New Book Points Finger at Abuse as Thief of Happy Marriages

Author's debut teaches readers how to survive the unimaginable.

Longwood, FL (PRWEB) April 17, 2008 -- A survivor of childhood sexual abuse, author Shelley G. Jones' "volcano" erupted at age 34 after years of repression. The sudden resurfacing of past hurts threatened to destroy both her and her 14-year-old marriage, which soon became the undeserved recipient of her rage. At that time, there was little to no information available to help them understand and deal with the crisis facing them. Now, in Jones' moving debut, Healing of a Violated Spirit (paperback, 978-1-60477-667-6), the couple hopes to help others understand how unresolved past abuse affects not only the survivor, but also the marriage and family.

Says the author, "From my firsthand living and learning, I address how the complexity of emotional confusion and a distorted worldview and view of God plus a heavy and suffocating shroud of guilt, shame, filth, and unworthiness stems from experiencing childhood abuse. I show how this affects not only how a survivor deals with life, but (also) how issues stemming from abuse negatively affect the marriage and all other relationships. My writing takes the reader through the recovery/healing process."

The statistics provide a jarring view of reality: one out of every three girls and women are sexually abused before the age of 18, and one out of every five boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. "I fully believe that one of the core reasons marriages struggle to survive in this nation is that one or both of the partners has unresolved deep woundedness stemming from the abuse," the author says. "My husband and I survived the unimaginable."

Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 5,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order Healing of a Violated Spirit through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors.

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