Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon M. Deitz.
Shannon M. Deitz was only three years old when the abuse began by a family member. At the fragile age of 17, she was raped and again, as a freshman in college, she was raped a second time. At the age of 27, she found herself at the bottom of a life that was no longer tolerable. With no place to turn, she found God, surrounding her with His peace and began teaching the teens at her local church. Her work with teens led to a full-time youth ministry. In 2007, her youth group was voted in the top five of EWTN’s Catholic Youth Groups in the United States, and in 2008, she was invited to speak on God’s unfailing love at the World Youth Day Festivities in Sydney, Australia. In 2011, she was again asked to speak at the WYD Festivities in Madrid, Spain.
Having spread the message of God’s amazing love to thousands of teens, she eventually felt called to broaden the sphere of influence through her personal story reaching and healing an adult audience. In 2011, she stepped away from her parish ministry to have more time for speaking engagements and founded Hopeful Hearts Ministry, an advocacy non-profit organization (501c3) which aides in the long-term recovery of adult survivors of all forms of abuse. Shannon is a certified peer support specialist and life coach.
In 2013, Hopeful Hearts Ministry launched the I Have a Voice YouTube video series; revealing 11 emotionally charged personal stories of abuse survivors. The I Have a Voice project consists of intensely moving interrelated videos, all with a collective purpose to help victims overcome their past and be empowered to move forward. Deitz was honored with the Family Time Women of Achievement Award for Women’s Advocate in 2014 and CBS Houston featured Author in 2016. She is the award-winning author of two books, EXPOSED (2010) and REDEEMED (2016). And in 2018, Shannon recognized the joy she received from helping everyone and opened her personal coaching business, Dream 2 Catch Life Coach where she works with individuals to awaken to their true potential.
Has it been a smooth road?
No journey is a smooth journey. I am grateful for every twist, turn, and bump that I’ve encountered along the way over the past 15 years because with each set back I learned how to stand back up and embrace the strength I had within to keep going.
My biggest battle was wrestling with insecurity and internal comparison to others I felt were exactly where I longed to be in their success. When I began speaking at public functions, I overlooked the fact I was personally invited because the organization was interested in what I had to offer. Rather, I listened to the other speakers and began to allow an internal dialogue creep in telling me that I wasn’t good enough, and didn’t have a right to be in the position I was given.
It wasn’t until I came to understand my voice and gifts were unique to me as others messages and talents are unique to them and together we could accomplish so much more good in this world than battling one another in who had more influence.
The key to overcoming the challenges you face is in recognizing the ‘lies’ you here within and immediately dispel them. Rather, focus on the specific gifts and talents you’ve been given and realize no one else can possibly do what you do as well as you because they have not lived your life! And in the same breath, honor and appreciate what others have to offer and when it calls for it, collaborate because the more we work together to fulfill our call the easier the journey becomes.
We’d love to hear more about Hopeful Hearts Ministry and Dream2CatchLifeCoach.
I am a Certified Peer Support specialist, life coach, international speaker, and author. I founded Hopeful Hearts Ministry in 2012 after speaking to so many teen audiences but encountering their adult chaperones who would come up to me after hearing my story of abuse and healing and would share their own, often explaining that they had never told anyone before me about their experience. So many had memories come back of past abuse when they were in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s and realized how their past affected so much of their reactions in responses in life.
I know the struggle of feeling broken, always the one needing to be ‘fixed’ and simply lonely in a room full of “normal” people. I searched for organizations that helped survivors of abuse specifically in on-going trauma recovery rather than immediate response. Not much was available which led me to take the step to form Hopeful Hearts Ministry. I wanted a place where survivors, both women, and men, could feel safe, comfortable and empowered. We focus on peer support services, empowerment programs such as Healing Yoga, Just Breathe mediation and breathing technique classes, Boundaries classes, Trauma Brain information session, and other supportive programs. We don’t replace conventional therapy, rather, we journey alongside the survivor as a personal support system. We work with survivors from all over the world, via Skype, FaceTime or simply by phone. They watch our I Have a Voice Videos and recognize they are not alone, reach out and find that even across continents we are here to support them. We give HOPE to the hopeless.
I’m proud of how far we have come in a matter of eight years and I am excited to see where the future takes us as we have many survivors, who we like to call THRIVERS, across the United States who are anxious to begin a Hopeful Hearts Ministry in their area.
I’m known for my unbridled honesty and willingness to share my story, the good, the bad and the unfortunate ugly. I am excited about a new self-help book I have recently completed and hope to have released soon in 2019, Awake My Soul. It is a step by step directive I use in life coaching to help you awaken to your full potential.
Which women have inspired you in your life?
As a survivor, one that has inspired me is my mother, Judy McGraw. She, too, is a survivor of incest and she took that pain and put it into a passion for helping children by founding the Grayson County chapter of CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. She worked as a caseworker with them for 25 years, when the average life-span of a volunteer is less than two years.
In my own recovery, Author and Speaker, Beth Moore, played a vital role with her Breaking Free bible study, it was my first time to hear someone speak about their abuse which awoke within me the courage to speak about mine and realize how much I needed a support system behind me.
Currently, I am inspired daily by the brave women who come into the facility willing to share their story, to work through the pain, and who strive to not just survive but thrive. I love people, in general, and I love to recognize the strength life experience can bring to a person’s soul.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1210 Hamblen Rd.
Suite 875
Kingwood, TX 77339 - Website: www.HopefulHeartsMinistry.org www.Dream2CatchLifeCoach.com
- Phone: office: 281-608-7544 Cell: 713-775-9213
- Email: shannonmdeitz@gmail.com
- Instagram: hopefulheartsministry dream2catchlifecoach
- Facebook: hopefulheartsministry Shannon M. Deitz
- Twitter: shannondeitz
Image Credit:
Headshot – Jenn Hernandez Photography
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