Healing Work

Giving Humanity a Second Chance

By: Joshua Makoul

Narrated by: Victor Clarke

When we begin our healing journey, we often feel mystified and disoriented. Where do we start? How do we know which way to go?

Like a trusted map, Healing Work orients listeners with practical strategies and insights they need to navigate healing’s successes and setbacks with wisdom and confidence. While recognizing that deep emotional pain can defy easy answers, Healing Work shows that true and total healing is possible for us, no matter how severe our wounds. With the techniques in this book, we can acquire the skills that enable us to finally let go of the pain and fear that hold us captive.

©2022 Joshua Makoul (P)2023 Joshua Makoul

Truly helpful guidance for healing!

I was recently able to listen to listen to the audiobook version of “Healing Works” by Fr Joshua Makoul, which I’d been eagerly looking forward to sinking my teeth into. This book follows on the groundwork laid in his first book, “Healing Your Wounded Soul,” offering more in-depth descriptions of practical ways to heal from trauma and painful experiences in one’s life. As a trauma survivor who works with other women in my parish community who are healing from painful experiences, this book turned out to be an empowering and eye-opening read! While the first book dealt with concepts of how to heal on a general level, in this book Fr Joshua delves more deeply into specific healing modalities for trauma, including aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy which can be helpful, rather than damaging, to trauma survivors. In addition, he discusses less well-known healing techniques such as EMDR and reframing unhelpful thoughts. I particularly loved how Fr Joshua described how EMDR has a paschal quality in allowing us to put away past pain and move forward with a new beginning. Fr Joshua doesn’t just talk about healing modalities, he also broaches important topics such as attachment wounds, people-pleasing, and projection. Most importantly, his discussion integrates these concepts into the spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Christian Church. His discussion of the importance of insight in healing and the importance of change and letting go fit directly into Orthodox Christian concepts of repentance and spiritual healing. This book both contains extremely helpful guidance on useful techniques to heal and offers encouragement to endure in the struggle of healing from traumatic experiences in our lives – emotional, physical, and spiritual. I loved it so much that I bought a print copy to give to my priest in the hope he will use it when counseling people who are seeking healing in the Church. The audiobook version is read in a calm and understandable manner, and I frequently felt like I was sitting with Fr Joshua and discussing the important topic of healing. His reading made the material accessible and offered a wide variety of skills to enable the reader to set aside fear and pain to move forward on their own healing journey. This book is an important resource for those of us healing from past experiences which have caused pain and trauma, particularly within the Orthodox Christian tradition – it is truly a roadmap for giving humanity a second chance!

Good if placing faith in self-help

This is basically just a self help book. there is little Orthodox about this. I guess I find more spiritual books more helpful in my healing journey.