A choice to heal

Dr. Michael Ferris counsels women in need of spiritual and emotional healing from the scars of abortion. His ministry, A Choice to Heal (achoicetoheal.com), is based in two Connecticut churches. Ferris, 48, holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. He attends Christian Life Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Kensington, Conn. He spoke recently with News Editor John W. Kennedy.

PE: Did you plan to get into post-abortive counseling?

FERRIS: I had no idea God was going to lead me in this way. A woman who was chronically angry came to me and I discovered she had an abortion when she was younger. I suggested there might be a correlation between her current symptoms and her unreconciled abortion. Abortion is more than just an emotional or psychological issue; it is also a spiritual issue. As I fasted, prayed and searched the Scriptures, God laid out a process that brought my client through six stages of healing, which I call a “redemptive process.” Since then God has been sending a steady stream of women who want to deal with this painful and shameful part of their lives. Last year I founded A Choice to Heal, a ministry that uses this six-step redemptive model.

PE: What is the magnitude of this problem?

FERRIS: An estimated 26 percent of American women of childbearing age have had at least one abortion, and 73 percent of those who have had an abortion suffer psychologically or emotionally. This is a plague of biblical proportions that extends into the church. In fact, most of the women I see are from the faith community. When a woman has an abortion not only does her unborn child die, but so does a part of her relationship with God. Even though she knows in her head that God can and will forgive her, and she has asked Him a thousand times, she may still have trouble walking in that forgiveness. And when a woman has an abortion before she comes to Christ, it is not uncommon after she gives her life to Christ for her to still feel as if God has forgiven all her other sins except this one.

PE: What are some factors that can complicate and lengthen the counseling process?

FERRIS: The average woman does not seek help for the emotional effects of her abortion for 10.6 years after her abortion. There are other variables that contribute to the length of treatment. Was her pregnancy the result of rape or incest? Was she compelled against her will to have her abortion? Was she facing abandonment by her family? Did she let others talk her into it? Ninety-five percent of post-abortive women say they compromised their convictions in order to have their abortion.

PE: How can problems manifest themselves years later?

FERRIS: Instead of healing a woman’s wounds, time becomes the mechanism that helps erode her sense of who she thought she was. This may result in distracting behaviors like substance abuse, overeating, chronic anger and workaholism. It’s like a large beach ball that the person is trying to hold under the water. It takes a lot of energy to keep it submerged. Sooner or later that person is going to get tired, and when she does the beach ball pops to the surface.

PE: Will there always be a need for clinics such as yours?

FERRIS: We live in a fallen world. The Scriptures teach us that there is a thief whose only objective is to steal, kill and destroy. Abortion is a powerful tool in the enemy’s arsenal that accomplishes all three objectives at once. It is not God’s will that His people spend their lives carrying the burden of their sin. It is God’s desire that we be healed and set free.

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