Review of "Healing Your Wounded Soul"

Healing Your Wounded Soul is exactly the book I was looking for. I participate in a reviewer group for Ancient Faith Publishing, and I have received a number of free review copies from Ancient Faith through that group. However, Healing Your Wounded Soul is a book that I purchased on my own, and I’m so glad that I did.

 

Recently, I reviewed another book from Ancient Faith, Gratitude in Life’s Trenches, and I was disappointed with that one. I was hoping it would offer an Orthodox perspective on healing past trauma and learning to approach life’s challenges in a healthier way. Gratitude did these things to a degree, but it often fell short of how deep and meaningful I wanted it to be. I felt like Gratitude tried to do too many things and address too many subjects. At the same time, the author admitted that he wasn’t an expert on the subjects that he was sharing, and he relied on his sources to provide wisdom in the book. However, it seems to me that if a person is approaching a subject as uninformed and new to the material, how will he have the appropriate discernment to know what is true wisdom that should be included in his book?

 

Fr. Joshua Makoul, on the other hand, is a spiritual father and therapist with many years of experience helping people to heal. His expert-level approach is so apparent through the gentle, understanding demeanor that he conveys and the masterful way he lays out the material of his book and guides the reader through it.

 

Healing Your Wounded Soul really strikes me as a masterpiece. Much of what Fr. Makoul writes perfectly addressed my own struggles. I repeatedly thought, “He knows exactly how I feel!”

 

The book conveys deep meaning and genuine hope. It helps the reader understand common sources of trauma, which continue to bring harm in our lives if we don’t come to terms with our experiences and bring them before God for healing. Fr. Makoul masterfully strikes a balance between generality and specificity with his examples. I often felt as though he were speaking directly to me about what I’ve gone through, even though the examples he gave were never exactly the same as what I’ve experienced.

 

I felt the love of God coming through the page and was so convinced that He brought this book into my life. I’ve been copying large sections of the book into my journal, which is not something I’ve done before! I feel compelled to write them down in order to help me absorb them better.

 

I’ve been working through some major past trauma for a long time now, and this book both affirmed the healing that I’ve experienced so far and led me toward the next stage of my journey toward wholeness. I especially appreciate how Fr. Makoul makes the book truly Orthodox by describing “this healing work,” as he calls it, as an integral part of our path of theosis.

 

I strongly recommend Healing Your Wounded Soul for anyone who wants to better understand how trauma may be affecting our lives and how, with our Lord’s help, we can choose healing and growth.