Kiley Wellendorf | News Co-Editor

An eight-year-long writing journey, giving voice to abuse victims, all awhile allowing victims to come together in a therapeutic environment, Buena Vista University’s (BVU) Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Wind Goodfriend’s book, “Voices of Hope,” co-authored by former-colleague and close friend, Pamela Lassiter Cathey, was recently published. This book, however, is more than simply words on a page. “Voices of Hope” will fall off bookshelves, rip itself from the pages, and be brought to life under auditorium lights starting in 2016. “Voices of Hope” is more than just a book, it’s an experience.

For the past decade, Goodfriend has been volunteering as Principal Investigator, as well as holding the title of Vice President of a national organization Institute for the Prevention of Relationship Violence (IPRV). Relationship violence takes on the following forms: emotional, psychological, or physical. Through these specific categories, more specific incidences of abuse include: child abuse, sexual assault, stalking, domestic abuse, and elder abuse.

“The goals of IPRV are to increase awareness of relationship violence in all forms and to prevent them from happening, even if it means doing so one relationship at a time,” Goodfriend said.

“Voices of Hope,” a two-part story containing ten autobiographies of individuals who were subjected to abuse in their lifetime, was a long-term project that will eventually lead into a national book tour, book signings at stores, and even a play. Each autobiography includes a different form of abuse, and four out of the ten autobiographies featured in the book are stories from men who were also victims of abuse. A one-hour long play has been created to shape the stories, and this play was even performed at BVU two years ago. There will be 21 total performances, taking place in 21 different locations across the nation. In each location, all ticket sales will be donated to a domestic violence shelter in the specific city performed.

“We hope that even for people who are not interested in buying or reading the book, by offering the option to attend a one-hour theatrical performance, many more people will become engaged in the issue and consider doing something,” Goodfriend said.

The second half of the book explains how both Goodfriend and Cathey worked with the individuals featured in the book over the course of a year.

“Each author of the ten stories included had weekly counseling sessions with a therapist to write portions of the story. All ten authors also met monthly in group therapy sessions, to help each other through the trauma they were processing,” Goodfriend said.

Along with detailing how the writing process worked, this section also includes specific statistics about relationship violence, different forms of therapy one can encounter, and also information on how to get involved in the prevention of abuse.

“It’s gratifying to finally have a product that people can purchase and read, partially just to prove that I wasn’t making up this entire thing for the past eight years,” Goodfriend said.

Goodfriend spent a majority of her time cooped up in her office where she was able to write without any distractions. Although her office kept her at peace, Goodfriend mentions how frustrating co-writing a book with another can be.

“I’m very technical and statistics-driven, while she’s very creative and artistic. This means that editing each other’s work was very frustrating at times, for both of us! It even included things like disagreement over what font to use for the book,” Goodfriend said.

Even though both parties often became frustrated, Goodfriend has said that her experience with writing this book has changed the way she’s viewed Cathey.

“That said, through this work, Pamela has become not just my colleague and professional partner, but she’s also become my best friend,” Goodfriend said.

“Voices of Hope” has allowed a group of ten individuals to express their side of the story, as well as heal amongst others who have also experienced abuse in their lifetime. While books can be forgotten about once the last page is read, Goodfriend and Cathey are making this movement matter by reaching out to four types of audiences.

“The first is other survivors; we hope that the overall project further empowers them and gives them hope. The second audience is young people, or people who are starting new relationships; we want to make the problem of relationship violence more salient to everyone, so that it becomes less frequent,” Goodfriend said, “Third, we hope that professionals in the fields of psychology, social work, criminal justice, and so on read the book, so they can become even more educated about the experience of victims and survivors. Finally, we hope that people in the general population might read it, and then be inspired to get involved in the fight to stop relationship violence in all its forms.”

This book is currently available in e-book form on Amazon or any other major online bookstore. Goodfriend hopes the print-version will be available by September of this year.

“It’s really fulfilling when someone reads the book or sees the play, then talks to me about how it’s had a positive impact on them or their loved ones. That’s the ultimate goal of doing work on relationship violence – to end the problem and make my own work obsolete,” Goodfriend said.

Images provided by Wind Goodfriend