When I was in incest recovery, living in a women’s shelter, married to my third abuser, suicidal, fumbling my way in the dark. I thought, ‘If only I had a Lamplighter, someone who would show me the way.’
The dream of the
Lamplighter Movement was born.
Excerpt from my book
REPAIR Your Life:
A Program for Recovery from
Incest & Childhood Sexual Abuse
My program, REPAIR, is the result of several years of note-taking, journalizing, meditation, and piecing together parts of my own life, as well as conversations with other incest survivors across the country. As I worked my way through recovery, I kept notes in anticipation that someday what I was learning might help others. When I began this book, I re-read my own first-person account, Let Me Hurt You and Don’t Cry Out, to re-walk the path I had taken. I never realized at the time how blessed I was, for that path, although rugged, was straight, and in retrospect provided me with invaluable help to create this program
When I began the outline for the program, I knew that it cried out for a title that aptly described what needed to be done. Repair was the first word that came to my mind. It literally means to restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; to restore to a sound or healthy state. What better word describes our goal in the case of childhood sexual abuse?
To order your copy of REPAIR, CLICK HERE
Ms. Marjorie McKinnon, the founder of The Lamplighter Movement and author of REPAIR Your Life: A Program for Recovery from Incest & Childhood Sexual Abuse, REPAIR For Kids, REPAIR For Toddlers and It’s Your Choice! Decisions That Will Change Your Life, is available for speaking engagements. Please contact her for details at margie@thelamplighters.org.
Marjorie was voted in as a board member for the foundation Let Go, Let Peace Come In. Please go to www.letgoletpeacecomein.org if you haven’t seen their website. They are asking for survivors to email them their photo and a caption or just their story. Part of their mission statement is “we will raise money for a non-profit fund to provide the financial assistance necessary to start survivors of childhood sexual abuse on the path to recovery, ‘one’ survivor at a time.”
Credentials:
- An incest survivor (by her father who admitted to it when she was in her mid-thirties, saying, “I want to talk to you about the incest relationship I had with you when you were a young girl.” When he saw the look on her face he added, “A lot of fathers and daughters have this kind of relationship. It’s really quite common. They do it in the Appalachian district all the time.”)
- The survivor of a long trail of domestic violence
- The survivor of numerous suicide attempts
- The survivor of two nervous breakdowns and time spent in psychiatric wards
- The mother of three childhood sexual abuse victims, two sexually molested by an ex-husband at the ages of four and five (to which he admitted shortly before his death, saying it was their fault) , one raped at gunpoint while she worked at a fast food
- Spent time in a women’s shelter in the Los Angeles area as a sexually, physically, mentally and emotionally battered wife
- Spent four and a half years in recovery, during which time she wrote about her experience and developed and utilized innovative techniques to help her on her journey
- Spent four years attending weekly meetings of Alternatives to Domestic Violence in the Los Angeles area
- Worked a rigorous and honest Twelve Step Program utilizing both Incest Survivors Anonymous and Co-Dependents Anonymous
- Spent three years developing and researching REPAIR: A Program for Recovery from Incest & Childhood Sexual Abuse, including interviewing other victims across the country
- Taught REPAIR seminars in the Los Angeles area
- An interview on her experience was taped for a national television network and aired in December of 1998
- Author of fourteen books, five of them on the subject of childhood sexual abuse.
- Is currently speaking nationwide on both domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse
- Founded The Lamplighter Movement, a rapidly growing international movement for recovery from incest and childhood sexual abuse. As of August, 2011 there are 80 Lamplighter chapters in thirteen countries
- Author of the REPAIR series: REPAIR Your Life: A Program for Recovery from Incest & Childhood Sexual Abuse , REPAIR For Kids, and REPAIR For Toddlers. Please see the many five star reviews on both books on amazon.com.
- It’s Your Choice! Decisions That Will Change Your Life was released in 2010 and REPAIR For Teens will be released before the end of 2011.
- Is a member of the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence
- Is a member of the Verde Valley Domestic Violence Task Force
- Is on the Board of Directors for Let Go, Let Peace Come In at www.letgoletpeacecomein.org.
- Is on the Advisory Board for Dream Catchers for Abused Children at www.dreamcatchersfor abused children.co
Please email your comments to margie@thelamplighters.org
My husband Tom McKinnon, who is also my illustrator,
and I, with friends at Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, Az,
15 minutes from our house. Living near Sedona was a
long time dream of mine. (Once you become REPAIRed,
find a dream, then step into it.)
