Where the Rivers Join: A Personal Account of Healing from Ritual Abuse

Janet Money, formerly the sports editor of the Woodstock Daily
Sentinel-Review, is a freelance writer and editor in London, Ontario.

This chilling and powerful chronicle of the author’s experience of,
and healing from, ritual abuse combines journal entries, accounts of
dreams, comments from Beckylane’s friends and children, free-verse
descriptions of the abuse, and even ironic statements from fortune
cookies (e.g., “Among the lucky, you are the chosen one”). Unable to
use her real name because of the threat of legal action, the author
combines two of the names she used as a child—Lane, who held her
memories and disappeared into the river at the age of 11, and Becky, who
put the abuse outside of herself.

The importance of self-expression in the healing process is stressed in
this work: “I’m going to talk, talk and remember, talk and remember,
until I see myself whole again.” In her forceful afterword, the author
suggests that neither individual counseling (which she participated in)
nor group work may be optimal treatments; she wonders about the extent
to which a developing method, based on the community healing rituals of
Native cultures, will be effective.

Where the Rivers Join calls for survivors, not scholars, to be regarded
as the experts in the field of ritual abuse.