Houses of Healing

“Participating in this course [Houses of Healing] has impacted my life dramatically. The program helped in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Coming into the course I had little expectation.  Now I would recommend this course because everybody deserves a chance to rehabilitate the way they think. Especially in this environment.”

Houses of Healing helped me look into some areas in my life that I wanted to bury and never attempt to look at. In reading HOH and being honest with myself I was able to not only bring them back up but to then work thru them. I’ve been doing time since the late 70’s and I’ve never felt freer in my life. I can’t praise the course enough.

Houses of Healing is now and will continue to be an essential component of our A.S.A.T (Alcohol & Substance Abuse Treatment) curriculum.  The material has been exceptionally well received.  Obviously it is no small feat to actively engage this generally resistant population. Houses of Healing not only captures their attention, it inspires the desire to challenge themselves.  A rare and refreshing phenomenon.

I would definitely recommend HOH to others because it cracks the hard shell of the self-created personas created to survive in the streets. It installs compassion or turns it back on when it’s turned off. I love this course.

I’ve been incarcerated for 23 years and over the years I’ve seen your book but never took the time to read it, or even open it up. I’m so glad I took this course. It has helped me in so many ways to find the peace I’ve been searching for my whole life. I got insight into my life in every chapter. I really didn’t know who I was or where I was going until this program.

For 16 years nothing else had deeply reached me. After sincerely working with Houses of Healing, the desire to reach out from my Core Self to improve the world I see around me has transformed the way I deal with some of the most oppressive situations.

I recommend this course to others because it not only teaches you how to interact with yourself, it also contains exercises that develop the skills you need. One of the things I didn’t appreciate in my life was when people said I should change, but then wouldn’t show me how. I’m not saying my behavior was anyone’s fault, but how do you ask a blind person to describe the color blue if they’ve never seen it? How can you? – they have no point of reference. Same philosophy applies when asking someone to think in new ways.

Our first Houses of Healing class graduated this past Friday. The change in these women was phenomenal and clearly recognized and acknowledged by them. Our participants have shared that this is the best of all classes they have taken and come have taken all that’s been offered by their facility.

Houses of Healing is the first program the Administration has accepted in 18 years. There are always more than 40 inmates on the waiting list. We have now worked with more than 300 inmates. Thanks for your incredible book and insight into the lives of those behind the wall.

I personally witnessed men, who like myself, were empowered to open up and begin a profound healing process on the emotional level. I’ve witnessed men who, after years of being locked in by denial and shame receive the empowerment to deal with highly charged issues… [Houses of Healing] is not only ‘cure’ but also ‘prevention.’

Thanks to Houses of Healing, I have discovered spirituality, love and forgiveness. It has truly changed my life, which is amazing, because up until now, nothing else has.

Houses of Healing taught me how to cope with things. I’ve gained peace from it, this peace that is unbelievable. Well, before if I needed money I would go into a supermarket and rob it. And today I have a business, I enjoy the business, it’s just totally different.

I read your book (HOH) and loved it. I was overwhelmed with a sense that you believe in us…in our ability to change our damaged selves into thoughtful, mature, compassionate people. You are a blessing to those of us who struggle with ourselves and try to find a more peaceful existence despite external turmoil. Thank you.

I have been facilitating Anger Management for both men and women at Riverhead Correctional, a maximum-security facility, for almost five years and have been working with inmates and former inmates for 26 years. I use Houses of Healing almost exclusively. Your book is life changing and has set countless lives on the path to recovery.

This past Monday I met with a few women whom I had taught earlier in the fall. It was their opinion that, without a doubt, the Houses of Healing Program is the most powerful program that is being offered to inmates, bar none. They felt that the material, the class discussions, and the personal writing of the program helped them peel off the layers of hurt and denial, giving them a window of understanding into the past and the tools and resilience to plan for the future. I can’t tell you how wonderful I felt to be a part of that.

The experience of facilitating the HOH program has been the highlight, thus far, in my journeys through the department. It renewed my faith in humanity more than just about anything else. Prison can be a horribly dark, evil place. The men are so scared, filled with self loathing, etc. To be able to shine a light there was incredibly rewarding. Your work continues to make such a profound difference in so many lives. How can anyone possibly thank you enough.

Thank you, my search is over, after two years of incarceration, three years of sobriety, and forty-two years of pain. I’ve finally found someone who looked into my heart and soul…. You identified the secreted anger, loss, pain, denial and causes of criminal behavior. You gave us a ‘How To’ manual on surviving prison. You gave us a practical and spiritual guide out of this nightmare time loop in hell.

This book has touched a part of my life I’ve been trying to forget. I cried so much when I was reading it… See, I got a beautiful little son who is everything to me. I realize I must do something about myself before I will ever be able to be half the father I wanted as a child… I would just like to say thank you for the help.

This letter is to say thank you because this program, without any question, saved my life. I still have a lot of time to do here, but you know what? It’s not important to me because one day I will walk out of here a new man, with a better outlook on life, but most importantly, a better look on myself. My life means something now. I may not be the man I want to be yet, but with this program I am not the man I used to be.