Poetic therapy

Jose Paul Corona

At 37 Huntington Beach resident Julie Martin has been through a

lot.

She can’t even remember it all, but the events of her childhood

have shaped her life.

A victim of abuse, Martin has spent years struggling to overcome

her past. Now she’s sharing her pain and her healing process with the

world. She has written a book called “Healing From Childhood Abuse.”

It is a collection of poetry that chronicles the emotional and

physical abuse that she has gone through.

She’s reaching out to others who, like her, have lived through and

with abuse. In the process she’s helping her herself heal from the

pain.

The cover of her self-published book, which can be found in Barnes

& Noble Bookseller and Borders Books, depicts childlike drawings.

They are examples of the drawings that young children who have been

abused make to try and help people understand how they feel.

Her book contains more than 50 poems with such titles as “Grace

of God,” “Insanity” and “Love Turned to Hate.”

They were all written in a two-month period.

Martin never intended on being on author, she said -- she’s a

paralegal. But one day the poems just came pouring out of her and she

couldn’t stop herself from writing them, she said.

After years of living with depression and not being able to trust

anyone, Martin realized that she had been severely abused as a child.

She visited more than 9 therapists, but it wasn’t until four years

ago that her therapist finally diagnosed her with dissociative

disorder.

That’s when it all began to make sense, she said.

Although she had remembered some of the emotional and physical

abuse that she had suffered, she’d blocked much of it out, they told

her.

Sometimes that is the only way for a child to go on, she said.

“It’s a creative way to cope.”

Writing the book was its own sort of therapy, Martin said.

“I was in a lot of darkness and in a lot of pain,” she said,

“That’s what has been in me.”

Her life wasn’t much of a life before she came to terms with her

abuse and her feelings, she said

She suffered from anxiety, depression and mood swings.

And even though it’s still difficult for her to talk about her

past, she’s doing her best to deal with it and it has made her a

stronger person.

“You have to get out of denial,” Martin says matter-of-factly,

“You have to feel your feelings. Feel it, even if it hurts.”

Those feelings may be painful, but it’s the only way, she said.

“Now I’m much more conscious [of my pain] because of my therapy,”

she says.

She hopes that by writing this book and by sharing her harrowing

experiences, others will be able to confront their own painful

memories and pick up the pieces.

Facing those feelings head on will be a difficult process at

first, she warns, but it’s the first step toward recovery.

“Its like you’re tossed into the past and living in the present,”

she said of her experience in confronting her own abusive past.

Along with her weekly three-hour therapy sessions, Martin runs as

often as possible. It helps her relieve stress, she said.

“I’m becoming more free,” she says proudly, “I have a voice now.”

To learn more about and to purchase Martin’s book Healing From

Childhood abuse you can logon to Martin’s Web site

www.jmmiraclesystempress.com