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We call it Destiny Haven because it is truly a haven. A place for women to regroup, breathe and heal. The women who arrive at Destiny Haven are desperate to overcome the legacy of past traumas. They are ready to move forward in freedom and renewal. 

Have you ever wondered what that process looks like?

The jigsaw puzzle

It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Recovery has a bunch of different parts to it. Destiny Haven’s recovery program is long-term (12 months or more): women’s deep emotional, spiritual, social, and practical needs are addressed with the aim of empowering them to establish and fulfil their own unique destiny. 

The spiritual piece of the puzzle is the cornerstone of the healing process. Faith is fundamental to personal growth and recovery. Almost every single graduate of the Destiny Haven program can testify to this.

Spirit-led change

Lucy turned up at the Haven after experiencing significant trauma. She had become trapped in addiction and an extremely unhealthy lifestyle that was threatening her future.

“I was in bondage to many different people, places and things,” Lucy explains. “I spent years wanting to die and I partook in many different risk taking and self-sabotaging behaviours as a result. I didn’t know how to regulate my emotions, I lacked life skills and my relationships with my family and friends were broken.”

Lucy describes the therapy she received at Destiny as “Spirit-led, intimate” and giving her “an extremely vast range of tools and resources” to work through her past trauma and addictions.

But ultimately, she says it was being supported to develop a relationship with God that truly transformed her life.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the leaders who were able to express and embody the love, truth and comfort of the Lord,” Lucy shares. “I was taught how to and encouraged to cultivate my own relationship with God, to the extent that I had a confidence that if I had nobody else in the world to help me, He would be enough. The most valuable thing Destiny gave me was me learning how to have a relationship with God, how to hear his voice and how to have a relationship with his Word.”

Lucy says her love for Jesus will continue to keep her going post-graduation. She’s now pursuing YWAM’s Discipleship Training School, a six-month, two-part program designed to help Christians grow in their faith and outreach.

Realising that life is a gift

Chrissy is another woman who experienced healing at Destiny Haven.

“I found Jesus,” Chrissy says simply.

God worked powerfully through Destiny Haven’s staff to show Christ’s transforming love to Chrissy, and one night she experienced what she describes as miraculous deliverance from her greatest burdens. Despite never having considered faith before, Chrissy became instantly convinced that God is real, and that she wanted to follow him.

Of course, Chrissy still had things to work on, but with her newfound faith and freedom in Christ, her sense of purpose and motivation was completely different.

“At Destiny,” Chrissy explains, “We’re not just trying to learn how to not drink. This program works because the reason you want to recover is because life is a gift.”

Chrissy feels an overwhelming sense of contentment with her life now, despite what she has gone through. She believes that God has been at work through every part of her life—good and bad—and she now says, “I am satisfied and I have everything that I need.”

Sharing the gift

For Janine, Co-Founder and CEO, the faith aspect of Destiny Haven is one of the highlights of her life. Janine and her husband Lewis defeated addiction themselves before opening Destiny Haven to share their newfound freedom with others.

“Every day we are grateful that God gifted us the opportunity to lead people to Jesus, the one who set us free so many years ago—and that we get to disciple them in their newfound faith,” Janine shares. “Eternity is soon. I never thought much about it back then, but now that I’m in my 60s? I just want to get there and have God tell me I brought everyone He wanted me to bring with me into eternity.”

A Life Re-Written

For every single one of our Diamonds, there is a ‘Before Destiny’ chapter of their life, and an ‘After Destiny’ chapter. For Tiffany, the ‘Before Destiny’ chapter consisted mostly of cyclical addictive behaviours, domestic violence and unhealthy romantic relationships, risk-taking behaviour and a myriad of half-hearted attempts to abstain from illicit substances that were ruling her every waking moment. 

“I barely held down a job,” Tiffany shares. “I lived in government supported housing. Spent most days off the planet or in withdrawal which involved paranoid hallucinations and psychotic episodes that led to mental health facilities and/or subsequent accidental overdosing in the effort to alleviate the all-consuming withdrawal, landing me in emergency a few nights a week. There were periods of abstinence where I was able to gather some pieces of life and sustain living day to day for short periods, until I again experienced an overwhelming trigger and lapsed back into the cycle of addiction.”

Tiffany was in prison when a Services and Programs Officer shared with her a list of rehabs across New South Wales. Destiny Haven was the only program Tiffany applied for. Fast forward to today—Tiffany is now on the verge of graduating.

She is a completely different person.

“I’ve learnt that people aren’t in bondage to past traumas, they’re in bondage to the lies they believe because of the traumas,” Tiffany says. “I am the people in this statement made by Neil Anderson in his teaching victory over the darkness. I learnt that by acknowledging and accepting my past and the associated feelings completely void of any untruth I can overcome it. Not because I am now capable, but because I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.”

“It’s so hard to summarise the best thing about Destiny Haven, but it’s not just a centre where you come and learn how to get well,” Tiffany explains. “It’s a family, where you are taught how to do life well not only whilst in the program but on into the rest of your life. The support, love and encouragement here lasts even after graduation.”

For Tiffany, the most challenging aspect of being in the program is purely the geographical location of Destiny Haven. Being separated from her three kids in Western Sydney has been an ongoing struggle. Because Tiffany doesn’t have her licence, each month she takes a nine-hour round trip to visit them.

Tiffany will soon begin the ‘After Destiny’ chapter of her life, and she’s really looking forward to it.

“I’ve accepted an anticipated offer to undertake an internship here at Destiny for the next 12 months once I complete the program,” she says. “I have also recently applied to Morling College to study for a Diploma of Ministry, which I will undertake in addition to living here full-time.”

“I believe I am called to be an ambassador of reconciliation, to break the cyclical generational dysfunction within my family, to step out and be the change in this world.”

Please join us in praying for Tiffany as she prepares to enter this next chapter!

How Destiny Haven Changes Lives

Who doesn’t love a good ‘before and after’ transformation? Fitness and weight loss, home renovations, gardening and landscaping, academic improvement… the list goes on.

At Destiny Haven, we have the privilege of watching the ultimate transformation unfold right before our eyes: life transformation.

Here are a few examples of what life was like for women before they came to Destiny Haven—in their own words:

“My life seemed hopeless. I was an ice addict who had managed to lose just everything good in my life. I pushed away anyone who loved or cared for me and I was on a path of total destruction. I knew that if I didn’t change my life I was going to end up either in jail or dead.”

“My life was feeling pretty hopeless. I was experiencing severe depression, anxiety, and what I later discovered was complex PTSD from childhood trauma. I was stuck in a vicious cycle of disordered eating, self-harm, and ending up in hospital from overdoses. I was so unhappy and I didn’t know how to make any of it better. I felt like my only way out was to end it all.”

“A wreck, chaotic, messy, miserable. I was in bondage to many different people, places and things. I spent years wanting to die and I partook in many different risk taking and self-sabotaging behaviours as a result. I didn’t know how to regulate my emotions, I lacked life skills and my relationships with my family and friends were broken.”

Summed up in a word: hopelessness.

When we asked these same women what life is like now, on the other side of completing the program at Destiny Haven—this is what they said:

“I am being free. I’ve learned how to be an adult, how to budget, how to look after myself, and paying rent! All these things felt terrifying before, but once I started doing it and “adulting”, my life became a lot more independent, and I enjoy every minute of it.”

“I now know who I am. I have always struggled with finding a place and fitting in, but I have realised that I wasn’t created to just fit in. God made me unique. I don’t have to be anybody but me.”

“I now know that I am loved, valued and cared about. I know that I have a place in this world, I have a voice and a choice, and I know that I matter.”

Every Diamond we talk to tells us the same two things:

Firstly, Destiny Haven is like a family. The staff at Destiny truly care, and that makes a massive difference when it comes to recovery.

Secondly, the program goes beyond the symptoms (life-controlling issues) to actually treat the underlying causes. Brokenness can’t be fixed with a band-aid. Our holistic recovery approach considers the whole woman and her individualised needs.

Head here to find out more about our program and how it works.

Transforming Trauma

Corinne can’t even begin to count the ways her life has changed since she arrived at Destiny Haven.

“My life was full of chaos,” she shares. “Looking back now, I realise that I never felt safe or comforted. I took that out on binge eating food, then turning to extreme dieting and workout sessions to ‘be accepted’—but that feeling never really came. I didn’t feel worthy of love and acceptance.”

Corinne explains that when her dreams of becoming a wedding singer were shattered, she felt she no longer had anything to lose. That was when she took her parents’ advice and applied to Destiny Haven.

“Destiny taught me how to be tough,” Corinne says. “Blisters and bruises are a part of learning and growing (physically, mentally, spiritually and relationally) and it doesn’t get any easier. But because I didn’t give up there, the tough days aren’t as intimidating now. I know they’ll be difficult, but I’ve been through worse, and I’m still alive today.”

For Corinne, the best thing about Destiny Haven was the knowledge she gained. It’s been truly empowering for her.

“I loved the research,” Corinne explains. “Reading and doing the work, getting deeper into the  psychology of how a brain works, and how it develops through trauma and abuse. Learning about microplasticity really changed my point of view forever, because with this information, it becomes possible to change. Destiny has opened me up to reading more books based on mental health, and ‘The boy who was raised as a dog’ really stands out to me. It gives me hope and empowerment to change.”

It wasn’t all a joy. Corinne found aspects of her time at Destiny to be challenging, too.

“Having to give up control was hard for me,” Corinne admits. “I had to be disciplined and to let go of things that I wanted control of, but they were just holding me back from my full potential. I had to say ‘yes’ to the hard and uncomfortable things, to make the long-term of my life better.”

Fast forward to today, Corinne has successfully graduated from the Destiny Haven program.

“I am now free,” she explains. “I’ve learned how to be an adult, how to budget, how to look after myself, and paying rent! All these things felt terrifying before, but once I started doing it and ‘adulting’, my life became a lot more independent, and I enjoy every minute of it.”

Corinne may have graduated from Destiny Haven, but she hasn’t stopped working on herself. She still sees a counsellor every week, and she’s getting psychological assistance for her CPTSD and ADHD.

“The journey doesn’t end at Destiny,” Corinne says. “You have to keep going, you don’t stop learning. Because Destiny opened me up to the world of mental health, I feel better equipped to understand and to heal myself and my life. I now know God loves me for who I am, and that I can’t do a single thing to make Him not love me. That revelation feels like freedom.”

Kyanne Says ‘I Do’

Kyanne is one of our Destiny Haven graduates who has stayed on to work with the team. You can read the first part of Kyanne’s story here. She has been at Destiny for five years, and she loves having the opportunity to help other women change their lives.

Kyanne tied the knot last month, so we caught up with her to see what life is like in this new season.

Q. What does a ‘normal’ week look like for you on the team at Destiny Haven? What kinds of things do you do?

I don’t think there is such a thing as a ‘normal week’ here at Destiny. I do a variety of different things from general office duties like answering phones, photocopying, to making customers coffees, helping make chocolates, working outside in the garden, cleaning Valley View or Carriageway to just the everyday home duties—cooking or prepping food and cleaning.

Every day is a little different and I never know what might pop up. No two days are the same here at Destiny, and I love that.

Q. What do you love about being on team at Destiny?

Watching women come into the program, broken with very little to no hope, and then getting to walk alongside them through their healing journey and watching them graduate as beautiful, strong, capable women.

Q. What are the hardest things about being on team?

Watching women leave prematurely, knowing the potential that God placed in them.

Q. We hear you got married recently (congratulations!). Please tell us more!

I’ve dreamed of my wedding day since I was a little girl. My day was everything that I hoped it would be and more. Words can’t express the love and gratitude I have for my husband for making my dreams come true.

Q. What does your husband think about your role at Destiny?

My husband has a massive heart and loves helping people, so he is so supportive of my role at Destiny. He also helps out when he can—when he is home from work (he’s a FIFO worker).

Q. What are you most looking forward to this year at Destiny?

I’m looking forward to seeing what God is going to do in the lives of the women here and the women who are going to come!