Resources:
Healing From Emotional, Verbal,
Physical, & Spiritual Abuse
Find Focus on the Family broadcasts, best-in-class books,
referral recommendations, and more.
Castaway Kid by Rob Mitchell
As an orphan, Mitchell grew up alongside kids who were “co-survivors” rather than friends. Becoming a Christian as a teen, he found what he was looking for: home and family in a relationship with God.
Changes That Heal by Dr. Henry Cloud
“The Four Shifts That Make Everything Better … And That Anyone Can Do”
Complete Guide to Baby & Child Care: From Pre-Birth Through the Teen Years by Focus on the Family
Learn how to meet children’s specific needs and create an environment where they can thrive. In addition to basic information on child-rearing, chapters also address neglect and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
The Controlling Husband: What Every Woman Needs to Know by Dr. Ron Welch
For situations where both spouses are willing to address the issue of a husband’s control, Welch offers insights and tools to help find healing for a hopeful future.
The Emotionally Destructive Relationship by Leslie Vernick
Vernick addresses the devastating effects of emotional and verbal abuse. She offers biblically based hope for recognizing abuse, stopping it, and surviving its impact through God’s love.
Finding Home: An Imperfect Path to Faith and Family by Jim Daly
Finding Home paints a powerful picture of God’s relentless love and how the Lord can redeem the broken lives of children who’ve suffered abandonment, abuse, and alcoholism. Daly recounts his harrowing childhood—and he tells of a God who allowed him enough glimpses of grace to know he wanted more from life.
Healing the Scars of Emotional Abuse by Gregory L. Jantz, Ph.D.
Whether caused by words, actions, or indifference, emotional abuse can be very damaging. For those who’ve been abused, Jantz shares strategies and insights from Scripture to overcome the past and rebuild a positive self-image.
Love Must Be Tough: New Hope for Marriages in Crisis by Dr. James Dobson
This book offers hope for troubled or abusive marriages, victims of infidelity, and others on the brink of divorce.
Mending the Soul: Understanding and Healing Abuse
In this well-researched, biblically based resource, Tracy surveys the nature and effects of physical, verbal, sexual, and spiritual abuse—as well as strategies for prevention and recovery.
Mending the Soul, Student Edition by Steven Tracy and Celestia Tracy
Abused or abandoned teens often feel alone and condemned to a life of risky behavior and unhealthy relationships. The Tracys share how to recognize harmful people and patterns in order to live in hope and wholeness.
No More Bullies: For Those Who Wound or Are Wounded by Frank Peretti
Peretti describes the emotional pain and physical abuse he endured at the hands of classmates—and he encourages others who’ve been hurt. He also counsels those who have wounded others, and he advises parents and teachers about preventing bullying.
Rich in Love: When God Rescues Messy People by Irene Garcia
Married for 45 years and counting, the Garcias vulnerably share their story of teen pregnancy and marriage, alcoholism and abuse. Forgiveness and healing in Christ led them to a new season that has included either birthing, fostering, or adopting 32 children.
Shame Lifter by Marilyn Hontz
“Replacing Your Fears and Tears With Forgiveness, Truth, and Hope”
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen
“Recognizing & Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church”
Allowing God to Heal My Messy Marriage (Domingo and Irene Garcia)
The Garcias married in their teens with a baby already on the way. For the next 10 years, Domingo’s drinking and abuse embittered Irene to the point of seeking a divorce. But when they each encountered God’s forgiveness and embraced a fresh start, they discovered hope that their marriage might actually work. Now married for 47 years (in 2015), the Garcias share how they changed destructive patterns and embraced God’s plan for their marriage.
Finding Freedom From Destructive Relationships (Leslie Vernick)
Vernick shares about her own difficult relationship with her mother and offers insights to help others recognize and deal with abusive relationships.
Finding Hope in the Midst of Domestic Violence (Doris Rivera-Black)
Rivera-Black shares her testimony of a five-year-long marriage of irrational jealousy, controlling behavior, verbal abuse, psychological manipulation, and sexual assault. Due to guilt over a failed first marriage, she felt compelled to forgive her abuser and try to save her marriage. But when her daughter shared that she feared for her mother’s safety, Rivera-Black took action to separate. Her husband kidnapped her at gunpoint, planning to kill her. She escaped, gave her life to Christ, learned to forgive her abuser, and now offers help and hope to other victims of domestic violence.
Forgiving My Father (David Meece)
Meece tells the moving story of his painful past, and his struggles to forgive his father and find God’s healing.
Healing Childhood Traumas (Stephanie Fast)
Fast describes the horrors of her life as a mixed-blood orphan in Korea after the Korean War—and of her rescue by a World Vision worker who placed her in their orphanage. She relates her adoption by missionaries, her salvation at age 15, and her emotional and spiritual healing process, including her struggle with anger and hatred, both toward herself and toward Korean people. Fast encourages us not to rush God’s timing and purpose during the healing process.
My Journey to Faith and Family (Jim Daly)
Daly recounts his troubled childhood—sharing how those turbulent years helped shape the man he is today and prepared him to reach out to families around the world as president of Focus on the Family.
Reclaiming Hope and Safety in a Destructive Marriage (Leslie Vernick)
Sharing from her own life experience and years of counseling, Vernick explains how to identify types of abusive relationships that women, in particular, may experience—and how to find safety and healing.
Transformed: Overcoming My Dark Past (Marilyn Williams)
Williams suffered sexual abuse at the hands of family from an early age. She confided in a high school counselor, which led to the prosecution of her father—but he was returned to the home. Her college dreams died, and she became socially phobic, eventually displaying multiple personality disorder. But she married a good man, and God restored her peace.
Unveiling the Heart of an Abandoned Child (Rob Mitchell)
When Mitchell was 3, his mother abandoned him at an orphanage. He spent the next 14 years enduring heartache, shame, loneliness, and constant physical abuse. But his desperation eventually turned to hope when he surrendered his life to Jesus.
Focus on the Family Counseling Consultation Line
If you need someone to talk to, Focus on the Family offers a free phone counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. Call 1-855-771-HELP (4357), Monday through Friday, 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM (MT).
Focus on the Family’s Christian Counselor Network
Search for licensed Christian counselors in your area.
Life Skills International
This organization offers a program to stop domestic violence by bringing the perpetrator to accountability and providing skills for both the batterer and the victim
Mercy Multiplied
This biblically based organization offers hope and healing for young women seeking freedom from life-controlling problems, such as depression, drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, and physical and sexual abuse.
National Council on Child Abuse and Family Violence
This group works to prevent intergenerational family violence by bringing together community and national stakeholders in both volunteer and professional positions.
Open Hearts Ministry, Inc.
This Christian organization comes alongside those who’ve been abused to help them find healing and wholeness in Christ.
Parents Anonymous, Inc.
This international organization is committed to the prevention and treatment of child abuse.
Referrals to secular organizations dealing with specialized areas of knowledge shouldn’t be read as an indication that their stances necessarily align with Focus on the Family’s perspective in all areas.
