Snake Oil The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling

by Stevens, Reverend Becca

• ISBN13: 9781455519064
• ISBN10: 1455519065
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-03-12
• Publisher: Jericho Books

Summary

After experiencing sexual abuse as a child, the Rev. Becca Stevens created a non-profit to help women who have survived prostitution, trafficking, and addiction find sanctuary and security. This is her - and their - story. Becca Stevens calls herself a "snake oil salesman"--in a positive sense. The social enterprise she founded, Thistle Farms, provides purpose and employment to abused women, providing them with the economic well-being to begin new lives. The natural body care products that Thistle Farms manufactures--balms, soaps, and lotions, whose ingredients include essential oils--bring healing comfort to the company's customers, too. In SNAKE OIL, Stevens tells how her childhood, marked by sexual abuse and her father's tragic death, equipped her with the insight to understand other broken lives, leading her to establish the Magdalene residential community for prostitutes and, later, Thistle Farms. Wise and reflective, SNAKE OIL offers an empowering narrative as well as a selection of recipes for healing remedies that readers can make themselves.

Author Biography

Reverend Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest serving as Chaplain at St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University, and founder of Magdalene and Thistle Farms, a community and social enterprise that stands with women recovering from violence, prostitution, addiction and life on the streets. Magdalene, the residential model, serves women for two years at no cost to residents. Thistle Farms employs residents and graduates who manufacture, market and sell all natural bath and beauty products in over 200 retail stores across the globe.

Stevens was awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity and inducted into the Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2011 she was named one of 15 "Champions of Change" by the White House. To date, she has raised more than $14 million for the organizations she supports. Stevens lives in Nashville with her husband, Grammy-winning songwriter Marcus Hummon, and their three sons.