Nancy Richards, Healing from Child Abuse and Family Estrangement Author

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Welcome!

If you are recovering from abuse and/or family estrangement this lens provides wonderful resources for building the life you deserve!

Whether you are fed up with hearing that you have to forgive, or you are ready to consider forgiveness "Heal and Forgive" will empower you!

"Heal and Forgive" is a personal journey based on the premise that healing first and experiencing some sense of justice is the basis for authentic forgiveness.

"Heal and Forgive II" offers a a realistic, and compassionate blueprint for coping with family estrangement and reconciliation.

Heal and Forgive II Video

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Heal and Forgive Video

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Family Estrangment Polls

I'm conducting two polls on my public blog concerning the reasons for family estrangement.

If you are dealing with a family estrangement, please drop by and vote on my poll. Or, if you know someone dealing with family estrangement, please send them by to vote as well.

Thanks for your input!
Reasons for Family Estrangement Polls
Many people who are estranged from family members are often left to wonder, "What happened?"

Please share your voice!

Thanks!

My Website, Blog, and Audio Interview

Want to learn more about me? Here's where you'll find me!

My Blog
My blog - where I share my views and experiences on recovering from childhood abuse, family estrangement, premature forgiveness, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
My Author Site
My official website. It includes a bio, a full list of all my published books, and more.
Radio Interview
My January 24, 2008 interview on "A Fresh Start With Sallie Felton." To listen, download the 1/24/08 interview with Nancy Richards.

Family Estrangement Websites

H.E.R. Healing Estranged Relationships
For women who are experiencing an estranged relationship from an adult child.
Estranged Parents - Adult Children
For parents estranged from Adult Children.
Estrangements
Covering multiple aspects of family estrangement.
Family Intervention
Specializing in family reconciliation, family estrangement and making amends.
Family Wanted
For individuals and families affected by estrangement or other relationship loss by finding new familial connections.
Mark Sichel
Author Mark Sichel.
Dr. Joshua Coleman
Author Dr. Joshua Coleman
Support 4 Change
Relationship website.
Healing from Family Rifts Yahoo Support Group
For anyone dealing with a Family Rift - Membership required to read or post messages.
Motherless3 Yahoo Support Group
For Motherless Daughters who have lost their mother due to Rejection, Abandonment, or Estrangement. Membership required to read or post messages.
Garden Web Parents Forum
Public Message board with threads on family estrangement.
Dr. Joshua Coleman's Public Blog
Includes a comment section for parents to discuss their estrangements.
Estranged Stories - Support Group
For anyone dealing with a Family Rift - Membership required to read or post messages.

Child Abuse Resources

The Official Website of Andrew Vachss
From The Zero - The Official Website of Andrew Vachss: A searchable database of agencies, and organizations dealing with the issues of child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, animal welfare, mental health, health care, juvenile justice, human trafficking and more.....

The National Association to Protect Children

Protect
The National Association to Protect Children is a membership association dedicated to providing political strength and leadership to create tougher laws for the protection of abused children.

Books Dealing with Family Estrangement

Making Peace with Your Parents by Harold Md Bloomfield, Leonard Phd Felder

Making Peace with Your Parents by Harold Md Bloomfield, Leonard Phd Felder

"No one book resolves a lifetime of hurts and more...0 points

Heal and Forgive II: The Journey from Abuse and Estrangement to Reconciliation by Nancy Richards

Heal and Forgive II: The Journey from Abuse and Estrangement to Reconciliation by Nancy Richards

Heal and Forgive II The Journey from Abuse and Est more...0 points

FRAGMENTED FAMILIES: Patterns of Estrangement and Reconciliation by Ellen Sucov

FRAGMENTED FAMILIES: Patterns of Estrangement and Reconciliation by Ellen Sucov

The purpose of the book Fragmented Families is to more...0 points

Recovery Books

In my constant search for answers to my mixed emotions and remedies for my charred feelings, I read many books that helped shape my recovery. This is a list of some of the books that aided me during the twenty year span of my ever changing recovery.

Making Peace with Your Parents by Harold Md Bloomfield, Leonard Phd Felder

Making Peace with Your Parents by Harold Md Bloomfield, Leonard Phd Felder

"No one book resolves a lifetime of hurts and more...0 points

The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships by Harriet Lerner

The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships by Harriet Lerner

"Anger is a signal and one worth listening to," more...0 points

Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth by Alice Miller

Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth by Alice Miller

The culture that ignores roots of hatred and tyran more...0 points

Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life by Susan Forward, Craig Buck

Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life by Susan Forward, Craig Buck

Are you the child of toxic parents?When you were a more...0 points

Divorcing a Parent: Free Yourself from the Past and Live the Life You've Always Wanted by Beverly Mfcc Engel

Divorcing a Parent: Free Yourself from the Past and Live the Life You've Always Wanted by Beverly Mfcc Engel

Do you come away from contact with your parent with more...0 points

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse: How to Move Beyond Your Past to Create an Abuse-Free Future by Beverly Engel

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse: How to Move Beyond Your Past to Create an Abuse-Free Future by Beverly Engel

"A beacon of hope for women and men who fear that more...0 points

Healing From Family Rifts : Ten Steps to Finding Peace After Being Cut Off From a Family Member by Mark Sichel

Healing From Family Rifts : Ten Steps to Finding Peace After Being Cut Off From a Family Member by Mark Sichel

Ten steps to surviving a family rift, finding peace, more...0 points

Another Chance to Get It Right (3rd Edition) by Andrew Vachss

Another Chance to Get It Right (3rd Edition) by Andrew Vachss

When Another Chance to Get it Right debuted on The more...0 points

Heal and Forgive: Forgiveness in the Face of Abuse

Excerpt: The Foreword (by Marie M. Fortune)

This story is painful to read. How can a parent abuse or allow the other parent to abuse children in the myriad of ways described here? Perhaps this "why?" has no answer. An answer would be helpful because part of what we humans long for in the midst of pain and chaos is to make some sense of it all. Answering "why?" there is such suffering in the world at least gives us a handle on it. Yet these answers are hard to come by. Suffering is a part of life. So is joy. But this is little solace to a child whose world is constructed by abuse.

Richards tells her story and unravels the process of healing that can lead to forgiveness. Along the way she breaks the silence of her family and is determined to tell the truth about her childhood. In spite of the denial by other family members, she is heard, believed and acknowledged by others in her life. She goes through the anger and grief of coming to terms with her childhood. She resists the temptation to "forgive and forget" because she knows it would only heal the wound lightly, saying "peace, peace," when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14 ). She puts her energy into protecting and caring for herself and in raising her children in a healthy, nurturing environment. All of this contributes to her healing; all of this is part of experiencing justice. All of this is what finally frees her to forgive and get on with her life.

She chose the path of healing and it took her to forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an obligation on the part of someone who has been harmed. It is not a solo act but rather takes place in community where we can find some sense of justice. It is not saying magic words and hoping that healing will come from that. It is hard work for the individual. It is God's grace carrying us the whole way. It is possible but never easy. This story is a testament to the possibility of healing and forgiveness. No cheap grace here. No pretense of keeping family secrets and denial. Just hard work and a great reward.

Rev. Marie M. Fortune
FaithTrust Institute, Seattle

Find Heal and Forgive: Forgiveness in the Face of Abuse on Amazon

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Find Heal and Forgive II: The Journey from Abuse and Estrangement to Reconciliation, on Amazon

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Heal and Forgive II: The Journey from Abuse and Estrangement to Reconciliation

Anyone who has heard the devastating words, "I never want to see you again!" from a parent, sibling, or child, knows the torment of family exile.

All one needs to do is search the web for sites dealing with family estrangement to find endless choices for the countless individuals seeking help with family cut-off's. Google lists 776,000. Yahoo lists 890,000! Although there are no formal statistics for family estrangement, the numbers available are alarming. From celebrities, to friends, co-workers, and neighbors we find people everywhere dealing with the effects of family rifts.

After a painful fourteen-year estrangement, author Nancy Richards and her family reunited. Heal and Forgive II: The Journey from Abuse and Estrangement to Reconciliation, presents a first-hand description of the long journey towards healing and offers a blueprint for coming to terms with the past.

Reconciliations can bring joy, excitement and a sense of awe like that of a miracle. At the same time, reunions can be frightening, stressful, fragile, and wrought with many pitfalls. Rebuilding relationships requires a great deal of emotional work and a willingness for each family member involved.

Often, re-establishing relationships with family members can appear to be an impossible task. Indeed, reuniting is not possible for everyone. Some individuals experience continued physical and emotional violence within their families to a degree that prohibits any safe contact. Other estranged individuals may desire a reunion only to find family members unwilling to see them. Yet, sometimes people are surprised when the road to healing and recovery leads to new beginnings.

Whether re-establishing a relationship with a family member or remaining apart, healing is vital for the individual's happiness and well-being. This work demonstrates to the reader the healing process necessary to make peace with the past, healing in a fashion that maintains wholesome separateness with or without rebuilding new relationships.

This thought provoking work effectively diagrams the healing and reconciliation process while placing the reader's well-being firmly in his or her own hands.

Healing from Abuse Lenses

Circle of Healing
A Circle of Healing, is when someone will read or speak to someone else who has experienced a similar situation as you. In the sharing of these stories, it enables another person to perhaps see a way that may help in their own healing journey. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this work.I
Overcoming Emotional Suffering
Do you suffer from negative thoughts, feelings, or behavior? I write about how to overcome all of this stuff. Just check it out.
Suggestions for Helping Domestic Violence Victims
Here are some Suggestions to help those you Love and are close to who are going through Domestic Violence.
Recognizing and breaking the Cycle of Abuse
Although professionals may disagree on the titles and exactly what each phase looks like, the Cycle of Abuse remains largely the same ...the main components being calm, tension, explosion and reconciliation ...with a pattern that often starts out with longer periods of calm, and escalates toward lon
Predestination - Walk In Your Destiny
Part 1: A very personal walk from survivor to conqueror. Have you ever been called a survivor? Did you know that there is a 'survivor syndrome', I will call it, that keeps us blocked from moving forward after a crisis? This lens is about moving past being a survivor, striving for our good, and movin
Family-Constellation-Therapy
In Family Constellation theory, psychological states, feelings, and illness are often seen as disturbances in the individual's family system. During the process volunteers are asked to "represent" individuals from a family system. Often these representative do not know beforehand who they are representing in the family, yet they manifest them often in great detail and help to reveal what is hidden.
Victim/Survivor/Thriver
Helping those in abusive situations

Heal and Forgive Blog

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Reader Feedback

  • AnneVis Feb 22, 2011 @ 3:25 am | delete
    Great lens, thanks for sharing the information!
  • BelindaBlevins Nov 7, 2010 @ 7:40 am | delete
    This is great information. Thanks
  • healandforgive Jan 12, 2009 @ 5:00 pm | in reply to BarryKrost | delete
    Thanks! And many blessings to you!
  • BarryKrost Jan 12, 2009 @ 4:45 pm | delete
    I very much want to read Heal and Forgive. It wonderful that you share such an important message with the world. Thanks for the great resources on this Lens. A definite Favorite and ***** Blessings to you.
  • eccles1 Sep 16, 2008 @ 1:59 am | delete
    I think you are right it starts with forgiving
    yourself and then forgiveness is easy keep up the good work !
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by

healandforgive

Hello, I am Nancy Richards, author of Heal and Forgive: Forgiveness in the Face of Abuse," co-author of "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2... more »

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