Retraumatised by Towards Healing

We should salute Therase Lawless for not just surviving church sexual abuse but flourishing to the point of bringing up two daughters and graduating from university with a PhD no less (“How the church forced me to relive my abuse”, March 18-24). What she has described in psychological terms is nothing less than desecration, the breaking of her will and the violation of her heart’s desires. Her experience with Towards Healing underlined how any assessment and treatment should be arranged and funded at arm’s length from the offending institution, the Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst in this instance. Her pain cannot be taken away but hopefully she will continue to find post-traumatic growth that would not have been available to her in any other way.

– Mark Porter, New Lambton, NSW