
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993                   TAG: 9310070395
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RETREAT AIMS TO HEAL `THE INNER CHILD'

Suzanne Fisher says she comes to the subject of child abuse as a survivor. She says she was abused physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and sexually as a child growing up in the Roanoke area. Now she leads retreats on ``Meeting and Healing the Inner Child.''

Fisher and Edna P. Hinton, a social worker, will conduct a three-day retreat starting Friday at the Indian Valley Retreat Center in Floyd. For $195, participants can listen, share, eat and sleep at the center as they try to overcome their own difficult childhoods.

Fisher says she will provide them with ``tools for healthy living'' - ways of getting through unresolved childhood traumas that can have repercussions in their adult lives. She says she is telling people ``how to go back and re-parent that little kid ... giving that little kid what we did not get - the love, the nurturing, the hugs.''

The inner child, according to one of her brochures, is ``a perfect self, a part of us that is untarnished and untainted by worldly hurts, wounds and trauma ... also known as the intuitive self, the higher self, id, God within, holy spirit and inner temple.''

Fisher, 45, lives with her husband and two stepchildren in Highland Springs, near Richmond. She is on disability from Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), conducting retreats when she feels well enough. She also presents inner child programs to inmates on the substance abuse unit of the state women's prison at Goochland and to male inmates at Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville.

She has written two books, and she is an ordained minister in the Sanctuary of the Beloved Order of Melchezidek, which she describes as ``a non- denominational teaching and healing order.''

The first part of her retreats are informational, she says. ``People spend that time re-connecting with their childhoods, learning how children are abused in our society.''

Abuse often seems normal to children because it's all they know. Recognizing abuse is the first step to recovery, which is a lifelong process, she says.

She also teaches a section on healthy parenting: ``how to accept and love the child no matter what the child is doing, and how to reverse some of the things done to us.'' And she instructs people in the art of play - something they may not have been allowed to do when young.

Fisher provides a lengthy list of the abuses she says she experienced growing up. Items range from beatings, shaming and social isolation to ridicule over her religious beliefs and sexual abuse from six different people starting at age 2. The sexual abuse resulted in 21 emotional problems, she says, including post-traumatic stress disorder, loss of sexuality, overwhelming fear and addiction to nicotine, caffeine, sugar, tranquilizers, excitement and relationships. She also had an eating disorder.

Her recovery has included group therapy, 12-step meetings, individual therapy and couples counseling.

``The three main rules of a dysfunctional family are don't talk, don't trust and don't feel,'' she says. ``People who come to this workshop are people ready to do the work ... Some walk away with additional work to do. This is the beginning of a process.''

Each person decides whether to work on forgiving those who mistreated them, or simply understanding what happened, she says.

``People do share their guts and souls in these workshops,'' she says.

For more information, call Indian Valley Retreat Center at 789-4295.

by CNB