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| Dear Friends,
Every year the Institute for Healthy Families serves families all over the world by carrying out our mission: Restoring Hope in the Hurting Home. We achieve this by helping families unconditionally love their children who are struggling with sexual and gender identity conflicts. Our hope is to journey with each mother, father, son, and daughter - one at a time - as they work towards family healing.
I am writing you today because we cannot do this without your financial support. Please remember us in your year-end non-profit charitable giving. |
| | Many of the families we work with cannot afford the full fees to attend our retreats or receive our counseling/online courses. Please help us by giving a generous, year-end tax-deductible donation so we can help more families in 2025.
Please visit our secure website by clicking here to give a tax-deductible online gift. Alternatively, we would be very grateful if you can mail us a check so we can avoid paying credit card processing fees on your donation. Please mail your tax-deductible gift to:
Institute for Healthy Families
10620 Crestwood Drive, Suite C
Manassas, VA 20109
Please see our recent newsletter below this message to learn more about IHF's accomplishments in 2024, and don't forget to tell your friends, families, and church community about our family programs, including our 12-month online course that begins on January 20, 2025.
Thank you again for your generous partnership, and from our family to yours, I wish you the warmest of holiday's and blessings for a healthy and happy new year!
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Doyle, LPC, CCTP
Executive Director
Licensed Professional Counselor / Certified Clinical Trauma Professional
Institute for Healthy Families
www.InstituteforHealthyFamilies.org |
| | Institute for Healthy Families is Changing Lives: Healing One Family at a Time
Monica called our office on a spring Tuesday morning in a panic! Her teenage son had just revealed he had been struggling with gender confusion for many years but could not find the courage to tell her and his father, Rafael, about his problem. They were in utter disbelief! Monica and Rafael had raised their two children in the church. Every Sunday they worshipped together. The kids regularly attended mid-week youth group and Bible studies. They were baptized. They knew the Lord! How could their son possibly think he was transgender? How could this happen to their family? |
| | During our first meeting, I asked Monica and Rafael to tell me not only about their son, but their own childhoods growing up, and how their marriage was functioning today. Turns out, things were not so good. Both mom and dad were tired and stressed, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially! Rafael’s family emigrated from South America when he was five years old, and his father drove trucks most of his childhood to earn money for the family while his mother stayed home to raise the children. While his father provided for the family, he rarely spent any quality time with Rafael, who felt emotionally abandoned.
Monica also had her share of family problems. Her parents divorced when she was twelve, which forced her mother to move out-of-state during middle-school, disrupting her education and social development. This had devastating effects on her emotional well-being as a young woman, and she carried those insecurities into her marriage with Rafael. As we discussed their son’s gender confusion, it became apparent to the couple where some of his wounds had originated. But before they could address their son’s struggle, Monica and Rafael needed to begin by healing their own childhood wounds.
A few months later, Rafael attended our Break-Free Your Inner Child retreat and began to understand how the relationship with his father affected not only his son, but the way he connected with his daughter and wife as well. Later that summer, the family invited me to their home for a Healing the Family therapy intensive, where each family member was able to share the deep pain they all felt, but were never able to express in such an intimate, honest way. It marked the beginning of their healing journey, and soon after, I began working with mom, dad, son, and even their daughter, in individual therapy. While their journey is by no means finished, the healing they have already experienced is helping them connect in new and meaningful ways! Read what Rafael had to say!
The family sessions were very “emotionally” clearing for me. I had the chance to work with each of my family members to share my feelings towards them. I felt such deep compassion and love for them. I am very grateful for Christopher’s deep insight and desire to help our family heal from our wounds and trauma. |
| TRAINING CHRISTIAN MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS!
In 2024, IHF continued its educational outreach as Executive Director Christopher Doyle presented a training to Christian mental health professionals at the Association of Christians in Health and Human Services (ACHHS) conference in Washington, D.C. Christopher spoke about his work with parents whose children are struggling with sexual and gender identity conflicts and how the Healing the Family therapy program is helping families (see photos of Christopher speaking and sharing his work with ACHHS colleagues)! |
| WE NEED YOUR HELP TO FULFILL OUR MISSION: RESTORING HOPE IN THE HURTING HOME!
IHF is standing strong in our efforts to change lives by healing one family at a time and fulfill our mission: Restoring Hope in the Hurting Home. That is why the focus of our work remains on parent and family education as the driving force to healing. In 2024, we continued to work with dozens of families around the world in our year-long online parent’s class!
Next year, we hope to resume our Key to Your Child’s Heart retreats for moms and dads, as well as continue to host our Break-Free Your Inner Child healing retreat at Lake Anna, Virginia. Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to provide every man in financial-need with a partial scholarship in 2024!Next year, we hope to be able to provide even more scholarships for men, moms, and dads to attend our healing retreats! |
| A SPECIAL NOTE TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS. THANK YOU FOR STANDING WITH US!
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the IRS revoked our non-profit status due to an administrative error in not receiving our 990 tax returns. We are excited to announce that in October, the IRS retroactively reinstated our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as of May 15, 2020. Donations received during this time are fully tax-deductible, and we are incredibly grateful to all our generous donors who continued to give faithfully!
PLEASE PARTNER WITH US TO HELP RESTORE HOPE IN THE HURTING HOME
Yes, I would like to give a tax-deductible gift of $499 or $249. Please provide a full/partial scholarship for parents like Rafael and Monica to attend IHF’s Key to Your Child’s Heart retreat in 2025! Click here to give a secure, online donation. Yes, I would like to give a tax-deductible gift of $799 or $499. Please provide a full or partial scholarship for a man struggling with sexual and/or gender identity to attend IHF’s Break-Free Your Inner Child healing retreat in 2025! Click here to give a secure, online donation. Yes, I would like to give a tax-deductible gift of to advance IHF’s mission of restoring hope to families that are struggling with children who experience sexual and/or gender identity conflicts. Click here to give a secure, online donation.
THE WORK OF IHF CAN ONLY EXPAND WITH YOUR PARTNERSHIP!
We want to continue offering scholarships for families in financial-need, as many of our clients cannot afford the full registration fee to attend our retreats. Please help us Restore Hope in the Hurting Home by giving a generous, tax-deductible donation on our website!
Thank you for continuing to partner with our non-profit work, and may God bless you and your family!
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Christopher J. Doyle, LPC, CCTP
Executive Director |
| | | | | | | SAVE THE DATE
Break Free Your Inner Child Healing Retreat for Men
Lake Anna, Virginia
May 28 - June 1, 2025
Our annual inner child healing retreat is a place where you can connect with other men and work toward discovering and healing childhood wounds. Working with other men, you have a chance to discover your true self and overcome those things that hold you back from really flourishing.
The group will work through:
- Discovering and healing childhood wounds
- Learning how your inner child adapted from his true self
- Learning how to get authentic needs met
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Institute for Healthy Families Online Trainings |
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Institute for Healthy Families (IHF) specializes in counseling solutions for individuals, couples, families, therapists, and ministry leaders. IHF is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit therapeutic organization located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. As a Judeo-Christian organization, IHF believes that the family is the foundation for healthy individuals, relationships, communities, and places of worship. While IHF is non-sectarian, we believe that God reveals His truth in both the Bible and Creation and that we can use this wisdom to help facilitate healing. IHF believes that through this synthesis of science and faith, we can help our clients form and maintain healthy families that will be able to help their children become the best versions of themselves and fulfill God’s will for their lives. For more information, visit our website at: www.InstituteforHealthyFamilies.org. |
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