SPRING MINISTRIES’ VISION

Spring Ministries challenges oppression and injustice in the fields of sexual abuse and mental health by:

• Raising awareness
• Restoring individual lives
• Educating and equipping the church to bring good news.

PREVALENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Sexual abuse is far more widespread than society admits. Extensive research over the last 30 years consistently indicates that around 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are abused in childhood.  Furthermore, 27% of women will be sexually assaulted in adulthood.  The figures are higher in certain populations, such as psychiatric patients, addicts and the prison population.

IMPACT OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Sexual abuse leads a devastating legacy but because one of its central impacts is shame, people often do their best to hide both the cause and its effects.  The most common impacts are:

• a sense of being ‘damaged goods’
• guilt and shame
• fear and phobias
• difficulties with trust, boundaries, authority and intimate relationships
• sexual problems
• chronic revictimisation and/or powerlessness
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• other mental health problems including depression, anxiety, sleep and dissociative disorders
• addictions including drug, alcohol and food
• self-harm and suicidality
• chronic medically unexplained pain
• low self-esteem
• emotional problems (“too much” or “too little”)

ORGANISED OR RITUAL ABUSE

Spring Ministries’ specific expertise is the extreme end of the spectrum of sexual abuse, including ‘organised’ or ‘network’ abuse and ritual or satanic ritual abuse.

People with this background rarely present with a coherent narrative of their life which includes such abuse. Instead they may present as high-functioning church members, sometimes with brilliant careers, who may at some point suffer a sudden and debilitating form of mental breakdown, following which many of the symptoms listed opposite may manifest.

Alternatively survivors of extreme abuse may present with complex pastoral needs which do not respond to ongoing support or prayer ministry — they may be ‘triggered’ by much of what takes place within a church setting, especially physical contact with people, being the focus of attention, sacraments such as baptism and communion, and symbols of the cross or references to blood. In many cases this is interpreted as being a sign of some form of demonic oppression, and prayer ministry or deliverance is attempted, only for the symptoms to deteriorate. Often the cause is in fact long term, extreme, sadistic abuse during childhood which may in some cases have involved pseudo-Christian rituals. In other cases the abuse may have been perpetrated by clergy or leaders within a church setting.

Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge around organised or ritual abuse can often lead to inappropriate support or help being offered. There is a forced dichotomy —this is either a spiritual issue or a psychological one. The reality is that it is both, and just as mental health professionals such as counsellors need to bear in mind the spiritual impact on survivors of such abuse, so too do churches need to have an awareness of the psychological impact. Trauma causes actual changes in the hardwiring of the brain which can take many years to repair. Support within a church context for the recovery process, including prayer as well as pastoral and practical support, can make all the difference to whether or not a trauma survivor becomes who God intended them to be.

DISSOCIATION

Dissociation is a natural, God-given psychological defence mechanism which helps people survive traumatic experiences. disorders occur when children experience repeated episodes of dissociation, for example as a result of long-term sexual abuse.

Dissociation produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity and means that they can struggle to identify with or even remember the abuse that they suffered. of being able to process it and work it through to healing, they may suffer amnesia for the events, and experience post traumatic stress and many other destabilising and devastating physical and emotional symptoms.

Dissociation is not a choice — it is an automatic process which kicks in outside of  conscious awareness. In no way is it a sign of weakness, failure or poor choices.

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER

Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) is a fairly common consequence of chronic childhood maltreatment, principally sexual or physical abuse which begins before the age of 3 and continues for many years. Research places its prevalence at between 1% and 3% of the general population —  that is, between 650,000 and 1.85 million people in the UK. It develops as a survival strategy for overwhelming, repeated trauma in the context of a disturbed relationship between the child and his/her main caregiver (usually a parent).

DID is not about ‘multiple personalities’ — it is about surviving otherwise unendurable trauma by segregating parts of the mind during abuse in order to survive both psychologically and physically.  The cost of such a creative coping mechanism, however, is long-term psychological dysfunction including the lack of a sense of a coherent identity, emotional flooding or emotional disconnection (“too much” or “too little”), difficulties in relationships, and all of the symptoms of post traumatic stress such as nightmare and sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, chronic anxiety, and “flashbacks”.  DID can be overwhelming and crippling, but recovery and healing are possible.

WHAT HELPS - WHAT DOESN’T

With the correct treatment, the prognosis for DID is good; in fact it is better than most other major mental health conditions.

What is helpful according to research is long-term (5+ years), one-to-one relational psychotherapy which faces the original trauma alongside learning skills to manage dissociation.  Also essential is support and safety in the survivor’s current-day environment.

What is not helpful is pressure to “get better” without dealing with the original, dissociated trauma; blaming or scapegoating the survivor; disbelief; a focus on the demonic; a premature emphasis on forgiveness; or any form of pressure, implied or otherwise, for a “quick fix”.

The most helpful support that can be offered to a trauma survivor is long-term, unconditional support both practically and emotionally; to assist them in accessing appropriate professional services; and to restore to them a sense of dignity by treating them as a human being made in the image of God.

HOW WE CAN HELP

We provide training and support to church leadership and pastoral teams on helping people recover from the trauma of childhood sexual abuse.

We run a training day from our base in Huntingdon called ‘Helping to Heal - supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse’ (click here), and we can also provide in-house bespoke training.

Please note that we do not advise on current child protection issues.

ABOUT SPRING MINISTRIES

As well as its own activities, Spring Ministries runs alongside two others projects under the umbrella organisation START (Survivors Trauma and Abuse Recovery Trust, registered charity number 1143737, www.start-online.org.uk).  These projects are PODS and TASC. Click here for more information.

Spring Ministries is part of Plumbline Ministries www.plumbline.org.uk and is headed up by Rob and Carolyn Spring of Huntingdonshire Community Church www.hccuk.org.

Carolyn is a freelance writer and trainer and has been published in a range of publications.  She was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder several years ago, but prior to this she worked for many years within Children’s Social Care with abused children.

Rob has been married to Carolyn since 2001.  He runs the PODS helpline and is training as a counsellor.  His background is in secondary education, adult training and Children’s Social Care.