The Courage to Speak Your Truth

I have officially finished writing my second book and want to share some background about why this is so important.

This book is a woven tapestry of my stories and poetry from the final phase of my healing journey. You see, for me, there were three distinct stages of surviving childhood sexual abuse beyond the incidents themselves.

Remembering, Recovering, and Reporting.

Like many adult survivors of childhood abuse, it took me 23 years to come forward and report it to the police. I had shared my memories with family and close friends when they surfaced in my early twenties, but no one knew the whole truth about what had happened to me. This was not because I didn't have the confidence to tell them but because I had decided it was more courageous to protect them as we had all been through enough. So I kept pushing forward in life and business, striving and proving I was better than the shame I was carrying in isolation. Until it became too heavy to carry any more, it was getting in the way of my relationships having the depth and connection I desired, and it was impacting my capacity to connect to the clients I was working with. It was time to find new courage that involved being vulnerable and letting others in so I didn’t have to carry it alone. So I wrote a book.

This book will help individuals who resonate with my story through their experiences.

It will assist those supporting survivors through their healing of this abuse.

It will also assist teachers, medical practitioners, and police become more trauma-informed.

Finding your voice is messy, and speaking up can take many attempts to get right.

For my cover, I hired a local artist, Kristen Walsh, to help illustrate this; I think she nailed it!