Sandra Shaw Dawood was born in 1941. After her parents separated when she was seven, she began walking by herself to a different church, where she attended Sunday school. "I accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour when I was seven...."
Sandra lived with her mother, then with her aunt and uncle, until she graduated from high school in 1959 and was hired by the Philadelphia Electric Company. She married Ben, whom she met while she was in high school, and they had three children. Their marriage was not a partnership--Sandra was mother, wage-earner, and often alone.
In 1966, Sandra became a single parent of her son and two daughters, until she remarried in 1975. Her husband, Younan, was born in Egypt and attended a Christian high school in Beirut, Lebanon.
In 1978, Sandra earned her master's degree in marriage, family, and child counseling from Loma Linda University in California. In 1987, she attained her doctorate in clinical psychology (Ph.D.) from the United States International University in San Diego, California.
Jose Garcia, M.D., a psychiatrist, suggested Sandra study and present the results of her clinical use of a test involving symbolism administered to a group of individuals with mental disorders. This work became the subject of her doctoral dissertation.
One of Sandra's mentors, James Paget Henry, M.D., Ph.D., discussed with her the significance of symbolism in an individual's relationship with God. These and other experts who furthered her clinical study of symbolism were powerful catalysts; Dr. Dawood synthesized her clinical work, her lifelong interest in symbols, and her desire to be closer to God in order to experience life in this way and learn to share it with others.
Dr. Dawood has been a California licensed therapist since 1980. She worked at schools, geriatric facilities, hospitals, adolescent drug treatment programs, a prison, and a battered women's shelter. She was a juvenile court investigator for child abuse and neglect cases. She also taught community college and university classes.
During the time that Sandra was caring for her father in her home from 1992 until his death in 1994, her husband had an affair and her mother died. Three months after her father's death, while she was suffering from major depression, she had an emotional breakdown.
In 1994, Sandra became aware of her unresolved death issues and limited faith in God. She requested God to prove His reality through her inner child by using the absurd or ridiculous to confound the wise, referring to I Corinthians 1:27 (K.J.V.): But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
Dr. Dawood overcame her depression with prayer, treatment, strenuous physical activity (renovating houses she and her husband owned prior to their move to Northern California in 1996), poetry-writing, and keeping a journal. She became more open to God and began to experience her "Eye Statements" from God. Now her life is filled with "Eye Statements From God."
