From Janelle a 49 year old female
I am 49 years
old and I have been dealing with ritual abuse issues all of my life. In recent
years I have pursued secular and Christian counseling as well as medical intervention without much success. Everything came
crashing in on me 3 years ago and I eventually had to be hospitalized. After I was dismissed from the hospital, I continued
counseling for another nine months without much progress, although it was during this time that I became aware that I was
dissociative.
When I decided that it was time
to return home, (I had been living with my sister in Oklahoma for over a year) Dr. Stewart (psychiatrist) referred me to Dr.
Musgrave who had begun to see people in Fayetteville once a week. After talking to him on the phone, he gave me hope that
there might be real help for me through Gentle Shepherd Ministries and the prayer ministry he was doing there. My first visit was in January, 2003, and my life has gone from darkness to light in a year! Dr. Musgrave has been able to help me face the fears and trauma that had ruled my life and receive so much
healing during this time.
When he suggested that a week of
intensive work in Idaho with Steve Oglevie, could equal a year of weekly counseling or prayer ministry, my husband and I decided
it would be worth a try. He was right, the process that Steve uses helps to open
doors that I didn’t think could be opened and faced. Upon returning home
from Idaho, in August, my husband and others could tell right away that it had been a huge success. The follow up work with
Dr. Musgrave has been so much easier and I am gaining more and more freedom and healing even though I am only seeing him occasionally
now. I am beginning to enjoy life in a way that I’ve never been able to
before. I am so thankful for Gentle Shepherd Ministries and Dr. Musgrave for
offering hope, help and healing for people like me who have lost all hope.
I am 43 years old and would describe my life as consisting mostly of suffering and failure. To even begin to describe my problems
would take more words than this short narrative can afford – but they generally were in the areas of drug addiction,
inability to engage in intimate relationships, and one professional failure after another.
Since childhood I have sought help through number of secular and Christian counseling professionals, as
well as through numerous seminars, books, movements, and life changes of all sorts. Notably, none of these efforts provided
either short-term relief or long term change in my life situation.
I first became involved with Dr.
Musgrave in September 2001 after being referred by a pastor friend. I should state at the outset that I am trained and work
highly technical fields (trained in medicine and I work now as a pilot). I am also very analytical, critical, skeptical, and
untrusting by nature. Despite how unbelievable and even ridiculous Dr. Musgrave's techniques seemed at the time, he struck
me as credible, and it was clear he was sincere in his care for me. We worked together for over a year and a half, sometimes
meeting once a month, sometimes not a tall, but more frequently talking by phone and email. Nothing much happened therapeutically
during this time, in fact my life situation got worse and I went on to become highly suicidal during that time. However, I
also came to trust Dr. Musgrave.
When I was at my lowest, Dr. Musgrave
suggested that perhaps my problems were the result of things that were done to me as a child. I think he probably diagnosed
me in our first couple of meetings, but he wisely didn’t make any suggestions of this nature to me.
I did have a “difficult
childhood”, but I also had no memory of any outright abuse,– so that was a big hurdle. But I was now in severe
distress, and it was getting worse. As my life really became unbearable in the beginning of 2003 and Dr. Musgrave suggested
that I go for a week of intensive counseling work in Idaho – something I agreed to as a last ditch effort, yet I held
firm to my plans to commit suicide “if it didn’t work”.
Fortunately, my sessions in Idaho
in April of 2003 with Steve Oglvie and Dr. Jim did “work”. I was able to learn of severe abuse in my childhood
and to jump-start my healing process. I like to say that I gained my freedom and got my life back. The changes were instant
and dramatic. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to describe the change as miraculous.
Less that 2 months after returning
from Idaho I had my lifelong dream of flying for a relief organization in Africa come true (a group I’d been fired from
three years earlier) Today I am the Chief Pilot for this group in the Congo, and the changes in my inner life from working
with Dr. Musgrave have proven to be lasting and permanent.