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What is “Mary’s Hope Workshops”?
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Mary’s Hope Workshops is an ecumenical 501(c)3 non-profit organization,
founded in July, 2000, which offers education and resources about healing
and recovery from the spiritual wounds left in the wake of profound
childhood abuses and trauma. Mary’s Hope Workshops is Judeo-Christian
based; however it is not bound by the limits of any specific faith tradition.
Mary’s Hope Workshops is the only organization in the United States
offering interactive workshops, designed both for survivors of abuse and
for those who care for them, on this topic
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What are profound childhood abuses and traumas?
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At Mary’s Hope, we consider all childhood sexual abuse to be profound abuse.
In addition, profound abuses can include physical abuse, emotional abuse,
and spiritual abuse. Traumas can include such things as physical or
emotional neglect, parental separation or divorce, death of one or more
parents, being adopted or in foster care, living with substance abusers,
having mentally ill or chronically ill family members, witnessing violence
in the home, or having a family member incarcerated. This list is not
definitive… How children will react to these events will differ from one
child to the next. We believe that the depth of spiritual wounding caused
by the events cannot be measured by the perceived severity of the abuses.
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Do I have to belong to a particular faith community to come to a workshop?
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No. People from all faith traditions--and no faith tradition--come to our
workshops and find them helpful. Our programs and workshops are presented
from a Judeo-Christian perspective, and are rooted in our own healing journeys.
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What do you do in the workshops?
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Our workshops offer an opportunity to gain a common understanding and language
around the effects of childhood abuse and trauma, to specifically focus on the
spiritual wounds left in the wake of such a childhood, and to explore the facets
of the spiritual healing journey. We use a variety of teaching modalities in our
presentations: lecture, group discussion, role play, and multisensory experiences.
We focus on the residual effects of childhood abuses: we do NOT focus on the details
of the abuse. These workshops are designed to benefit both survivors of childhood
abuses and trauma, and those who care for them, either as family or friends, or
professionally.
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Shouldn’t people look to their faith communities to deal with the issues of spiritual wounding?
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The truth of the matter is that, although faith communities care about people who have
been wounded by child abuse, most clergy and lay leaders have not had the opportunity
to receive the training necessary to address these issues, nor do they have the time
to effectively counsel survivors of childhood abuse and trauma. We believe that the
role of the faith community leaders should be to support and pray for the survivors
in their midst.
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Does Mary’s Hope Workshops do counseling or group therapy?
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Mary’s Hope Workshops does not provide direct individual or group therapy services.
We can, however, refer survivors to qualified professionals in the therapeutic,
victim services and faith communities. As spiritual directors, we present workshops
where survivors can hear the good news that God/their creator did not intend their
abuse to happen. In our workshops, survivors also learn ways to facilitate their
own spiritual healing journey.
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How many people has Mary’s Hope Workshops served?
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As of February, 2009, Mary’s Hope has presented 184 workshops to 5388 people - including
victim service providers, pastoral care providers, mental health professionals, foster
and adoptive parents, clergy, family and friends of survivors, and survivors themselves.
Mary’s Hope Workshops have impacted the lives of over 400,000 survivors through workshops,
retreats and the healing work of the care providers who have attended workshops.
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When are you coming to our city to give a workshop?
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Mary’s Hope Workshops would love to come to your city….but, first we need a community
organization, or faith community, or a consortium of folks willing and able to sponsor
the workshop, procure a site, advertise the workshop in the community, and pay for us
to come and give the workshop. It just takes one person to get the ball rolling.
If you are interested, give us a call and we can walk you through the process.
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This work is so important. Mary’s Hope Workshops must have a large staff
and large corporate sponsorship, right?
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Well, actually, there are three people on staff: Sherry Niermann, the Executive Director,
The Rev. Diane Moore, the Program Director, and Elaine Oxenbury, the Administrative
Assistant. Add to that our Board of Directors, a handful of volunteers, and that’s us!
And the large corporate sponsorship idea is wishful thinking; we depend primarily on the
generosity of individuals and a handful of faith communities for our support. If you
know anyone with a spare $10,000, we’d love you to tell them about us….. Seriously,
though, our average donor gives less than $50.00, and no donation is too small. We
believe that every gift is a stepping stone for some survivor’s journey of healing
somewhere.
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Who is the Mary in Mary’s Hope Workshops?
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Mary is Mary of Nazareth who symbolizes all loving mothers. Mary would wish that each
and every child would feel beloved of their God
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