This audiobook may be for you if:

• You experienced shocks while your mom was carrying you inside, you were hospitalized or had surgery when very young, or if you experienced a loss or bereavement at a tender age.
• Maybe you were living in an environment that was apparently functioning, where anxiety was the familiar state of the parent, or where due to previous unresolved trauma, the caregiver could look after your physical needs, but could not emotionally connect.
• You grew up in a household with visible dysfunction, substance abuse, violence, or severe mental illness.

Or maybe you don't recognize yourself above, but you know that you:

• Are one of the “difficult clients” from the point of view of health practitioners—you keep coming back, but nothing ever works.
• Are very earnest in your desire to grow and change, and in spite of your best efforts, are stuck in patterns that don't resolve with the usual approach.
• Feel there must be something fundamentally wrong with you, and had this feeling compounded with each further failed endeavor at healing or growth.
• Despair of anything ever changing for the better.

This audiobook describes, in a clear and accessible way, the mechanisms that are at play when someone has experienced trauma at a young age. It describes how early experiences shape the brain and the nervous system, and explains why some patterns and behaviors may resist change.

More than simply shining a light of understanding, it offers a pathway to resolution of those stubborn, unyielding traits. The pathway is gentle—recognizing that very young parts are at play within, regardless of actual age.

The author's own story is woven through the text. Having recently turned 60, and having known those difficulties for most of her own life, it is a story of hope and redemption.