Synopsis "Through My Eyes: From Struggle to Joy"
Imagine with me, if you will, a little girl... just five years old... existing in the crevasse between several worlds. One world is the cult in which she is raised. This world doesn't allow her to be fully part of the world outside; the world where she must go to school, yet where she isn't allowed to belong, to make friends. She must stand out as different. The outside world doesn't want her there. She talks differently. She dresses differently. She behaves differently. There she is 'the freak from the cult'. There she is taunted, caned, bashed, rejected and ridiculed. Her third world, at home, isn't safe either. There are beatings, neglect and sexual abuse. This is a place where it is safer to be out of her body and away in her mind and spirit. But the insular world of the cult is no "safe haven" from the harshness of home or the outside world. Here she is shunned. The other children are not permitted to play with her. She is considered to be a bad influence because her father is a "worldly man". So here, in this in-between space - not allowed out and not allowed in - and home; a place only to be cold, hungry, beaten and abused - here she exists alone, just five years old. She grows believing the world will end. Perhaps today, if not tomorrow. At school she struggles but no one notices that she has dyslexia. How will illiteracy impact her anyway when she knows she will never grow to be an adult? How can the test tubes and math sums have any relevance when she has so many issues of survival to deal with right now? But the world didn't end and she did grow up. And she finds herself having to face each experience unprepared; first high school, then work in a factory and soon after, an arranged marriage. Perhaps you wonder, 'What becomes of her? How does she survive? Could it ever be possible that she breaks away and finds a way to connect with people?' She does. Deb Maes is the woman that grew from that little girl. She shares the experience of growing up in the cult and the journey of coming into the world Deb has used her life experience...breaking free of the cult in which she was raised and over coming abuse, dyslexia and a language disorder and masterfully weaves together her intuitive knowing with decades of psychological and neuro scientific research, presenting profound wisdom in easy and accessible conversations. Her very presence is transformative and this book invites you into her space. Her commitment to understanding how we develop resilience has lead to her success as one of Australia's most sought after transformational and leadership coaches and she shares here some of the personal tools she has found most powerful in her work and her own life.
