Beginning on Feb. 6 at the Fountain Hills Christian Center, Rev. JoAnne Crosby will hold her first class of the eight-week course, “Hiding, Hurting and Healing.”

Crosby has been running the program here in Fountain Hills for the past 15 years but also has 20 years of experience running the program in Minnesota.

Hiding, Hurting and Healing is a Biblical-based program for women of all faiths to help them heal from pain brought about by relationships in their lives.

The program initially had a narrow focus but has expanded to include a myriad of relationship troubles.

“This is a program to help women walk through the pain that has come through relationships,” Crosby said. “It started out being strictly for domestic abuse but we’ve changed the emphasis to include any disappointment, grief, whatever we need to work through.”

Crosby said that she has had women come through the program who have dealt with pain that stems from sexual assault to women dealing with the pain of losing their spouse.

Crosby is no stranger to the pain that she sees in the women who come through the program.

“My husband and I had our own struggles in our marriage, which we’ve been married for 62 years now and we’ve worked that all out,” Crosby said. “He was an alcoholic but he has been sober for many years now. A lot of time it is addictions and chemical dependences that will create a lot of problems in relationships and we had those.”

After addressing the issues with her own marriage, Crosby wanted to help women who were experiencing similar situations.

“I was always drawn to helping hurting people, especially with relationship pain,” Crosby said. “I initially worked in anger management with angry men, but that was not really what I wanted to do. My heart was to work with the women who needed help.”

The course has a dedicated curriculum but Crosby said that the most helpful thing is the women that attend the program gain each other as supports.

“The most important part of the group is that we minster to each other, it’s not about me,” Crosby explained. “It is about these women who are able to confidentially interact without getting up in front of their church.”

The first session of the program will be on Thursday, Feb. 6, at Fountain Hills Christian Center from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

For further information, contact Rev. JoAnne Crosby at 763-242-9181 or by email at joannecrosby40@yahoo.com.