From the time I was a young child on into adulthood, my heart and spirit have been wounded, my rights violated, my future threatened, and my performance not accepted. I grew up believing that I was unlovable. My identity was distorted.

How can you recover from such traumatic beginnings? Where do you even start to heal? What or who can help you find your way to a healthy self-perception?

My Anchor of Hope, an open and honest memoir of the author’s life, reveals the details of her difficult childhood and adolescence, her unhealthy choices, and her violent marriage. While each of these life experiences left her with very definite scars and ramifications, Alison Marie determinedly refused to allow them to define her. Her early conversion to Christianity offered her a solid belief in the hope and grace of God, and she persevered. When she felt a desire growing within to help people discover how their upbringing and childhood experiences had affected them, she pursued a post-secondary education with the goal of achieving a bachelor’s degree in psychology. God’s providence continually showed up, providing her and her children with appropriate living accommodations and schools, moral support, and even groceries on occasion. Throughout the many challenges that arose, Alison Marie struggled to maintain her equilibrium with more success in some times than in others.

Her ongoing belief in God’s goodness provided a solid foundation upon which she could build, and her research continues to provide helpful insights into the consequences of childhood trauma and domestic abuse. Her perceptiveness allows her to apply the latest research on this topic from credible academic resources to her own situation, and she passes her wisdom on in her narrative.

This story is one of restoration, redemption, and freedom. It offers hope to all women who are suffering through difficult times and shows them how to break free from the abuse and self-contempt that controls their lives, allowing them to find a peace and self-love that is real and everlasting.