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FEATURED AUTHOR

Colleen Harrison

Meet Author Colleen Harrison

Colleen C. Harrison is the author of He Did Deliver Me from Bondage , the LDS 12 Step study guide that was used by LDS Family Services for 10 years from 1995 to 2005, during the A pilot program @ phase of their Addiction Recovery Program. She is also the author of A Voice From the Fire: The Authority of Experience , a memoir based on her life's experiences as the mother in an active LDS family that was eventually overwhelmed and destroyed by hidden addictions. Colleen holds a BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University. She has also completed training for certification as an Addictions Counselor from the University of Utah, and all of the course work for a PhD in Family and Human Development from Utah State University. Colleen has been a presenter at BYU Education Weeks, both at BYU-Idaho and BYU-Provo. She has presented at RS Women's conferences in both the US and in Canada. Colleen is the owner and director of her own publishing company, Windhaven Publishing which specializes in Gospel based addiction recovery literature for the LDS community. She is the mother of 12 children and step-mom to 5. Currently, she lives in Hyrum, UT with her husband, Philip A. Harrison, author of Clean Hands, Pure Heart : Overcoming Addiction to Pornography Through the Redeeming Power of Jesus Christ.

Colleen was born Rose Colleen Campion in Marysville, California to predominantly Irish heritage with some Norwegian, English and maybe even a little bit of Cherokee thrown in.  She grew up in Sacramento, California in the 1950s and 60s as an only child.  Her father passed away when she was eight and her life alone with her mother became deeply troubled by her mother’s several addictive behaviors.  Colleen became aware of the LDS faith through a good friend while she was still in junior high school.  She asked the friend’s family several times to put her in touch with their church.  Eventually they did, and after receiving all six missionary lessons in less than two weeks, Colleen was baptized in March, 1963 at the age of 14.

Unaware that her unhealthy eating behaviors that began in her troubled childhood had become an addiction (entrenched dependency), Colleen spent her entire youth and teen years caught in a terrible battle between the exalted definition of herself that the restored gospel offered and the devastated self-worth her weaknesses seemed to reveal.  In 1967 she married another troubled young person and began a marriage that she tried desperately to salvage for the next 23 years until addiction finally destroyed it.

In 1981, when she was introduced to the Twelve Step model of addiction recovery, Colleen began her personal journey of learning the principles of the gospel that most specifically revealed her need to “come unto Christ” in a very personal and singular way.  Previous to that time, her devotion to the Lord had been demonstrated primarily by her external acts of devotion to His Church.  Over the next ten years (1981-1991), Colleen used her daily journal entries to record her in-depth study of the Book of Mormon to validate and illuminate each of the Twelve Steps with “further light and knowledge,” gleaned from the testimonies of the prophets of that great book.  It was these journal entries and her personal spiritual awakening to the Savior that Colleen incorporated into the pages of the LDS Twelve Step study guide, He Did Deliver Me from Bondage which she self-published in 1991.

He Did Deliver Me from Bondage soon became the foundation study guide for Heart t’ Heart, a non-profit LDS Twelve Step addiction recovery support group that also began in 1991, founded by Colleen and several close LDS friends.  In 1995 LDS Family Services requested use of He Did Deliver Me from Bondage as a study guide for their addiction recovery pilot program. Five years later it was named as the only official study guide for the quickly growing Family Services program, and was used exclusively until it was retired in 2005.  Colleen served from 2003 to 2005 on the committee of recovering LDS addicts that created the original draft of the current LDS Family Services study guide, A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing.

Colleen is also the author of A Voice From the Fire: The Authority of Experience, a memoir based on her life's experiences as a wife and mother in an active LDS family that was eventually overwhelmed and destroyed by hidden addictions.  This memoir also reveals Colleen’s decision to return to her dream of obtaining a college degree in English (due to her love of literature, not grammar.


)  Eventually, Colleen received both a BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University with her emphasis in Personal Life Writing.  She has also completed training for certification as an Addictions Counselor from the University of Utah, and all of the course work for a PhD in Family and Human Development from Utah State University.

Colleen moved to Cache Valley, Utah in 1996 as a single mom, expecting to pursue her doctoral work at USU and to eventually receive that degree and begin a professional life of teaching and writing.  The Lord had other plans, though, that revealed themselves when Colleen met Kathy Harrison in the spring of 1998.  Kathy and Colleen became instantly aware of how much they had in common, as both of them were filled with a desire to serve the Lord by helping others learn and practice the true principles in the Twelve Steps.  Every time they talked they felt like they were catching up on a friendship “made in heaven.”  Sadly, late in the summer of that same year Kathy’s serious heart condition—that had necessitated a valve being replaced twice already—suddenly took her life.

Colleen didn’t know what to make of this turn of events.  She had felt so strongly that Kathy and her husband, Phil Harrison, would be dear friends and devoted LDS Twelve Step advocates for years to come.  Within days of Kathy’s passing, however, Colleen was astounded to watch the Lord open up to her heart and mind what she had never before considered—that she should seriously consider joining Phil and Kathy’s family by marrying Phil.  Upon accepting the proposal that felt like it was coming from the Lord and Kathy and Phil, simultaneously, Colleen and Phil were married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple in January, 1999.  Since then they have lived in Hyrum, Utah, in a humble but so very comfortable old house (added onto several times in its 70+ years) on one and a quarter acres.  Phil and Colleen have felt both the Lord’s and Kathy’s blessings continually in their combined effort to testify to the LDS community of the power in the Savior’s offer of atonement to overcome any major challenge in this life.  More of Colleen and Phil’s story can be read in the first chapter of Phil’s book, Clean Hands, Pure Heart: Overcoming Addiction to Pornography Through the Redeeming Power of Jesus Christ.

Colleen has been a presenter at BYU Education Weeks, both at BYU-Idaho and BYU-Provo.  She has presented at Relief Society Women=s conferences in both the US and in Canada.  Colleen is the owner and director of her own publishing company, Windhaven Publishing, which specializes in publication of gospel-based addiction recovery literature for the LDS community.  She is the mother of 12 children and step-mom to 5, and “grandma” to 31, and loves living “after the manner of happiness” with Phil, who recently retired in January 2010.  They are rejoicing in the freedom retirement gives them to visit family and bring to publication the years of recovery insights with which the Lord has blessed them both.  Their latest book, From Heartache to Healing: Finding Power in Christ to Deal with a Loved One’s Sexual Addiction will be available through their website, www.windhavenpublishing.com by August 10, 2010.

Author's Published Articles
2012-07-18

I propose as we follow King Benjamin’s counsel to open our hearts to total humility before the Father and reliance on the Sav...

2012-04-20

Are we frustrated, spiritually dyslexic, wandering in a modern wilderness of stress, when we should be in the promised land of ...

2012-03-01

I didn’t need to lie there trying to figure out what would be the best thing for me to do according to science. I have direct...

2012-02-02

How do you read the Book of Mormon? Do you snack or do you feast? ...

2011-03-08

One woman’s journey to how the Book of Mormon healed her....

2011-01-06

In direct assurance to my mind and heart, I seem to hear the Savior saying: “Colleen, the statement ‘Families are Forever...

2010-12-03

25 Christ-adoring thoughts will make each day until Christmas brighter....

2010-11-21

“Here's a counterintuitive story that became my guiding metaphor for parenting. I only wish I'd known it earlier.” ...

2010-11-20

When you find out your husband has a sexual addiction, it feels a lot like your own personal 9-11, the day the Twin Towers fell...

2010-11-04

You are not a chicken. You are an eagle. You have the soul of an eagle. You have the heart of an eagle. Spread your wings an...

2010-10-07

God explains to us plainly that all that He does is accomplished by spiritual power. Any efforts on our part to create or to ch...

2010-09-02

While I was okay with the idea that lepers and sinners belonged on their knees before the Lord, bathing His feet with their gra...

2010-08-05

The adversary is literally drowning the human family in lies in this day and age....

2010-06-04

Often, the reason we don't call upon God during the midst of temptation is that we don't want Him to tell us what to do....

2009-12-30

Since weakness and temptation is part of the mortal experience, how do we learn to continually repent?...

2009-12-25

A mighty change of heart gives me an awareness of Christ's living presence in my life....

2009-12-23

It is sometimes easy to "do" prayer, instead of be prayer-full....

2009-12-20

...

2009-12-19

We can give our negative emotions away to the Lord--and here's how....

2009-05-27

Those whose hope, peace, strength and potential are being consumed by an addiction (whether it be to drugs and alcohol or to se...

2009-04-27

We can give our negative emotions away to the Lord--and here's how....

2009-04-27

It is sometimes easy to "do" prayer, instead of be prayer-full....

2009-04-27

A mighty change of heart gives me an awareness of Christ's living presence in my life....

2009-04-27

Since weakness and temptation is part of the mortal experience, how do we learn to continually repent?...

2009-04-27

Even with God's power it is not necessarily a painless or fearless experience to put our heart's desires into actions....

2009-04-27

The establishment of Zion begins with a mighty change in my own heart and then extends to others as I act to amend all past wro...

2009-04-27

A parable about how to seek peace when you have been deeply offended....

2009-04-27

Is it really possible to make restitution to all the persons we have harmed? Or to be in harmony with those who have harmed us?...

2009-04-27

Sometimes we get caught up in our own "all or nothing" perception of perfection, totally forgetting that becoming perfect is a ...

2009-04-27

God cannot force more light and knowledge on us than we are willing and spiritually ready to receive. Thus, His word is all He ...

2009-04-27

As the prophets have taught, our life is less about what happens to us and more about the way we choose to respond to what happ...

2009-04-27

Without exception we must all come to realize that we are not more powerful to "mess up" than Christ is to redeem....

2009-04-27

Springtime has long inspired the poet and romantic alike to pen inspiring words of love and zest for life....

2009-04-27

When was the last time you made a searching and fearless inventory of your past in order to chart a new course for a happier fu...

2009-04-27

Two verses from the Book of Mormon disclose the key to getting out of bondage-whether that bondage be to Lamanites, or a destru...

2009-04-27

How can we circumcise our own heart? The answer is simple-we can't. Now what?...

2009-04-27

If God will not fail us, then why do we hesitate and resist trusting Him?...

2009-04-27

True worship is not something you only do once a week, or even twice a day in prayer. Complete dedication to and trust in God's...

2009-04-27

Jesus is the Christ, my Christ and yours. He waits to receive and embrace each of us, but we must each come unto him individual...

2009-04-27

My life began to change "when I finally heard with my heart just one little word-Nephi's use of the word "my"-in describing the...

2009-04-27

What is God's motive in allowing us to be afflicted by our own sins or the sins of another?...

2009-04-27

We are commanded to come to God with broken heart and contrite spirit. How shall we do that?...

2009-04-27

What are the correct principles that will transform one from being spiritually malnourished to spiritually fed?...

2009-04-27

Little does the addict realize that when any of us face a problem of insurmountable proportions, we are actually facing the gre...

2009-04-27

This week we begin our serialization of Colleen Harrison's remarkable book of healing and faith....

2009-04-22

"No one would ever see a drunk, passed out in the gutter, and say, 'There lies a perfectionist!' But that's exactly what I was...

2009-02-25

There is an ever-growing wave of humble honesty about addiction in the LDS community. That combination of humility and honesty ...

2009-02-19

This week we begin our serialization of Colleen Harrison's remarkable book of healing and faith....

2009-02-18

Little does the addict realize that when any of us face a problem of insurmountable proportions, we are actually facing the gre...

2009-02-16

We are commanded to come to God with broken heart and contrite spirit. How shall we do that?...

2009-02-13

What is God's motive in allowing us to be afflicted by our own sins or the sins of another? ...

2009-02-11

My life began to change "when I finally heard with my heart just one little word—Nephi’s use of the word “my”—in desc...

2009-02-09

Jesus is the Christ, my Christ and yours. He waits to receive and embrace each of us, but we must each come unto him individual...

2009-02-08

True worship is not something you only do once a week, or even twice a day in prayer. Complete dedication to and trust in God...

2009-02-05

If God will not fail us, then why do we hesitate and resist trusting Him?...

2009-02-03

How can we circumcise our own heart? The answer is simple—we can’t. Now what?...

2009-02-02

Two verses from the Book of Mormon disclose the key to getting out of bondage—whether that bondage be to Lamanites, or a dest...

2009-01-27

Springtime has long inspired the poet and romantic alike to pen inspiring words of love and zest for life....

2009-01-23

Addiction: There was a time when the LDS community thought of it as a "Word of Wisdom" problem. Now we know that many of those...

2009-01-23

Without exception we must all come to realize that we are not more powerful to “mess up” than Christ is to redeem. ...

2009-01-20

As the prophets have taught, our life is less about what happens to us and more about the way we choose to respond to what happ...

2009-01-17

God cannot force more light and knowledge on us than we are willing and spiritually ready to receive. Thus, His word is all He ...

2009-01-13

Sometimes we get caught up in our own “all or nothing” perception of perfection, totally forgetting that becoming perfect i...

2009-01-10

Is it really possible to make restitution to all the persons we have harmed? Or to be in harmony with those who have harmed us?...

2009-01-07

A parable about how to seek peace when you have been deeply offended....

2009-01-04

The establishment of Zion begins with a mighty change in my own heart and then extends to others as I act to amend all past wro...

2009-01-01

Even with God’s power it is not necessarily a painless or fearless experience to put our heart’s desires into actions....

2008-07-29

With President Hinckley's prophetic witness ringing in our ears that even anger can be addictive, Latter-day Saints are finding...


Author's Blog
January 8, 2013

Recently I was reading the parable of the workers who come late to the field and yet the Lord pays them the same as those who c...

January 12, 2011

I woke up this morning with the words going through my mind, “Wisdom Literature,” and I remembered that in one of ...

January 7, 2011

I recently made a commitment to myself and several loved ones that I would stay in bed every night for seven hours, even if I h...