A Memoir of Healing from Abuse and Leading a Loving Life

Mary Dispenzia
February 7, 2015

http://www.marydispenza.com/split-a-memoir/

When a long buried memory surfaced after nearly half a century, it sent Mary Dispenza on a quest to understand how the unforgivable happens and what a person can do to survive.

SPLIT, her courageous memoir, reveals the shocking story of her rape by the parish priest at seven years of age, an experience too horrible for the little girl to face.

Leaving the abused part of her self behind, Mary tried to live a normal life, while carrying her terrible, forgotten secret. SPLIT tells of her lifelong struggle for the intimacy, healing and love that always seemed to lay beyond her reach and the events that finally brought her to wholeness.

SPLIT is a story that leaves the reader engaged in current events, encouraged about healing and hopeful of a better future for the faithful and the church.

SPLIT is now available!

Get your copy of SPLIT now. It’s available in either paperback or ebook from online bookstores. You can also order it from your local bookstore. Autographed copies will be available November 23rd, at University Book Store, Bellevue Washington.

Advance Praise for SPLIT

In this powerful and poignant memoir, Dispenza finds her voice as a survivor and uses that voice to help her readers comprehend her struggles with the Church that she deeply loves. I wish every Catholic Bishop would read this. Maybe, just maybe it would help them change their approach to sexual abuse and to sexuality. We live in hope.

Marie Fortune, founder of Faith Trust Institute and author of Keeping the Faith: Questions and Answers for Christian Abused Women

Mary Dispenza’s story shoots an arrow of heart-breaking betrayal into the hearts of her readers. What an honor to have this story in its tenderness toward the rights of children and fierceness toward the shame of the Church.

Christina Baldwin, author of Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story

My forty years as a therapist have honed a keen awareness and respect for the long journey and intense inner work demanded of those determined to put the pieces of their life back together after a traumatic childhood experience. SPLIT offers an exceptional portrayal of such a journey, chronicling the ways this author is able to find healing from the brokenness, and create for herself a life of wholeness.

Rita Bresnahan, Ph.D., author of Walking One Another Home

Reading Mary’s book, I was lit from within by her courage to take what life handed her and shape it into a life of beauty and service. Here is a story of true life bravery, the kind we too often overlook. This book is beautiful, harrowing, honest soul food to help us all know, no matter what, we can be a force for good. Brava Mary, brava.

Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman’s Comfort Book and The Life Organizer