Lynne Coleman-Marshall - A Survivor Speaks Out

Lynne Coleman-Marshall is a retired MFCC (Marriage, Family and Child Counselor). She received her BA from University of Redlands Accelerated Degree program in 1985 and her MS from Loma Linda University in 1988. After her internship, she became a Licensed MFC in 1991 with a private practice in Cerritos, CA.

Her personal and professional experience provides us with real insight into the ugly world of child abuse and how we all can do something to stop the abusive cycle.

She is a survivor of her father's abuse of the worse kind - physical,sexual, and emotional from the age of four to the time she was able to move out at eighteen. Her father was a violent alcoholic who could not keep a job for more than 2 years. Her mother was an emotionally unavailable woman.

The scars left by her father’s abuse has made her life difficult - married three times, drank heavily in her early years, and determined not to have children. But her father's abusive destruction of people's lives went beyond Lynne (as is the case with most child abusers). He physically and sexually abused her three younger brothers. Although Lynne was able to patch up her life through years of psychology, her three brothers were not so lucky. The first was dishonorably discharged from the service, joined the mushroom culture in Washington State, and has not been heard of for over 20 years. The second is a former heroine and alcohol addict. He had two daughters by his first marriage and one by his second. All three daughters, though not abused, have problems because of his instability. The third was a drug addict but now exhibits his disorders by overeating - he weighs over 350 pounds. Only one of the three brothers graduated from high school.