Overcoming Sexual Abuse: Andy Woodward
It’s not very often that we meet someone who, through incredible pain and suffering, comes out on the other side as a completely changed human being, with a heart filled with compassion. This is the story of Andy Woodward, who from the age of 11 was sexually abused by his football coach, Barry Bennell.
From a young age Andy dreamed of a football career in Great Britain, and Bennell recognized Andy’s talent and gained his family’s trust, slowly grooming all of them. Between the ages of 11 and 15, Bennell repeatedly sexually abused Andy using emotional blackmail and threats of ruining Andy’s football career to maintain control, guaranteeing that Andy would remain silent. Finally, at age 43, Andy gained the courage to tell his story to The Guardian and freed himself from the secret—“the massive, horrible burden” that shaped his life.
When Andy’s story went public, it prompted many more men to come forward with their own stories of sexual exploitation as young players. The scandal was the darkest chapter in Britain’s football history, and it has triggered an international movement exposing widespread child abuse in football. As for Andy, he was silenced, and it took him many years of self-healing and acceptance to speak again. It was his spirituality that became his true healing process to forgive, accept, and maintain his love for humanity, and to experience peace in his own life.
Accessing Peace and the Untouched Part in All of Us
Forgiveness taught Andy many lessons, but in the simplest terms Andy is here to remind us that no matter how much pain we’ve suffered, there’s another part of us that is not touched or corroded by a traumatic experience. He also reminds us that our pain is no more special or worse than the suffering other people experience, that we don’t have to stay stuck in feeling like a victim. It is through our choices that we become empowered. The essence of forgiveness teaches us that there’s a part of each of us that is separate from this pain and separate from bad treatment. We all have wounds, and the cure is some presence-centered touch of something deeper. This part is deeper than our pain. If we can get to that place within ourselves—which is what forgiveness does for us—we can know what peace truly is. Once we experience it, we can always access it. It’s always there.
Shining a Light Where Others Dare Not Go
One of the most striking things about Andy’s story is that, through immense pain and suffering, he found purpose. He told his story so others could escape suffering. He shone a light where others dare not go. Andy spoke of his whistleblowing as his true “destiny” and developed a deeply resilient framework for his survival. His survival led to the belief that his suffering served a much higher purpose, which helped him let go of a victim mentality and adopt the view that everything that happens in our lives can serve a higher purpose if we choose to recognize it.
As Andy continued his healing journey, he began to develop his own personal philosophy, which he described as “heart energy.” He understands health and healing through the lens of energy and frequency. He sees the human heart not just as a muscle but as an energetic organ whose frequency changes with our emotional state. This is not just New Age thinking. For Andy, it was a deeply personal way of coping and a means of establishing a system of spiritual boundaries for his survival, especially amid the ongoing fallout from being a whistleblower. He used his philosophy to motivate himself and to help him focus not on bitterness, but on helping others. And on those difficult days, Andy’s spiritual outlook, focused on hope, faith, and love, kept his spiritual frequency high, which no one could take away from him.
Heart Coherency and Balance
Research from organizations like the HeartMath Institute shows that when we shift into states such as compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness, our heart rhythms change. These changes correspond to more coherent, balanced physiological states, which in turn affect how we think, feel, and relate to others. This implies that when we choose forgiveness, we are not just changing our thinking; we are also changing the frequency of our hearts. The implication can be profound. We become more balanced energetically, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Andy’s focus on compassion, energy frequencies, and “heart in action” provides a real-world illustration of the biological and emotional models pioneered by the HeartMath Institute.
The Heart as an Antenna to Non-Local Consciousness
There is much that can be said about this. There is a relationship between raising your energy frequency, the act of forgiveness, and something called non-local consciousness, a term used to define consciousness as a unifying, boundless field that exists beyond the constraints of time and space. Accordingly, our heart’s electromagnetic field acts as an antenna. When we are in an unforgiving place, our field becomes “static,” and we are trapped in our ego state of mind, feeling isolated and separated from our world. We can shift this state through forgiveness.
Pioneers in quantum consciousness such as astronaut Edgar Mitchell and Dr. Joe Dispenza tell us that raising our frequency brings our brain and heart into a coherent state. This is when we can tap into non-local consciousness and our interconnectedness with one another. In other words, as we raise our frequency through the practice of forgiveness, compassion, or acts of kindness and experience nonlocal consciousness, we are not just healing ourselves: we are also positively affecting the collective frequency. This was the mechanics behind Andy’s actions. He believes that when one man speaks with pure honesty, that energetic frequency resonates with other survivors, permitting them to safely release their shame.
By Andy’s courage in speaking the unshakeable wave of truth to alleviate the suffering of others, he was operating from a highly coherent, high-frequency state of authenticity, which effectively altered the frequency of the environment, initiating a massive, historic ripple effect that allowed hundreds of other survivors to resonate with his courage and find their own voices.
To hear Andy Woodward’s story in his own words, check out my latest podcast episode, “Breaking the Silence: Childhood Sexual Abuse and Forgiveness.” Subscribe to “Voices of Peace: Personal Forgiveness” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
