a page with links to Dutch-language sites

Want to do more with your Bible?
Use the Online Bible in any one of the various versions as provided by Importantia. The Online Bible is very useful for getting more acquainted with the Word of God, do Bible study, look up the meaning of the original words, etc. Try it out? At their site they offer an Online Bible Starters Pack for free!

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While on the Internet, you can also use the Bible gateway, with various translations and search function available.

The desiring God website with many materials (articles/sermons and even entire books) by John Piper is a very valuable resource for Christian counselors as well.
See, e.g. John Piper's sermon on Psalm 43.

The Life Model website by E. James (Jim) Wilder, Chris Coursey, et.al. is a very valuable resource for Christian counselors.
Or check out Chris & Jen Coursey's website: Thrive Today, with several valuable materials!

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Karl & Charlotte Lehman combine the Life Model and Theophostic Prayer Ministry in their practice and study, and have a lot of thorough materials about it on their site.

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On the site of New Hope Lawrence some good sermons can be found, where the Life Model approach is integrated in sound Biblical as well as therapeutic teaching on subjects like addiction.

The Association of Christian Counsellors (Europe / Great Britain)
The American Association of Christian Counselors

The approach of Helping by Blessing is currently taught by the Dutch foundation De Kracht van Vrede (The Power of Peace), with whom I am also affiliated.
Its website features an introduction on helping by blessing and information on the courses that are given in the Netherlands (only in Dutch).

Affirming ourselves, by Rev. M.P. Rose. Affirmation and encouragement are essential for healthy living. The ideas given in this article are applicable to affirming ourselves as well as affirming counselees or teaching them to affirm themselves and others.

Christine Carter (Berkeley UC), Within Families - The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, webdocument at the site of The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being.

Ministering to the abused, a brief but very insightful introduction by Melody Palm, in the Enrichment Journal, Febr. 2001.

Splinters from the Cross - a wonderful experience of someone who couldn’t get rid of the pain, suspecting she had been sexually abused, and yet not remembering the details.

Christian Recovery International
and its NACR Library, with a wealth of articles, Bible studies, etc.
Some arbitrary examples:

	Relationships and Recovery by Dale S. Ryan;
	Theology and Recovery by Dale S. Ryan;
	The F word - forgiveness and its imitations - An interview with David Augsburger, Professor of Pastoral Care at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of (a.o.) the excellent books: Caring enough to forgive and Caring enough to confront
	Beyond victimization - by Carmen Renee Berry (author of: Are you having fun yet? How to bring the art of play into your recovery) - specially recommended!
	On quick fixes - we all long for them, and we know they're not real...
	Seeing God in new ways, recovery from distorted images of God; see also the meditation on this subject
	A meditation on Grief by Dale & Juanita Ryan
From its sister-site Spiritual abuse recovery:
	Spiritual Abuse - An interview with Jeff VanVonderen - the coauthor of The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.

Pastoral Care Ministries (Leanne Payne)’s site (both in English, German and Dutch!).

John Fawcett, one of Leanne Payne’s co-workers, once gave a very good Précis of Joseph Pieper’s book On Hope. Hope, he says, has two enemies: presumption - the thought that we already have it all in our hands (there is nothing left to hope for, this reduces our expectations or alienates us from the broken reality we live in and thus stops us in our growth) and despair - the thought that we will never attain what we hope for. In real hope, we are “on the way”. (It once was published on the English PCM website, now it is hosted here.)

At the site of Mastering Life Ministries, I found:
A conversation with Leanne Payne - part 1 and part 2, by David Kyle Foster. In this interview, you meet Leanne as she is - vibrant, enthousiastic and focused on the heart of the matter.

Andrew Comiskey, an early trainee of Leanne Payne, has founded an organisation directed to ministring the Life of Jesus to the sexually and relationally broken: Desert Stream of which the Living Waters programme is a part.
Its website features various good articles, like:
Fathering and Being Fathered;
Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible.
An informative one-page interview with Andrew Comiskey, mentioning one of his books, is available via the IVP Press site at Gospelcom.net ( in .pdf format that can be read with Adobe Reader™).

The USA Navigators' Discipleship Journal has an enormeous wealth of encouraging christian articles, in a free searchable archive! An arbitrary selection:

	He Chose to be Vulnerable, by Paula Rinehart (Issue 102, Nov/Dec 1997)
	Living as God's beloved - an interview with author Brennan Manning, author of (a.o.): Abba's Child, on how to experience God's love (Issue 100)
	Why should I trust God? - Trusting God is possible only when we focus on His character, by Linda Dillow (Issue 103, Jan/Feb 1998)
	"Can I Really Trust God?" - What you absolutely need to know when life gets scary, by Jerry Bridges (Issue 130, July/Aug.2002)
	Believe it or not? - when it comes to trusting God, your actions speak louder than your words; with a good section on our identity in Christ; by Stacey S. Padrick (Issue 103, Jan/Feb 1998)
	Hope: anchoring your heart to a sure and certain future, by David W. Henderson; indeed: very hope-full (Issue 114, Nov/Dec 1999)
	Love: delighting in God's tenderness - we all need to hear and experience that we are loved, but how do we get there? With questions for further reflection and/or discussion with friends (Issue 114)
	His ways, our ways - trusting God to shape our lives; by David Hazard (Issue 95, Sept/Oct 1996)
	Friendship with God - Moving from Duty to Delight, by Michelle McKinney Hammond (Issue 114, Nov/Dec 1999)
	Humility: the Indispensable Virtue - Discover the key to growing in godliness; by William P. Farley (Issue 125, 2001)
	A Life Of Praise - Learn to express the pure joy of knowing God; by Stacey S. Padrick (Issue 108, Mar/Apr 1995) and Learning the Language of Praise - How to savor a new aspect of God’s character every day; by Bob Hostetler (Issue 115, Jan/Feb 2000)
	Freedom: when Cows Learn to Fly, by Anne Meskey Elhajoui (Issue 114, Nov/Dec 1999)
	Guidance for your journey - Real Christians stop and ask for directions, by Howard Baker (Issue 95, Sept/Oct 1996)
	Surrender - Embracing God's Purposes In Your Life - editorial introduction to the issue; by David Hazard (Issue 95, Sept/Oct 1996)
	The freedom of surrender - the key to joy and peace in your walk with God by Gary Thomas, based a.o. on the text: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Lk. 9:24) (Issue 95, Sept/Oct 1996)
	The listening side of prayer - Learn to listen to God in a world of incessant noise, by Stacy Padrick (Issue 95, Sep/Oct 1996)
	Tempted to grow - Why doesn't God take away your struggle with sin? by Rob Devens (Issue 120, Nov/Dec 2000)
	How to Build Trust - Earning the trust of those we disciple lays the foundation for influencing their lives, by Alan Andrews (Issue 125, 2001)
	The God Who Sings - Discover the Father's Delight in You; by Steve Beard (Issue 115, Jan/Feb 2000)
	The One Jesus Loves - when we draw near enough to hear Jesus' heartbeat, we will discover, as John did, that we are His beloved; by Brennan Manning (Issue 82, July/Aug 1994).
	Heavenly Purposes - Aligning your life with God's redemptive plan, by Jan Johnson (Issue 121, Jan./Febr. 2001).
	His Word, Your Words - Immersing yourself in Scripture breathes new life into your prayers, by Jan Johnson (Issue 137, Sept./Oct.2003).
	Our Determined & Relentless God - The mighty Ruler of the universe vigorously pursues your affection, by Jan Johnson (Issue 35, Sept./Oct.1986).
	Apprentice to the Master - Dallas Willard talks about what it means to live as Jesus' disciple every day, interview by Jan Johnson (Issue 107, Sept./Oct.1998).
	Prepare For A Change - How to create a life-changing lesson plan, by Jan Johnson (Issue 82, July/Aug.1994).
	Turning Your Thoughts into Prayers - How to make praying as natural as breathing, by Jan Johnson (Issue 94, July/Aug.1996).
	Listening through Scripture, by Jan Johnson (Issue 137, Sept./Oct.2003).

Pat McClendon, MSSW, CSW, has specialized herself in clinical social work, specially working with survivors of abuse who suffer from various forms of dissociation. At one of her websites you will find a number of relevant articles; a.o. Incest / Sexual Abuse of Children, The Mind-Body Connection - Somatization IS a complex phenomenon .... and Systems theory and incest/sexual abuse of children: focus on families and communities.

There are many good books out on the subjects of recovery from child abuse (incl. sexual abuse), dysfunctional behaviours and relatioships, and various related issues. The web features many booklists that may be useful in selecting the right one for you.
One of those is: the Golsco book list on dysfunctional relationships.
Another: The Team Market - here featuring a list of Alice Miller's books (select your own choice yourself).

Very worthwhile is the extensive (280 p.!) literature survey on Child Sexual Abuse by Kim McGregor: Abuse-focused Therapy For Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A Review of the Literature ().

SECASA: South East Centre Against Sexual Assault (Australia) has a lot of useful material for workers who help survivors of sexual violence. See especially the "Useful Articles" and "Counselling issues" pages and the articles referred from there.
On sexual abuse by female perpetrators, the subject of The 6th edition of "Téo's Schets" in the contact magazine of De Kracht van Vrede, there is the article: Breaking the Last Taboo: Child Sexual Abuse by Female Perpetrators, written by Renee Koonin (published in: Australian Social Work Jl, Vol. 30, No.2, May 1995) (Note: if the link leads you only to the homepage of SECASA, choose "workers", then "useful articles", then the title of this article).
This last article is also available in German / Es steht auch auf Deutsch zur Verfügung: Überwindung des letzten Tabus: Sexueller Missbrauch durch Frauen.

For men struggling with the aftermath of sexual abuse, or people who want to help them, Jim Hopper has a long but informative page at his extensive website: Sexual abuse of males: Prevalence, possible lasting effects, and resources.
On this, he refers to a scientific paper by David Lisak of the Univ. of Massachusetts at Boston, who has performed some interesting research: The Psychological impact of Sexual Abuse: Content Analysis of Interviews with Male Survivors as published in The Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1994, pp.525-548 (note: this is a big pdf file that can be read with Adobe Reader™). See also the index on Male Survivors at the Multiplicity, Abuse & Healing Network site.
On the site of Gift from Within, Angie Panos writes briefly about how difficult it is for men to acknowledge being assaulted and raped, in her article: Suffering in Silence: The Problem of Male Sexual Abuse.
On the same site, Daniel Jay Sonkin has published the first chapter of his book: Wounded Boys/Heroic Men: A Man's Guide to Recovering from Child Abuse (also on Daniel Jay Sonkin's own site).

Some other worthwhile sites on the issue of sexually abused males and their recovery, are:
Kali Munro's website and the MaleSurvivor website.
On Kali Munro's site you will find, a.o.:
Kali Munro 'Male Sexual Abuse Victims of Female Perpetrators: Society's Betrayal of Boys';
Kali Munro 'The Treatment Needs of Sexually Abused Men'.
See also: Kali Munro, Male Sexual Abuse Victims of Female Perpetrators: Society's Betrayal of Boys, at the Multiplicity, Abuse & Healing Network site.
On the MaleSurvivor website:
Ken Singer, Characteristics Observed In Male Sexual Abuse Victims';
Peter Dimock, 'Recovery for the Male Sexual Abuse Survivor: Critical Steps in the Healing Process';
Peter Dimock, Differences Between Adult Male and Female Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse';
Peter Dimock, 'Group Work With Adult Male Sexual Abuse Survivors' and:
Anonymous, Abuse: A Male View.
See also:
Andrew L. Kumin, 'A Dragon in Our Midst: The Sexual Abuse of Males', Moving Forward Newsjournal, Volume 1, Number 1, Nov-Dec., 1991.
Lisa Lipshires, Female Perpetration of Child Sexual Abuse: An Overview of the Problem, Moving Forward Newsjournal, Vol.2, Number 6, July/August 1994 (reproduction at the site of the Canadian Children's Rights Council; there's also one at Men's Confraternity's site).

CARE Inc. - a christian organisation for Consulting, Advocacy, Resources and Education in the area of helping the wounded (acc. Isaiah 61) - specially those who survived Satanic Ritual Abuse.
Among several others, they feature an article: The cost of true service to Christ, explaining how communication, connection and comfort are essential ingredients if we want to stand alongside a survivor of severe abuse.

SOSA (Survivors Of Spiritual Abuse); a site, dedicated to all those that have been abused by anyone in the name of a religion or spiritual belief.
They have a.o. a "Things to watch for" list with signs indicating that people or children may be survivors of such abuse.

Gift from Within is a worthwhile site with many informative articles relating to sexual abuse, posttraumatic stress, etc.; see e.g. Stress Responses in Sexual Trauma Victims and in Others Experiencing Overwhelming Events - Helpful Strategies for Self, Children, Supporters, and What Trauma Therapists Really Do, by Erwin R. Parson and Luerena K. Bannon.

Traumatology - a (secular) International Electronic Journal of Innovations in the Study of the Traumatization Process and Methods for Reducing or Eliminating Human Suffering.
A noteworthy article by Mooli Lahad (from Volume 6, Issue 4, December 2000): Darkness Over the Abyss: Supervising Crisis Intervention Teams Following Disaster

Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman have worked in Rwanda to foster healing and reconciliation. They've set up a (secular) training programme under the heading: Four Elements of Healing - through Connection and Understanding.
More detailed articles about their approach are given as well:
(1) Healing through Writing or Drawing and Empathic Responding (an outline is also available);
(2) Understanding Basic Psychological Needs;
(3) The Origins of Genocide and Mass Killing (+ outline);
(4a) Psychological Trauma (+ outline);
(4b) Creating Paths to Healing (+ outline).

An interesting suggestion for a way to investigate what is at the roots of our behaviour is given by Rob Jackson of PureIntimacy.org in: Beneath the Surface of Our Behavior - The Iceberg Method to Understanding Intimacy Disorder (mind to look at the subsequent parts, or choose the print version - whole article!).
On the same site, by Steven Earll: Family Trauma and Addictions: Why Do People Become Addicts? (or the print version).

The Ten Commandments of dysfunctional families, on the Ministry Health site, give (though formulated a bit cynically) a good impression of what some of us have grown up with...

On self injury or self-harm (Dutch: "zelfbeschadiging" of "automutilatie"), one of the most informative sites that I have encountered is: The Self Injury site by Deb Martinson.
On this issue, you may also want to check out: Self-inflicted violence: helping those who hurt themselves by Tracy Alderman, Ph.D.
A particularly insightful article on it is:
Pamela J. Deiter, Sarah S. Nicholls & Laurie Anne Pearlman, 'Self-Injury and Self Capacities: Assisting an Individual in Crisis', Jl. of Clinical Psychology, Vol.56, Nr.9, 2000, p.1173-91 ().

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See also the interview with Sharon K. Farber on self injury and self mutilation in relation to eating disorders.

Many survivors of abuse recognize symptoms of what has been labeled Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). On this, and the role of what he calls 'traumatic amnesia', the renowned Prof. Bessel van der Kolk has written a very clear article in the Psychiatric Times: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Memory This article very clearly defies the views (promoted by perpetrators) that deny the existence of 'traumatic amnesia' or 'repressed memories' (calling it by names such as 'false memory syndrome').
Several people and organisations have made inventories of scientific articles on PTSD that are available on the web. One such list is maintained by Stichting (Foundation) Empty Memories: Online www articles related to psychological trauma, dissociative phenomena, and the culture of the mind; another by Multiplicity, Abuse & Healing (MAH): Articles PTSD & Trauma, there is one by the National Center for PTSD: Online documents and David Baldwin's Trauma Information site articles.
You may also want to check out Frank M. Ochberg's article on Posttraumatic Therapy (also available as a .pdf file) - one of the list of articles on PTSD on the earlier mentioned site of Gift From Within.
And: B.D. Perry, Incubated in Terror: Neurodevelopmental Factors in the 'Cycle of Violence'; in: J. Osofsky (Ed.), Children, Youth and Violence: The Search for Solutions, Guilford Press, New York, 1997; pp 124-148.

Often traumatized people are bound to their perpetrators, or so it seems. There are several factors contributing to this phenomenon. One of them, which deserves being known more widespread, is what is called the Stockholm Syndrome, here described briefly by Frank Ochberg on the Gift from Within site.

The site of The Natural Child is devoted to fostering what they see as natural forms of parenting. Some of their material is useful in pastoral care as well, like Compassionate communication: the language of the Jackal vs that of the Giraffe by Marshall B. Rosenberg.

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The Freedom Resource provides a.o. a varied & extensive list of (links to) Inner Healing / Counseling / Deliverance ministries. Useful to see the variety of help available and connect with some of them!

Many more links can, a.o., be found in the various articles at this site.
See also at Shoshanna weblinks on healing & recovery.

I encourage you wholeheartedly to send me any of your favorite links, comments, 'dead links' encountered here, or other suggestions that might be of interest to Christian counselors.