Groomed

Overcoming the Messages That Shaped Our Past and Limit Our Future

By: Elizabeth Melendez Fisher Good, Beth Jusino - contributor

Narrated by: Elizabeth Melendez Fisher Good

Someone in your past sold you a false story about who you are and what you’re worth. It has been holding you back for too long. Take control of your future.

A staggering one out of three women in America was a victim of sexual abuse at some point in her childhood. No matter how many years it’s been, if that’s your story, those scars are probably still with you. But even if that’s not part of your story, this audiobook is for you. Women today have been groomed for a lot more than just sex.

Using her own story of abuse, family tragedy, and rebellion, Elizabeth Melendez Fisher guides listeners toward an understanding that grooming is oftentimes subtle, but it’s always life-altering. In Groomed, Fisher incorporates the language and lessons gained over the past decade working with sex-trafficking victims and her work in ministry and counseling before that. She draws out five specific ways that women have been groomed, from physical appearance to spirituality to finances, and shows how those manipulative messages have affected the way we see our worth and how they’ve oftentimes stifled and limited us. From there, Fisher offers listeners a way to overcome their past, starting with the all-important but rarely explored idea of a selah, or a time of rest and reflection, and exploring active ways to forgive and move forward to a new level of freedom.

No one has to be defined by her past. No one has to live for her groomers. It’s time to take a look back at where we came from to escape the messages of our past and take control of our future.

©2020 Elizabeth Melendez Fisher (P)2020 Thomas Nelson

Critic reviews

"Groomed is a captivating must-read for empowering women to take time to reflect on pervasive areas of our pasts and begin to step out and move beyond what we were groomed to be. As I read this book, I could feel the weight of my past lifting off. Elizabeth gives riveting, action-packed steps on how we can truly grasp a future full of freedom to be all we were created to be, walking stronger in the light of our new day."--Valerie Ellery, international inspirational author, speaker, and human trafficking education specialist

"Groomed is an amazingly bold and vulnerable look into the life of Elizabeth Melendez Fisher Good. In a powerful way Elizabeth allows us to enter her journey of pain with an incredible redemptive outcome. Lives will be changed as a result of her honesty. She has taken her tumultuous early years and turned them into a beautiful catalyst for good."--Alan Smyth, Saving Innocence executive director

"'In a world where women tend to define their worth by their appearance, often feel invisible, and frequently make decisions out of fear, the message of Groomed is desperately needed. Through her story, Elizabeth exposes the lies that groomed these destructive mind-sets in us and guides us to the truth of our true beauty, strength, and power. This book will change how you see yourself and other women, as Elizabeth shares solution-oriented insights with an authentic voice and great wisdom. She will inspire and equip you to live a life of purpose, satisfaction, and joy."--Katherine Lee, Pure Hope Foundation founder and author, Interrupted

Good definitions but no answers

She does great identifying and explaining the 5 types of grooming. Unfortunately, she does very little to explain how to move on and transform leaving this abuse behind.

Very useful information!

I developed my own sexual abuse recovery program and have been working with women in support groups for ten years. I wanted to read/listen to this book to review it as a potential resource to recommend to the women once they complete my program. Little did I realize how much it would actually help me in the process!

Revealing and unsettling

I didn’t think this book was going to be about me. I thought I was just going to learn more about the sex trafficking epidemic, but after sharing her traumatic story, the author turns her attentions toward me, the reader, to walk me backwards into the deep recesses of my mind to uncover the ways that, yes indeed, I have been affected by one or more or the types of grooming she listed. I feel unsettled after listening to the end, however, because I lack the instructions for what to really DO next now that these dark things have been revealed to me. Recognize them. Check. Now...what? Probably need good therapist, I guess.

Spirital Abuse

I know NOW! What Spirital Abuse is all about ....controlling someone or somebody in the Name Of Jesus. I know that Jesus did not authorize us to mistreatment people. Jesus is LOVE!!

Insubstantial Re: Psychological Explanation of Grooming

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I thought it would help me understand the psychological dynamics of grooming at a much deeper level. Not really. Psychological and sociological research presented was superficial at best. Very disappointing. Instead, the book is heavy on “believe in god” and “don’t be a victim” messaging. Neither welcomed or valued. I was particularly turned off by her telling victims of sex trafficking that they should not be “victims!” Who should decide that for someone except the person who was victimized? No one. Wish the author dropped the folk wisdom and shared more scientific insight on the topic instead.