In my last post I talked about an answer to my prayers, that came in the form of an email offering to pay my expenses for 4-day Christian healing program (HeartSync) that runs seminars and helps many people suffering from trauma and PTSD, many who were not helped by anything else, including traditional psychotherapy. HeartSync is a spiritual therapy based on biblical principles. I talked to the woman who is funding this (Kate Miller) at length on the phone last night, and we found out a little more about each other, but I’m not really a phone person and I get a terrible signal anyway (probably because of all the mountains here), so the conversation was a little disjointed. I did get some of my questions answered though, and found out a bit more about how this program works. I also Googled HeartSync to read some testimonies, but I was tired and didn’t do an in-depth search last night. I didn’t see anything negative, though. It appeared to be a legitimate Christian healing program.
Kate and one other person have also kindly donated the money I will need, and it looks like the request I put in at work will also be approved (even though I didn’t get to talk to the boss yet). So it looked like God was moving a few obstacles for me and that this experience was really going to happen! But it all seemed so fast! It was too easy! What if it wasn’t God moving the obstacles? What if something else was doing it? It all seemed too good to be true–and I don’t trust anything that seems “too good.” I needed to have faith, but–how does one tell the difference between faith and foolishness?
Kate had suggested that I put in a request for an entire week off from work rather than just four days. I was told that the experience would likely be so intense that I’d probably need a couple extra days (plus the weekend) to process everything. Hearing that raised my shackles. Uh-oh! I felt a little afraid! What on earth was I REALLY getting into? Could I get out of it if I needed to? I was already booked though! I had to talk to Kate some more and also do some more digging on my own.
We recently worked with a woman named Bri (who gave me permission to share this story:)), who had been cut off from feeling emotions because of childhood wounding. From early on, she discovered that if she shut off emotion and prevented it from having a voice, it would keep pain from being experienced. When she felt an emotion coming up due to heartbreak, pain, etc, she would shove it back down and become numb to the presenting situation. When she began receiving Heart Sync prayer, the Lord revealed that this began when her parents had gotten divorced and brought to light a decision she had made as a child to not feel in order to protect herself from more pain(something she was unaware of until He revealed it consciously). The pain was beyond her capacity to bear at the time, so a part of her had come up with a solution to keep her safe, the only way she knew how— to completely shut off to all emotion forever. But by cutting this off, she was also prevented from experiencing joy and love. But now, God was offering her protection in Himself, healing for the part of her that was wounded in the divorce, and an invitation for her to be able to fully feel again under the protection and safety of the person of Jesus. Since then, Bri is able to fully access and use her emotion in a way that is healthy. She began to experience emotions again, and not just for herself but also for others. As a missionary, she has found her heart has become tender and compassionate toward those she serves, “I feel more pain, but it feels so worth it because I am able to enter into those places of pain with people and really sympathize, where as before, my heart felt calloused. This is compassion!”
I remember the first day I sat in a training for the HeartSync approach- it felt like the Holy Spirit ran into my inner world and called every part of me to attention, even the parts I didn’t realize existed or had worked endlessly to shove down, and said,
“Hey. I see you. And I’m coming to heal and love every part of your heart that hurts. You were made to be whole and to know the love of God in the deepest parts of your heart.”I’ve come to believe that we are desperately in need of a Doctor for our hearts. Yes, even us Christians who love the Lord and have given our lives to Him. There are always new depths of intimacy and healing with the Lord–it is who He is! We have all experienced our fair share of pain and suffering, and have battle wounds and scars hidden deep within to prove it. We’ve come up with our own ways of self protection to guard against more pain.
But the most glorious of news, because of the price Jesus paid for us on the cross, those wounds and scars do not have to stay buried deep within us. There is a Healer who wants nothing more than to heal and restore that which was lost!
The HeartSync approach, the primary heart healing method we use at Linden Tree Outreach, was developed by a man named Father Andrew Miller and it focuses on synchronizing broken and divided hearts first to God and then to each other. With my counseling background, I have often wondered if there is a connection between psychology and Christ-centered inner healing, as I see the value and purpose in both. Wonderfully, there is a substantial amount of brain science correlations that not only support Father Miller’s findings but fuel it (more on this at a later point).
So how this works: each of us have Core Parts. Father Andrew has given names to them, to help identify and distinguish these parts. These consist of:
– the Function Part helps us function daily (brush our teeth, write, drive, etc.) and believes that knowing certain information about one’s history is incompatible with survival and/or function
–the Emotion Part is most closely connected to the pain, depression and trauma we have experienced
– the Guardian Part that believes the Emotion and Function parts must be kept apart or the Function will be too overwhelmed to do daily functioning, so is devoted to keep them seperated.
These Core Parts are universal and part of our creative design, but they were not designed to live in opposition, but instead work together as a team. And they were also created to all be in relationship with Jesus. But because of the fall, we have all experienced varying degrees of trauma and pain which have created desynchronization between our parts and the Lord (meaning they are no longer working in unity), and we are all in need of God to bring restoration to each area of our heart and restore them to their design and function. He does this healing places of hurt and trauma and correcting incorrect beliefs about God and ourselves.
I don’t know about you, but I am desperately in need of this kind of healing. Our world is full of people who are living in disconnection from God and parts of themselves–just trying to get by–not realizing there is so much freedom and restoration available for them.
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OMG! THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR! And now it was here, and all the obstacles that seemed so insurmountable were being moved. After finishing reading this post, I just sat there reeling in near-shock but also feeling this anticipation like I’d never felt before, anticipation so intense my eyes filled with tears. THIS…was the next step of my journey.
I immediately banged out an email to Kate. Here is part of it:
All day my mind kept bringing up these potential horror-movie scenarios (maybe because it’s Halloween?) — being hypnotized, being drugged, being brainwashed, being taken alone into a little room and feeling scared to death, completely OUT OF CONTROL! Being re-traumatized in some unknown manner, or getting there and finding out that HeartSync is something other than what it says it is. It’s probably just my hypervigilance due to PTSD but it just all seemed too good to be true and that scared me.
So I knew I needed to do some more digging. I found quite a bit of information on Google and some testimonials. Wow, it does sound like exactly what I’ve been searching for. Sometimes during mass I get a bit teary eyed and definitely feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, but then it’s all over. It doesn’t really last for any length of time. For a year, I’ve been in therapy to reconnect with my emotions (many of which I had shut off because they were too painful or I was shamed out of feeling them — as I already described to you on the phone). It’s helping but it’s a long slow process. It can be frustrating and of course, it doesn’t address my relationship with God/Jesus, which is shaky at best.
Although I’m closer to God than I ever was, I often feel disconnected or untrusting of Him too. Why should I trust God when even my own family could not be trusted? When He allowed me to spend 25 years with a cruel man who almost destroyed my soul? Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t listen or doesn’t care. I question my faith a lot. Other times I feel God’s presence and love, but as if from a distance. It’s as if my entire heart can’t handle it or is still partly closed off. So when I read some of these testimonies — this seems like a somewhat charismatic healing process?– I started to feel very excited! A little scared, but scared in a good way and mostly excited. I NEED to have that intense emotional spiritual experience! I need to really feel myself being loved unconditionally by Jesus, held in his arms and allow His love to change me. I think this is the answer I’ve been looking for.
Ever since I became a Christian, all kinds of doors have been opening up to me, and I’ve also been given a lot more clarity in the direction God has planned for me. Even if one door closes, another one always seems to open. I still have strong doubts about my faith, and I’m always praying for that to be strengthened–not only so I can help myself, but also so I can help others too. I’ve found that when I put my own will ahead of God’s, I always wind up with regrets, but whenever I’ve followed God and put aside my fears, that somehow it turns out to be the best thing I could have done.
Yesterday I received an email from a woman who reads this blog and has found it helpful. She is also a victim of narcissistic abuse and has found my articles have given her courage and hope. She also offered me a fantastic opportunity, one that initially I felt like I’d have to decline, but the more I think and pray about it, the more it seems to me that God is calling me to take up her offer.
Basically, it’s a three day Christian retreat in Chapel Hill, NC that trains people in not only increasing their faith through Jesus Christ, but also helps them learn to pray for others who are broken-hearted and need God’s grace and healing.
I’ve talked about this before, but for awhile now, my greatest desire has become to help others heal from abuse, C-PTSD, and even the personality disorders that abuse can cause in a person as they unconsciously rely on primitive defense mechanisms to cope. There are many people out there who are hurting and are lost, just as I was lost and hurting until I went No Contact with my abusers.
I’ve been somewhat frustrated because there is really no way I could, at my age, afford or find the time and energy to return to school to become a therapist. But I believe Jesus can also heal people who have suffered because of abuse. I already spend much time in prayer for these broken hearted people, but I feel like my faith is shaky and leaves a lot to be desired. I feel like my prayers could be so much more effective with the right sort of training and a supportive environment where I could put aside my day to day worries and just focus on God and prayer.
Getting back to the email I received, the woman who wrote to me has offered to pay my expenses for the hotel stay (3 nights) and lunches. It is being held very soon–November 13 – 16, which is in just two weeks. I can get there myself being that it’s only a 3-4 hour drive from where I live. But going would also mean that I’d lose 3 days of work pay since it’s being held during the week, and of course there is the matter of dinner, gas, and extraneous expenses that may come up. I would not be spending any money on luxuries or souvenirs. I am going to talk on the phone with her tonight. She has provided her phone number and I looked at the website link she sent me and it does seem legitimate. But this is the only opportunity I have to go until next summer, when they will have another prayer retreat.
Here is a short description on their About page of what they do. (I don’t know if I’m at liberty to name the organization at this point).
focuses on the primary mission statement of Christ to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:17-18a), whereby Christ gives us singleness of heart and action (Jer.32:39) to the end that we are then able to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. (Matt. 22:37) ___ does this by intentionally synchronizing the most core parts of our heart to the Lord in a short period of time.
I feel like this could be lifechanging for me, and help me to help others more effectively. I know God wants me to attend, otherwise I would not have received this offer. But since I live paycheck to paycheck and already have so much trouble keeping up with my bills, and have no savings, and cannot afford to take the time off work and lose pay (I have no more vacation days), I would need about $400 by November 10th or so to be able to make this dream a reality. Of course, I will share about my experience when I return.
$250.oo to make up for 3 days’ lost pay from work
$150 for gas and dinners for 3 nights
Total: $400.00
So I’m asking anyone who wishes to help me take this opportunity to help me grow closer to God and be able to more effectively help others heal through prayer, to please make a donation before November 10th (it takes a few days for PayPal donations to enter your bank).
For some reason, I’ve been unable to activate the PayPal donation button, but you can log onto PayPal and enter my email to send the money to. Any amount of help would be gratefully appreciated!
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https://www.paypal.com/home
My email for making a donation is: otterlover58@gmail.com
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Lucky Otters Haven 