Ministry Profile

Newsletters/Promotions

HEALING CONNECTION NEWSLETTER
November 2003

Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, (www.trinitybaptist.org) will be selling the Healing Connection CDs as a fundraiser for Alpha Home, a remarkably effective treatment center for alcoholic women.

Alpha Home has been a ministry of Trinity since 1966 when members identified this important and often neglected need. Alpha Home treats an average of 350 women each year and offers a wide variety of support services to their 800 children and family members.

The mission of Alpha Home (www.alphahome.org) is to provide spiritually based substance abuse treatment and support to women and their families in order to prepare them to become more productive members of society. Alpha has a remarkable success rate - over 70% of the residential clients report continued abstinence. Alpha deals with far more than just the substance abuse. While in treatment these women will get help to heal old wounds, learn about appropriate parenting, develop self-sufficiency, as well as improve health and works skills. Alpha helps them work toward family reunification.

Alpha Home has two facilities located in the North Central area of San Antonio. The 300 Mulberry site houses 30 women, usually for a 90-day course of impatient treatment. The 814 Camden site houses 16 inpatients and provides approximately 40 women with outpatient counseling services

You can support Alpha Home by purchasing a Healing Connection Prayer CD in the Trinity Baptist Church gym before or after services on November 2nd, 9th, or 16th; or you can order online. If you order online and want a donation made to the Alpha Home, just write the word ALPHA next to your first name on the order form found in this Healing Connection web site.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL
As an introductory holiday special, Healing Connection Ministries is offering the CD at drastic discounts.

They will make great Christmas gifts and would be good to have on hand to give to friends or loved ones who may become ill or face difficulties.

The 70-minute Healing Connection CD sells for $15.

For a limited time you can get 5 for $55, or 12 for $100.

Click here to order.

DENVER PSYCHOTHERAPY CONFERENCE

In September, Healing Connection Ministries had an exhibit at the 2003 International EMDR Conference in Denver, Colorado. Hundreds of EMDR therapists listened to and purchased the CD. Many expressed their pleasure that there was now a resource to unite the religious EMDR community, and to develop resources to specifically address the spiritual needs of Christian patients.

Healing Connection Ministries strives to help all therapists understand that religious faith, no matter how fragile, may be the only resource that some patients have ever had to rely on. Addressing spiritual issues and building on that faith can enhance therapy outcomes. Therapists who avoid addressing these faith issues can sabotage treatment.

Therapists learned that the Healing Connection Prayer CD could:

• Help establish a safe place
• Facilitate resource development
• Assist in establishing self-control skills
• Provide closure to otherwise incomplete sessions
• Offer relief for stress in-between sessions
• Improve sleep and inspires resourceful dreams
• Calm during panic attacks or stress
• Activate the body's natural healing, as well as the spiritual healing of prayer.
• Tap the patient's own spiritual strengths and resources
• Allow you to nurture your patients spiritually, without being a religious scholar, even if you don't share your patient's beliefs
• Use spiritual imagery to promote mealtime discipline
• And, be helpful in step 2 and 3 of a 12-Step recovery program

Award winning clinical neuropsychiatrist and researcher, Daniel Amen, was a keynote speaker at the conference. Dr. Amen uses EMDR therapists at his clinics where he also utilizes the latest, most sophisticated brain imaging technology to accurately diagnose and treat patients. It was refreshing to hear this noted doctor discuss the importance of spiritual issues in his address to about 800 therapists from all over the world and of all religious persuasions.

As a certified EMDR therapist, I was delighted to read his assessment that, "EMDR is one of the most rapid and effective treatments I have ever personally seen as a psychiatrist." He uses SPECT scans to document how EMDR treatment actually changes how the brain functions.