse as well.

The sooner the survivor can talk and heal, the sooner his or her life can begin to improve tremendously. This is an excellent book for adults or young survivors (and anyone that cares about these issues). I highly recommend it!

I really like this book because it comes from various survivors. They tell their stories. This is positive from a theraputic standpoint when working with survivors of sexual abuse.