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Pam Ellinger-Dixon, Ph.D.
My love of reading began as a young child as a means to escape into other worlds in which abuse and neglect did not exist. A good story transported me away from all that troubled the adults in my life and the consequences that filtered down to me. Both my parents were lovely, good people but deeply troubled by mental illness they never understood or faced.
I failed miserably in my poor attempts to escape the crippling dysfunction of my family and as a teen became severely depressed and full of anxiety. My life changed when I stumbled into a therapist’s office and into a relationship with a Christian boy. The therapist introduced me to ways to change my thinking and how to talk through my pain. The boy introduced me to Jesus Christ who would upend my life and lead me to healing of the depression and anxiety. From my first encounter with Christ, I experienced hope and light for a path out of the darkness. The course of my life was forever altered in ways more wonderful than I could imagine.
College followed and I veered from my desire to be a journalist when I volunteered at the state psychiatric hospital, back when we offered long term, in-depth treatment for psychological maladies. I met and fell in love with a group of patients who were slowly integrating into “normal life”. They named themselves “the Happy Travelers” and I took them out of the locked hospital on weekly excursions into the Lexington, KY community. The trips with those who battled schizophrenia, severe depression and personality disorders were never ever dull and were always colorful. I grew to admire those folks who battled for sanity and connection every single day. The obstacles in their brains, and in their families were huge and their resources so small and yet they persisted in pursuing hope. The Happy Travelers invited me into their world and let me come along side them in their suffering and in their quest for wellness.
God equipped me with a well of empathy and a passion for challenging all the Happy Travelers in life to grab on to hope and to reach for more than our circumstances demanded. I am a clinician at heart. My volunteer activities are all about creating a better world from building seminary buildings in the Philippines to teaching adult Sunday School and Stephen Ministry classes to ministering to First Responders at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist’s attacks.
I’ve been on a mission “No man or woman left behind!” I want every person to fight for healing and recovery even when it is painfully difficult. To hold onto God even when He looks absent. I can’t quit, it is not in my nature. And I don’t want anyone to be alone in the journey of fighting for a better life.
Writing was my first love but not my best love. Walking with the wounded was my best love. Now, in the last part of my career I began writing again because I saw few self help books that were useful. Most of them describe problems but offer no real hope or direction. Some even written by people without any credentials or experience in helping.
This particular book developed as I struggled with my son’s diagnosis of an incurable, life threatening disease. I pounded God with my prayers for healing and was directed to look at the Saturday of the Easter story. I resonated with Saturday because as a Psychologist I meet people on the Saturday of their lives. If you think of Easter, the most horrible event is Jesus’ beating and execution on Friday. Saturday comes with heartache and uncertainty and the disciples did not know Sunday healing was coming. They just knew Saturday pain. In my exploration of Easter Saturday I joined my psychological and spiritual viewpoints into one whole and named it Hope is On the Way: How God Reveals a Wellspring of Help on Easter Saturday.
I failed miserably in my poor attempts to escape the crippling dysfunction of my family and as a teen became severely depressed and full of anxiety. My life changed when I stumbled into a therapist’s office and into a relationship with a Christian boy. The therapist introduced me to ways to change my thinking and how to talk through my pain. The boy introduced me to Jesus Christ who would upend my life and lead me to healing of the depression and anxiety. From my first encounter with Christ, I experienced hope and light for a path out of the darkness. The course of my life was forever altered in ways more wonderful than I could imagine.
College followed and I veered from my desire to be a journalist when I volunteered at the state psychiatric hospital, back when we offered long term, in-depth treatment for psychological maladies. I met and fell in love with a group of patients who were slowly integrating into “normal life”. They named themselves “the Happy Travelers” and I took them out of the locked hospital on weekly excursions into the Lexington, KY community. The trips with those who battled schizophrenia, severe depression and personality disorders were never ever dull and were always colorful. I grew to admire those folks who battled for sanity and connection every single day. The obstacles in their brains, and in their families were huge and their resources so small and yet they persisted in pursuing hope. The Happy Travelers invited me into their world and let me come along side them in their suffering and in their quest for wellness.
God equipped me with a well of empathy and a passion for challenging all the Happy Travelers in life to grab on to hope and to reach for more than our circumstances demanded. I am a clinician at heart. My volunteer activities are all about creating a better world from building seminary buildings in the Philippines to teaching adult Sunday School and Stephen Ministry classes to ministering to First Responders at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist’s attacks.
I’ve been on a mission “No man or woman left behind!” I want every person to fight for healing and recovery even when it is painfully difficult. To hold onto God even when He looks absent. I can’t quit, it is not in my nature. And I don’t want anyone to be alone in the journey of fighting for a better life.
Writing was my first love but not my best love. Walking with the wounded was my best love. Now, in the last part of my career I began writing again because I saw few self help books that were useful. Most of them describe problems but offer no real hope or direction. Some even written by people without any credentials or experience in helping.
This particular book developed as I struggled with my son’s diagnosis of an incurable, life threatening disease. I pounded God with my prayers for healing and was directed to look at the Saturday of the Easter story. I resonated with Saturday because as a Psychologist I meet people on the Saturday of their lives. If you think of Easter, the most horrible event is Jesus’ beating and execution on Friday. Saturday comes with heartache and uncertainty and the disciples did not know Sunday healing was coming. They just knew Saturday pain. In my exploration of Easter Saturday I joined my psychological and spiritual viewpoints into one whole and named it Hope is On the Way: How God Reveals a Wellspring of Help on Easter Saturday.