EVENTS:
Linda will be launching her latest book, The Girl Among Thorns, with book signings in St. Louis, MO in June 2010, at ICRS.
Linda will be presenting a workshop at the National Conference of the American Association of Christian Counseling in September (Workshop on running a support ministry for survivors of abuse and neglect.)
Linda and her husband Michael were invited to the Benjamin Franklin Awards ceremony in NY to receive the Benjamin Franklin Silver Finalist Award for Redeeming Our Treasures (in 2 categories, Self-Help and Psychology).
Linda and Michael, her husband of 24 years.
Linda Settles wrote Redeeming Our Treasures during an especially difficult time in her life. It was at that time that she took out her old journal and began to take a new look at what she had written. It was not the first time she had done so, but it was the first time in seven years. It was at that point that Linda realized that profound changes had taken place in her heart since her last journal entry. The journal grew from 140 pages to over 300 pages--pages filled with insights gleaned from her healing journey; insights about forgiveness, hope, reconciliation, and letting go. By the time Redeeming Our Treasures got to press, Linda felt her roots go deep--becoming grounded in the truths that had freed her from the oppression of her father's depravity and her own desperate coping mechanisms. She was ready to launch, not only a book, but a lifetime of serving others by reaching out to survivors of abuse and neglect.
Other books followed and eventually an entire support ministry complete with ongoing 'big group meetings' and 'treasure studies' grew out of it. Linda travels around the United States speaking and training lay facilitators how to safely and effectively operate a support group for hurting people.
The girl who grew up confined to her father's house, living to protect her loved ones and suffering the agony of sexual abuse, is going out strong--a witness to the power and purpose of a Redeemer God whose greatest desire is to help us Redeem Our Treasures. Linda hopes to travel internationally in the near future, taking her message to women who have been trapped in the sex slave industry. Her motto:
'There is no life so damaged, no soul so stained, that God would disdain to die for it' needs to be heard by the millions of suffering women around the world. Her method of supporting, teaching, and relieving their suffering needs to be shared in the U.S. and abroad.
Redeeming Our Treasures/Finding Joy in the Shadows of an Abusive Past was awarded the Silver Living Now Award (2010) and proudly bears the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award emblem. It was a finalist, also, for the prestidgeous 2010 Book of the Year Award (Foreward Magazine).
Linda's latest book, The Girl Among Thorns, is a true life story of growing up abused, neglected, and emotionally abandoned. Written in an easy to read style that helps the reader get through the difficult message, this book answers a multitude of questions about child abuse. One reader whose proffesion is an investigator of crimes against children (government), made the statement that he learned more about the experiences of the abused child from reading Girl Among Thorns than he learned earning his Ph.D. in psychology.
Interviews that ask the difficult questions are welcomed by Linda as she passionately pursues her mission of shattering the silence that fosters childhood sexual trauma.
She may be reached at: Linda@RedeemingOurTreasures.com