Dressing the Invisible Wounds
By: Susan Deborah Schiller
June is National PTSD Awareness Month!
Everything changed when I met an ordinary farmer from Oregon.
It was at one of those advanced trainings that I found someone who knew someone. He was an ordinary farmer in Oregon. He understood sociopathic abuse very well and he began to teach me things I had never heard before. Most of all, he showed me that pure knowledge and having a PhD are no guarantee they can set a person free. There are some things that no amount of learning will heal.
My farmer friend began to teach me a whole different way to heal, independent of professional resources. He didn't give me a bunch of books to read, just the book of Galatians. He had nothing to sell me, nothing to profit by, no hidden motives. He never told me what to believe or how to think. He spoke with authority, but in a way that liberated and empowered me.
He assured me that freedom can come quickly and doesn't need to be a long, drawn out process. But that staying free is a whole different ball game and would be a lifetime journey.
It's been 12-years since I met the farmer. He's just an ordinary man. Husband for a lifetime, four grown sons who are happy, healthy, and responsible husbands, fathers, providers, and protectors themselves. He sings with his four brothers in a barbershop quartette. He's built his own airplane. He bales hay. And psychiatrists from all over the world send to him the patients they don't know what to do with. He doesn't charge anyone a penny. He draws a lot of criticism and he's hated… but he cares very little whether he's loved or hated, he's a free man.
Yes, there is a way to get your life back, to recover your soul. It's meant to be simple, even if you've been exposed to the vilest evil in the world and you've lived with a sociopath or two.
You might lose everything before you begin to really live, but your real life begins with a resurrection. Your healing won't cost you and arm and a leg. You can get your life back.
There are many effective ways to dress the invisible wounds of sociopathic abuse that won't cost you a penny. If you'd like to join me in exploring this alternative healing, you are welcome to join my mailing list in the link at the top right of this page.
I'm not a health professional. I'm simply a survivor who shares her story to offer hope to those who suffer the invisible wounds of sociopathic abuse.
In my next chapter I share a personal example of how my own healing is happening. Click here to read more.
My Full Story What I Believe Contact Me
With all my love,
Sue
Copyright © 2014 Team Family Online, All rights reserved. For reprint permission or for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Susan once again for educating us. This is indeed more educative than attending a Ph.d class. Knowledge is indeed power. I have read this artcle wht so much emotions flowing through but I am glad that the much needed answers were found in the word of God – Galatians and God is using a simple man, wiht no title to reach out to the hurt and hurting.
Thank you for sharing this.
Your gracious words, Yetunde, are balm to my soul – thanks!
You know, when I think of Jesus and how he was “just a carpenter” – and yet, in Matthew 7, the crowds are amazed to hear him speak, for he didn’t speak with the words of PhD but instead, he spoke with authority, as someone who walked and talked with God. When I met the farmer, he reminded me very much of Jesus 🙂
Thanks again, Yetunde… you are a woman of courage and huge destiny and I’m glad to have met you!
I love grace, and I believe we are in an age of grace, ever since Christ died on the Cross and brought us into His family… but there's been a mis-use of grace – a false grace. A grace that a pastor once used on me when I needed to separate myself from a sociopathic leader: He said to me, "Sue, why can't you have more grace?" He knew my life was persistently and consistently threatened…
Maybe what he didn't know was this Scripture:
18 TYPES OF PEOPLE TO WATCH OUT FOR IN THE CHURCH!!!
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1–5
I've been thinking about this a lot… "avoid" doesn't mean "blame" and it doesn't mean "hurt them back" … but it does mean you don't have to accept them as friends, partners, and spouses. You don't have to live with them in your life.
In fact, to remain silent is to be an accomplice to great evil.
What a Grace filled post! You are the physical embodiment of His Grace…every time I read more of your story, & the wisdom He has given you, I’m more convinced of it! On one hand I’m so sorry you had to go thru all you did, but at the same time I marvel at how God has used you for His Glory to be shared! And how fortunate for me to have stumbled into finding you! God is continuing to use you Susan! All for His Glory! Well done!
Oh Cyn, your lovely words I am treasuring in my heart. When I write “the hard things” I often cringe inwardly, to hit the publish button, for I’m so afraid of not speaking in “grace” and love. You have blessed me immensely – thank you so much!
There is so much truth here Susan and it is a powerful truth because you speak with experience. There are so many hurting people in this world who stay as victims because they are unable to find the help to set them free. But as you found there is freedom to be found in Jesus. And it costs nothing. You are a living testimony Susan and I love how you have reclaimed your life in His name.
There’s hardly a day that goes by that I’m not thinking of you, Carolyn, and your miraculous story of not only escaping crippling addictions, but so much more… but you didn’t just escape, you are thriving… and your legacy extends to your family and they are bearing the fruit of your love.
What I love most about your story is that your heart is so full that it overflows on the pages of your blog (and I’m sure many other places, too) and your story gives us all hope. You are shining in a brilliant way… with a gentleness that we don’t often get to see.
Your words here mean so much to me – thanks!
Susan
I love this phrase for the survivor who has decided "enough is enough." I often that's the moment God says finally, now we can move forward. We have so much power of choice in what we allow or disallow in our lives. I know it's easier said than done, but we really can choose to move forward and step from fearful pain to graceful recovery. Thank you for your words!
Hi Marvia,
It’s so good to see you again! I’m excited to read a little of your life story and I love the power of your words full of grace, beauty, and love. Thanks for encouraging me today! 🙂