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Meet Lizzy: Putting the Pieces Back Together. Life-Purpose: To change perspectives for human doing and being. Philosopher / Healer / Empath Profile boss: Healer

Editor's Note: The subject matter of Lizzy's story is such that anonymity is an absolute necessity. Rather than the customary youthful photo of our subject, this sketch by her 13-year-old daughter is offered instead. Lizzy has a dream. She wants to write devotional readings for women just like her. She hopes there aren't a lot of people who fit that description, but her experience tells her otherwise. Lizzy's is a story of forgiveness, the kind most people can't even imagine-- forgiving her husband for the sexual abuse of her oldest daughter and forgiving herself for not having done something about it sooner.

A victim of abuse herself as a child, Lizzy made a life of pleasing everybody except herself. It seemed so natural to put the wants and needs of others before her own. After all, wasn't that the golden rule?

On the surface, hers was the perfect family. Active in church and disturbed by the public education system, Lizzy taught her children at home with excellent results. Then three years ago, her oldest daughter came to her with a horrible story. Her stepfather, Lizzy's husband, had molested her. It was then, she says, that Lizzy made the worst decision of her life. Scared that the legal system would put her husband, the home's provider, in jail if she sought professional help for her daughter, Lizzy took matters into her own hands and decided she could protect and nurture the girl on her own. Though the abuse stopped, her daughter began having serious problems, questioning her faith and her own self-worth. After two years, Lizzy finally took her to a counselor. Not only was her husband arrested, but Lizzy was charged with endangering a child and sent before a judge who ordered that she go into counseling too.

The therapist suggested Lizzy had lost her identity and gave her instructions to try and find herself again. Lizzy, a self-professed 'Internet Junkie', began searching the Web for personality tests. She found her way to Ansir, and now admits she wasn't prepared for what happened next.

Each of her personality Styles presented a revelation. "Paragraph after paragraph of my Profile InDepths™ described what I knew to be me, but I'd buried it for so long. I read the emoting style for Empath and was thunderstruck to see myself there, described as a criminal. I retook the test knowing it was time to be honest - completely. Afterwards, I just had to sit there and cry."

She bought the book and studied the styles in-depth. "For so many years, I'd be whoever I needed to be to gain acceptance from those who loved me, because I was trained early on that to be accepted, I needed to behave in certain ways."

One of the most important things she learned came from Philosopher. "It really freed me to know that I don't have to convince people of my point-of-view, because sometimes they just aren't going to understand. It's just a part of being me, and that's okay."

The daughter is making progress in counseling, and while they've separated, Lizzy is having regular sessions with her husband. He took the Ansir test too (Diligent/Diligent/Diligent), and they've used the book to talk about each other. Able to forgive him and herself, she now faces each day with a sense of purpose.

She wants each of her children to know:

the freedom of being themselves....

the freedom of not being bound to someone else's predilections....

and the freedom to pursue their own passions and dreams.

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