Survivors of spousal abuse inevitably fail to find answers in the realm of reason as they try to make sense of their pain and suffering. Focussing on the healing power of spirituality, Lifelines offers a celebration of healing, a message of hope, and a way of helping. Lifelines addresses family violence and spirituality in a community and cultural context. It is a collection of knowledge, experiences, and impressions of people who have discovered that the process of healing depends on one's spirituality and inner strength.

Reinhild Boehm, Ph.D. is an anthropologist and the Director of Millwoods Welcome Center for Immigrant. She is the former Director of the Women's Program, University of Alberta. Dr. Boehm's doctoral study and other scholarly writing explores women's spirituality and the role of religion in community and development. She is a member of the Action Committee Against Family Violence in the Immigrant Community and was president of Edmonton Women's Shelter Society. Dr. Boehm's publications include In the Name of Religion: Impact of Fundamentalism on the Status of Women (1994) and "Spirituality" in Pathways to the Community: A Program for Federally Sentenced Women Who Act Violently (1996).

Reinhild Boehm's profile page

Judith Golec, Ph.D. has a nursing background and taches in the areas of qualitative methodology, social-psychology of health and illness, social organization of health care, sociology of mental illness, and the sociology of deviance at the University of Alberta. Dr. Golec was the president of the Board of the Edmonton Women's Shelter and is a member of the Indo Canadian Women's Association. Dr. Golec's publications include "A Contextual Approach to the Social Psychological Study of Disaster Recovery" in The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disaster.

Judith Golec's profile page

Ruth Krahn received an undergraduate degree in English at University of Alberta. Ruth is a fiction writer whose work has appeared in publications such as PRISM International, Grain, Prairie Fire, Fiddlehead, and the New Quarterly and in the anthologies of Alberta Bound, Alberta Bound, Alberta Rebound, and Boundless Alberta. Her non-fiction has appeared in the journals of Event and The Road Home. She teaches writing for the Women's Program, University of Alberta and works as an editor for the Edmonton-based literary magazine. Other Voices. Ruth is currently working on a novel.

Ruth Krahn's profile page

Dianne Smith is a writer and editor with a bachelor's degree in the social sciences from the University of Alberta (1993). Dianne's publications include Newcomer Suicide Prevention Project, Immigration Culture, and Suicide (1995); Pregnancy and Childbirth Experience in the Indo-Canadian Community (1995); Culture, Health, and Healing, Establishing Intercultural Health Care in Canada (1994); Project Management for Program Delivery: Trainers' Manual and Course Manual (1998); and Social Justice and Peace Towards Women's Human Right (1999). Dianne is a member of Changing Together, Center for Immigrant Women and is the professional development co-ordinator for the Editors' Association of Canada, Prairie Province Branch.

Dianne Smyth's profile page

• Alberta Book Publishing Awards - Honourable Mention, Alberta Scholarly Title of the Year
• Women's Peacepower Media Award, International Print-personal growth category -

"a ground-breaking cross-cultural examination of spousal abuse." Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal

".an attempt to draw back the veil and create opportunities for women to tell stories of their culture, their spirituality and their abuse." Susan Thomas, CBRA