“Through the Healing Truth Sanctuary, workshops and e-courses, Stephanie Gagos provides a message of hope and healing to fellow abuse survivors. She speaks from the voice of knowledge, the voice of experience, and from her heart. This is a combination that cannot be beat.

As a survivor she knows what she is talking about. She has great empathy and speaks so that my heart, mind and spirit can drink it in and learn from it. She has the ability and knowledge to tell it like it is; to say what it is I need to hear. She is a great teacher and leader, she is also a fellow trauma survivor and a companion on the healing journey. As a survivor of abuse who is on my own healing journey, I highly recommend her and what she offers.

The ladies of the HTS are my tribe, my family of choice, the family I never had growing up. They understand what I am feeling even when I cannot. The love and support is fantastic and healing. It is a place where I can go to be heard and accepted. And I am very grateful.”

Jane Hamilton 

Membership to the main site

is FREE

www.healingtruthsanctuary.com

As a member you will have access to several rooms in the sanctuary and the forum. Post discussions, ask questions, share your story, share your healing art, upload healing blog posts (no salesy posts please), join in on healing projects, work through healing prompts (over a year’s worth) and share your art journal pages, sculptures, poems, etc in a safe supportive space.

All forms of art are welcome! Becoming a member includes access to the above as well as a private Facebook group.

The Classrooms in the Sanctuary include:

Healing Room (all free monthly content gets posted here)

Inner Child Room
Survivor Sanctuary
Truth Room
SOS Room

We also have private rooms for those of you taking paid courses.

Click here to join:

I would love to join!

or copy and paste this link

http://healingtruthsanctuary.com

For Full Name please put the name you would like to be known by in the sanctuary
Please answer all introductory questions.
This is how I screen members. If your answers are vague I will not have enough information to approve your membership and I will contact you for further information.

What is the Healing Truth Sanctuary?

The Healing Truth Sanctuary is an online creative community for women who are healing from childhood wounding and are on a healing path. This is an art healing community, a place where we heal through all forms of art…writing, art journaling, mixed media and other creative forms and crafts. Although all art is healing..at the healing truth sanctuary we are specific about what we are healing, we purposely and consciously use art to heal a particular wound or wounds.  Here we tell our stories of childhood pain and heal particular aspects/layers of them in community with others.

Members are free to create in whatever way they choose, to tell their stories and to heal their stories in creative ways. This is not an art instruction community (although eventually I would love to have guest instructors at some point)..the focus is on healing through art and other healing paths which address the mind, body and spirit.

As part of the basic membership you will have access to the community, the forum and specific rooms which are free to access.  Should you choose to take a paid course (see calendar, we have some good ones coming up!), you will automatically be a member of the community and have access to the free access rooms, should you choose to participate in them as well as the private room for your course. There is something for everyone who is on a childhood healing path. Be sure to join the Healing room for free monthly content.

Participation

Participate in the way YOU want to participate, no pressure.

Mostly this is all about you and your relationship with yourself and your own healing process.  I’ve created options for people who prefer to do things on their own, for those who love to be in community, for those who need extra support and want to go deeper. Another important piece is that you can sign up anonymously, you can use a pseudonym for those requiring strict privacy (only I will know who you are).  Regardless of whether you use a pseudonym or not, all work, discussions in the sanctuary stay in the sanctuary.

Strict confidentiality is a must. If you agree to join the sanctuary, you must abide by this basic rule of confidentiality.

What do you mean by childhood wounding?

Childhood wounding includes but is not limited to (verbal, emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect and any other kind of trauma be it the loss of a parent, divorce, bullying etc.) Any wound that altered the way you looked at the world or yourself. My courses and this community are geared toward women who have done some healing work over the years and are looking to add to their healing toolbox.  This is not just a space for survivors but you will probably find many survivors here. There will be rooms that are specific to certain kinds of abuse/trauma and other rooms that are more general. Many of the rooms will come out of the needs of the community.This space will be sacred space honoring and respecting each other, holding confidentiality and allowing for anonymity if needed by any member.

What is the “healing work” we will be doing?

The tools we will be using to do our “healing work” in the sanctuary are art journaling, writing, body centered processes. guided meditations and some rituals to revisit, uncover and heal childhood wounds. You do not have to consider yourself an artist, in fact many of the women who come here, may not have painted since they were children. I was one of them almost 2 years ago.  Not to worry, there will be beginner videos! These are just a few tools on the healing journey and should be added on to the in person work you are doing such as therapy and/or group therapy. 

A note on therapy:

I cannot stress this enough: As a result of the nature of the work we are doing, it is highly suggested that you be under the care of a licensed therapist while participating in this community. I am not a therapist and the work we do here should not be used in place of therapy. If you choose to participate without being under the supervision of a therapist, you do so at your own risk.

You will be provided with guidance on how to take good care of yourself during this process.  There will be some support content and videos around what to do when you are triggered, how to unplug when you need to, how to know when to step back and take a break, and the rhythm of contracting and expanding in the Getting Started section of the sanctuary. 

Purpose of the Community

The reason for the community is to offer support, witnessing, mirroring…being witnessed, being seen and heard and being able to speak our truth in the presence of others even online helps to heal our shame, our misconceptions and distortions.  Normally a wound causes a distorted sense of self and we often need others to help us see beyond our misconceptions. 

As the community grows I hope this will be a space you can come to when you need support, when things are “up” for you in your life (triggers, boundary issues, shame, fear). I have found so much healing in community and I hope you will too.

Why I opened up this healing space…

Opening up an online healing community has been a dream of mine for years. Being able to reach as many women as I can with a message of hope and healing on a mind, body and spiritual level is so near and dear to my heart. On my healing journey, I longed for a place such as this.  I wanted a place that was uplifting and allowed me to also face the darkest corners of my being with some guidance and some support. I wanted a safe space I could speak my truth.  I wanted a place that where I could explore the healing of my mind, body and spirit. For me, the one hour a week of therapy, I needed to be able to add on to the work I was doing with my therapist. I needed to have ways to heal myself beyond talk therapy (note this meant I needed more not that I replaced therapy).

The Healing Truth Sanctuary came out of a longing I had years ago of an online space that was colorful, vibrant, personal and accessible. I needed to be a part of something that inspired me. I needed a place I could go to whenever things were up for me, but I didn’t just want to go there and share on a message board..I wanted a little more. I wanted the option of going on healing journey with other women and have dialogues about healing, about what works, about how we lose ourselves in our wounds, about how we can reclaim ourselves again, about what it is like to be undeniably hurt and still fully love and live.I also needed to express myself creatively and to be able to share my creations with others, others who understood the pain in my art and writing.

Before I came to art journaling…I would doodle and use color to decorate my world. I didn’t realize then that I was healing myself through art just not in the traditional sense. Art and writing for me were the missing pieces of the puzzle. Today, art journaling has become a way for me to revisit my past and make sense of it, to embrace the beauty of who I am beneath my story and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing right now than to be here now opening up a space such as the one I imagined out of my own longing.

I do not have all the answers as I am woman on her own healing quest, but I learned so much throughout the years and perhaps one of the biggest most important things I’ve learned is that people just need space and opportunities to heal.  They just need someone to hold the space, to prompt them with something that zooms right to the core and gets them truly engaging with themselves and FEELING.  

It is the NOT FEELING which cuts us off from the the joy and love we all truly deserve.  It is the stifling, the cutting off, the burying and pushing down of our feelings which keeps us from fully living. And so this space is about facilitating those opportunities to FEEL, to gently guide you down the path of FEELING that which you have suppressed and kept buried, so that you can step into what is good, and true and delightful in your life. This sanctuary is geared toward helping help you reclaim the parts of you that were buried in the wounding.

It will not be easy. Some days you may want to retreat, to give up, to run or engage in old patterns of numbing out. Just ask anyone who has taken a course like this. We all have days where the last thing on earth we want to do is feel anything. Take breaks when you need to, your community will be there when you return.

Free Sample

Get a taste of the my e-courses and membership at the sanctuary. Sign up your free sample lesson here!!!!!

(you get a coaching video, an art video, 2 meditations and a pdf)

Intro Video Short

The Healing Truth Sanctuary Short from Stephanie Gagos on Vimeo.

Announcing the opening of the Healing Truth Sanctuary.

The Details, aka The Skinny

Basic Membership to the Healing Truth Sanctuary FREE

(donations are gladly accepted as they help me keep the site free)

Paid courses can be found here:

Check out the Calendar of Courses for 2013

How do I sign up?

Go to www.healingtruthsanctuary.com and fill out the interview questions. Once that is done it will normally take 24 hours to approve you. This is part of the screening process to avoid spammers and keep the community safe.

If you have signed up for a course you will receive an invitation to the sanctuary and once you accept you will receive another invitation to the room for your course, also normally with 24 hours.

If you are choosing to act under a pseudonym, please include that name in the message/memo section of your invoice as well, so that I know to match up your paypal address with your name.

Paid Course Participants

You will access to the entire sanctuary and all the free content as well as the private rooms for your courses. You will receive an invitation to the sanctuary and the room for your course normally within 24 hours. If you have not received an invite link, email me at sgagos@aol.com as my paypal email is different from my every day email. As a course participant you will have access to the materials for your course as they are put up, if it is a live course, which will be weekly or all of the materials at once if it is a self study course. There are no refunds once you have access to the room for your course.

Check out the Calendar of Courses for 2013

 Testimonials

HTS is a place where your heart, mind, & soul can be submerge into it without feeling judged. It is a place where your thoughts are respected and valued close to heart. HTS is a sanctuary that comforts the soul through the constant support that each person gets from one another, therefore you are not alone in your journey, as there are many share similar journeys to yours. ~Elizabeth

“a beautiful eclectic space that will embrace and applaud your unique wisdom and your unique self. and of course will support you when in need.” Jacqueline

I am so glad I was introduced to The Healing Truth Sanctuary. It’s a place to go when I don’t feel like being up, on, or perky. When my inner child begins to rage or gets sad and can’t stop crying I can bring her to the Sanctuary and let her speak her mind. Here I find that my problems and feelings are shared by many. Here is where I get encouragement and find friendship. I also get to see what my fellow abuse survivors are going through and am able to offer help and support. Giving support is as healing for me as getting support. The Truth part is very important for me. All our lives we are taught to hide our truths. I don’t have to do that here. I also love the art sharing part of it. Thank you Stephanie.  Virginia

The community of women in the Healing Truth Sanctuary is one of the most supportive and nurturing online groups I have ever experienced.  I love how deeply we connect we each other.  I love that we have this space for us, where we can speak whatever we need to speak and know we will be heard, where we can hold space for each other as we work through our most difficult emotions, and where we can cheer each other on through our struggles and our triumphs.

Ashley Rae

My greatest feeling about the Sanctuary is … just I have a safe place to go, no matter…. day or night

and meet other woman I can talk with. never thought such a place could exist. 

That is helping me a lot.

My greatest lesson here is the freedom of NO PRESSURE

This way I’m learning to say things I was never able to…. and I get sweet reactions with encouragement. Also I can do for others, I read their stories and give mine honest comments.

 My greatest respect is for all the sisters in this place. I honor all the impact strength, the honesty and courage…. and the willingness of everyone, to listen to each other and help where it is necessary in the best way possible. 

Last but not least,  Stephanie who made this place possible, is the best captain ever … She’s a great artist the way it really matter for this fragile issues. We all are learning from each other and also from the captain herself.

This helps a lot. The very last point: We all are giving help and support, AND

Here we are learning to ask help for … ourselves, the most difficult issue ever. Vicky

The Sanctuary is exactly that – a place of safety and refuge.

It has given me a place to go where I know I will be understood without doubt. I never feel like a burden, no matter what I have to share. It is truly a place to be MYSELF.

The sanctuary is a haven where survivors are so different, but one at the same time. When those around me, cannot give me what I need, or cannot tolerate the ambiguity of trauma and the inability to “fix” it – the women of the sanctuary hold space for me to be whoever I am at the time.

We share hopes, dreams, pain, tears and I’m learning the value of artistic expression.

Stephanie has made a place for safety, for healing, for fellowship. It has been extremely helpful to get support and validation. Gerry

Stephanie wears many hats: coach, survivor, artist, friend.. ANGEL. She has created a unique sanctuary space to hold our hearts, to teach us not to feel shame, to share our truth and to process our pain in a variety of creative & therapeutic ways. You will quickly come to realize.. you have found YOUR healing sanctuary!

I have never felt this level of complete validation and love, from her and from all of the other women, my sisters, whether I am feeling broken or whole. Honestly, just knowing the sanctuary is there, waiting for me to share whatever has been heavy on my heart and NOT BEING JUDGED, is worth more to me than gold! And knowing that, no matter how different our paths, we have a place to listen and extend love to someone else that shares our pain, has been nothing short of life-changing for me. My heart overflows with love, compassion and respect for the strength and bravery that has brought you here today.

Vicki