The Wounded Heart Healing Discussion Group

There are currently no plans for a new group. Please call 678-4411, ext. 176 for future information.

More than two years ago, First United Methodist Church of Niceville began a pioneering healing group for women. These women came to the group because they were suffering from some of the following symptoms:

1. Deep-seated anger
2. Unable to love and receive love
3. Feeling undeserving of anything good
4. Inability to trust
5. Fear/anxiety - Constant unexplainable inner turmoil
6. Sexual difficulties in marriage
7. Over achieving but never feeling satisfied
8. Emotional eating
9. Controlling personality
10. Difficult being patient with others
11. Extremely critical of self and others
12. Perfectionism
13. Hypersensitive to criticism
14. Depression
15. Chronic pains, migraines, other chronic health problems
16. Difficulty forming lasting friendships with other women
17. Lack of self esteem
18. Self-destructive thoughts
19. Feeling distant from God, even though a Christian
20. Addictive behaviors

Together, these women discovered that many of these symptoms were secondary symptoms and the root of the problem was something else. The root was always some incident in their past involving interaction with an adult where they were used in some way for sexual stimulation of that adult. This interaction could have been a single incident or repeated ones. The incidences could range from verbal innuendos, exhibitionism, inappropriate touch to actual physical sexual abuse. Research shows that one in three women experience an incident like this before their eighteenth birthday.

The wounds in our heart from abuse, especially sexual abuse, establish patterns and behaviors in our lives that separate us from God and people. Satan uses the wounds resulting from incidences to enslave our souls and steal our joy. It is a battle for your soul, and God is diligently seeking you and wants you to be free of these symptoms. These wounds are not healed automatically when we become a Christian. We must work to identify the patterns and behaviors, acknowledge the root cause as a type of sexual abuse, and go through the process of healing them in partnership with God and others who have had similar experiences.

If you are reading this, and feel that you are suffering from some of these secondary characteristics, we urge you to consider the possibility that sexual abuse in some form in being used against you by Satan. We, the women in the first Wounded Heart group, have been praying for you and believe is it no accident that you are reading this material. "But I have already dealt with this." We all thought we had previously dealt with it too. However, through the course, we came to undestand how bound we really were by the past incidences. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit and each other's support we worked through the book. Now, all of us have come to an amazing place of peace, trust, and freedom in our inner selves and our relationships with others, particularly God. It is natural to ask, "Where was God when this was happening to me?" This course helps to answer that question.

If you have any questions, concerns or interests, please call Katie Moreau (678-9866), Zdenka (Yaka) Parmley (897-3002) or Edward Chandler (678-4411, ext. 162). They will offer you some further reading on this subject. We, the women in the first Wounded Heart group, are praying for you and are eager for you to join us in this healing experience.

If the Son makes you free, you will really be free.
-John 8:36 (paraphrased)

Wounded Heart brochures, explaining the program, are available in literature racks throughout the church.