Friday evenings from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., attend a one-time virtual session with the author of Soul Custody: Sparing Children from Divorce that can change the way you approach parenting during a volatile time. Sponsored by the City of Redlands Recreation Division, this virtual class is accessible from any location where participants have registered Zoom accounts. The cost is $28 per session. Click on the above link to register. Must at least be 18 years old.
The image of the blanket in the winning essay wove together the words to earn the $500 winning prize for Tallia D’Orazi of Henderson, Kentucky, a graduate of Evansville Christian School. Out of 887 applicants and 22 finalists for the “Children of Divorce: Lend Your Voices” Scholarship offered by Soul Custody Press through bold.org, hers best responded to the prompt, “How your parents divorce or consideration of divorce has impacted you or affected your childhood.”
The winning essay demonstrated personal impact past, present and future, and the image of the blanket showed the need for children to have security and comfort provided by the intact family.
Common threads among all the essays underscoring their experiences revealed that the trauma of divorce causes children to see their childhoods from the standpoint of their parents’ marital troubles, instead of permitting their childhoods to remain the central theme of the family. The trauma and drama takes over such that the parents’ troubles become the child’s story, and the childhood is lost in the shuffle.
Another common thread among the essays was demonstrated by what’s missing: consideration by parents about the impact of divorce on their children, by the very actions students described. This lack of consideration about the impact on the children caused them to feel ignored, abandoned, left out, and unaccounted for, in all the family drama.
Overall, the shift that occurs from the original family story to a divided one that never comes back together, is like an injury that never heals, but often continues on to create new and unique hardships as a result of divorce.
While many of the essays demonstrated students’ abilities to overcome adversity and exercise resilience, I would call the divorce trauma optional trauma, and therefore imposed adversity and resilience. Whereas accidental trauma is unavoidable, divorce trauma is an intentional harm, and one that has continuing effects long after the initial split. The intentional trauma that divorce it makes it particularly cruel by nature in its effect.
Congratulations to Tallia and best wishes for her desired career in Ministry. Congratulations to all the finalists. Congratulations to every student who with such courage told their story of bravery facing the issue of divorce in their lives. You have lent your voices, and you have been heard!
The first NetGalley review of Soul Custody: Sparing Children from Divorce is in, and so is the verdict from book reviewer Sarah Jensen:
“The Final Verdict: Soul Custody is a necessary corrective to divorce narratives that sideline children’s voices. Henry’s fusion of personal testimony, psychology, and spirituality offers a roadmap for parents willing to do the hard work of putting their children’s souls first. “
NetGalley is an online book review platform where eligible members can read books for free and post reviews of them. Members include reviewers, book trade professionals, librarians, booksellers, educators, journalists, and members of the media who create free member accounts online at www.netgalley.com.
NetGalley is a great way to procure a library of book reviews to add to your portfolio to support your career. You can then post these reviews on Amazon or Goodreads and social media platforms.
InnerSelf, for 30 years promoting “new attitudes and new possibilities” online features an article by Pamela Henry on 7 questions to ask yourself before divorcing.
Read the article here or click on InnerSelf on YouTube :
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – Author Pamela Henry spoke at the ReadersMagnet exhibit at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 27, 2025, about how her memoir raises a rarely discussed topic: People who regret divorce. “I’m trying to reach people before they divorce for the wrong reasons, to spare them from regret later, and save their children from unnecessary trauma.”
She said her book can be healing for anyone touched by divorce. “If you regret divorce from the past, if you grew up under divorce, and if you aren’t married yet, this book has an angle for you to heal and prepare. This is the book that would have spared me from divorce had I read it. So I wrote it instead.”
A common thread detected at this year’s festival: Writing through trauma to overcome it. Author Christina Maria Martinez’s booth had people putting positive messages up. Henry wrote on her message: “Stay married for the kids.” Author Deb Runge (above in blue with red lanyard) is offering Christian women over age 30 five free days of life coaching on Zoom (email recoveryourmission@gmail.com). And author Dr. Jocelyn Mull signed copies of Forgive: It Takes Love To Win about her son’s murder.
“When people write about trauma, it helps readers avert it, and also cope with their own,” Henry said.
For your 2026 calendar: The dates of the 2026 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California have been released. April 18-19, 2026 will mark the one-year anniversary of the release of Soul Custody: Sparing Children from Divorce. Visit the Soul Custody Press tent for live watercolor sketches by Aislin Henry and half price signed copies of all three Soul Custody Press books. To sign up as a sponsor, exhibitor or volunteer at the festival now, go to https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/
Guest Speaker at Saturday’s book launch party for Soul Custody gave us the “four and four” do’s and don’ts for marriages that work!
Forty people gathered virtually on April 21, 2025 to officially launch Soul Custody: Sparing Children from Divorce which released at midnight. A new legacy of lessons learned from divorce is how to make marriages stronger and help people understand why they need to stay for the children.
In her book launch party invocation, author Pamela Henry asked that each of the party attendees be blessed with a greater understanding of family, “a topic near and dear to all our hearts.” After reading from the Preface, she turned the spotlight onto her guest speaker, Dr. Anita Gadhia-Smith, a psychotherapist in Washington, D.C., and author of seven books including, “How To Stay Together Whether You Want To Or Not.”
“In today’s climate, people divorce easily because we live in a disposable society,” said Dr. Gadhia-Smith, who consults for the United States Congress. “There is very little tolerance for the normal discomforts of life and relationships, and people want everything to be easy.”
Dr. Gadhia-Smith says there are four things that destroy marriages: Contempt, criticism, stonewalling and defensiveness. Likewise, there are four things that build up marriage: safety, accessibility, engagement, and responsiveness.
The group discussion afterward affirmed the necessity in today’s political climate for families to bond together stronger than ever and not let division dictate marriage status. Henry called upon the readers of her new book to become advocates of staying for the children: “Reading this book puts you in a unique position to better help any friends, family members or co-workers contemplating divorce. Rather than innocent bystanders, we can be watchdogs for unnecessary divorces and advocates for their marriages where warranted.”
At the launch, Soul Custody Press presented its 2025 Bookmark Awards to book editor Valerie Jones, audiobook producer Jon Lobb and graphic designer Kamaruddin Ahmad. “It’s so powerful when authors narrate their own books,” Lobb said. “In Pamela’s case, it’s the raw, honest emotion the reader will feel.”
Henry recognized family members in attendance. “To my children, may this new legacy of learned lessons be stronger than the legacy of divorce.”
Soul Custody Press 