Healing Your Wounded Soul: Growing from Pain to Peace

By: Joshua Makoul

Narrated by: Victor Clarke

In our broken world, many Christians find their spiritual progress hindered or stalled by psychological wounds from their past. But these wounds can be healed with the proper treatment. Priest and licensed therapist Joshua Makoul shows how we can draw on the insights and resources of both the Church and modern psychology to help us come to terms with the past and use it to further our path to union with God.

©2020 Joshua Makoul (P)2021 Joshua Makoul

The way to Heal broken hearts through the love and mercy of Christ

Life on this earth is not ever easy. But meaningful it is when seen through God’s plan for his creation and His compassion for us in our blind struggles. Fr Joshua teaches us to have this compassion for ourselves and others, And to make our way forward in this walk by leaving painful memories in the past where we can learn from them, not relive them.

INSIGHTFUL, UNDERSTANDABLE, & HELPFUL

An excellent integration of healthy theology & healthy psychology. A courageous journey into unpacking personal pain and graciously giving a map toward hope. Well explained insights are shared & practical steps are offered in a way that is encouraging & helpful to improve life today. I believe this is fitting for people from any Christian tradition, and will give Orthodox Christians insights for their path toward theosis.

Must read

Speaks so deeply and beautifully of the pain this broken world and the healing found in Christ through His church.

Such a helpful and practical tool for soul healing

Fr. Joshua Makoul has written a beautiful invitation and guide to healing the wounded soul (which is, in fact, all of us). His insights from psychology and the healing wisdom of the Orthodox Church are intertwined in such a way that there is no tension between them at all (as well there shouldn't be). His words radiate compassion, nonjudgment, and kindness as he lays out simple-to-apply ways to begin discerning one's woundedness along with concrete ways to begin moving toward healing.

The book is laid out very helpfully and moves from helping the reader understand the link between past unresolved wounds and difficulties in spiritual growth. While there are many reasons to consider therapeutic work, I hadn't ever considered that avoiding dealing with one's own brokenness might also make the spiritual life and progress more difficult or even cause it to stall out.

I appreciated his use of the first person plural, i.e., "we" and "our," throughout the text. This made the book more inviting, avoiding the accusation of "you" or the sterility of third person. Instead, it created the feel of walking with a kind guide through unknown territory, such as a Virgil or Beatrice was to Dante in The Divine Comedy.

One insight I especially appreciated was his frequent warm invitations to bring discoveries of brokenness along this process to confession. As one who grew up Roman Catholic, this was a helpful reinforcement of the Orthodox approach to this beautiful mystery. It's not meant to be a guilt-ridden experience, but a place where we can bring the truth of ourselves in honesty and humility, so as to welcome in the healing light of Christ.

I also appreciated the narrator chosen for this work. His voice is simultaneously clear and soothing, and makes even the experience of listening a healing and nourishing one.

The audiobook is very much a worthy experience, but I find myself thinking I'll pick up the print edition in addition. This is a book well worth coming back to in both forms.

Fantastic Resource

Great Resource for deep inner healing for one's emotional and spiritual well-being. Thanks for writing this book. It's definitely a reread.

What I needed in the right time

Thank you for this book god used it to answer questions I needed in a time of distress and uncertainty bless you for this work I pray i will be able to live out of it and the word of god

Basically an overview of basics

The beginning reviews basic principles that seem obvious but perhaps may be useful to some.
I believe it’s a difficult task to describe the many problems we face as broken people. The large overview seems necessary but did not catch my interest at first.
By chapter two I did gain a little nugget that was useful. It was still something I already knew but a good reminder. I think that is the thing: only the individual listening will be able to access what is useful to that individual.
The reader has a pleasant voice which I enjoyed listening to at 1.8x speed.
The majority of this text seems to come from modern psychological theory. I don’t hear a lot from the Fathers. The main thing that seems to be Orthodox is that he mentions bringing issues to confession.
At the later part of the audiobook,when he speaks about shame, he does use examples from the Bible and a few quotes from the Fathers.
I honestly am suspicious of his description of confession. To me it is described in clinical terms rather than from a sacramental view of healing. I think this book my be useful to some, but it seems to emphasize the standard psychological approach more than any specific Orthodox way of thinking.