The Courage to Heal 4e: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse 20th Anniversary Edition [Paperback]

Ellen Bass (Author), Laura Davis (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 4, 2008

Come to terms with your past while moving powerfully into the future

The Courage to Heal is an inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and a map of the healing journey to every woman who was sexually abused as a child—and to those who care about her. Although the effects of child sexual abuse are long-term and severe, healing is possible.

Weaving together personal experience with professional knowledge, the authors provide clear explanations, practical suggestions, and support throughout the healing process. Readers will feel recognized and encouraged by hundreds of moving first-person stories drawn from interviews and the authors' extensive work with survivors, both nationally and internationally.

This completely revised and updated 20th anniversary edition continues to provide the compassionate wisdom the book has been famous for, as well as many new features:

• Contemporary research on trauma and the brain
• An overview of powerful new healing tools such as imagery, meditation, and body-centered practices
• Additional stories that reflect an even greater diversity of survivor experiences
• The reassuring accounts of survivors who have been healing for more than twenty years
• The most comprehensive, up-to-date resource guide in the field
• Insights from the authors' decades of experience

Cherished by survivors, and recommended by therapists and institutions everywhere, The Courage to Heal has often been called the bible of healing from child sexual abuse. This new edition will continue to serve as the healing beacon it has always been.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A pioneer in the field of healing from child sexual abuse, Ellen Bass currently teaches in the MFA program at Pacific University in Oregon. Her poetry books include Mules of Love and The Human Line.

Laura Davis is the author of The Courage to Heal Workbook, Allies in Healing, Becoming the Parent You Want to Be, and I Thought We'd Never Speak Again. She teaches writing and lives with her family in Santa Cruz, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 4 Rev Exp edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061284335
• ISBN-13: 978-0061284335
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 7.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Self-Help > Abuse
  • #9 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Dysfunctional Relationships
  • #13 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Child Abuse

More About the Author

Laura Davis is the author of seven non-fiction books, including The Courage to Heal, Becoming the Parent You Want to Be and I Thought We'd Never Speak Again. Laura's groundbreaking books have sold more than 1.8 million copies around the world. Laura has also worked as a columnist, talk show host, radio reporter, radio producer, blogger, editor, and speaker. Words have always been at the core of her work and her self-expression.

She says, "Writing has been a companion of mine my whole life. I have used words to understand myself, to express myself, to provoke, to educate, to inspire, to make my mark in the world. I've been an author seven times over, a talk show host, a news reporter, a workshop leader, a speaker, a blogger, a columnist, and a writing teacher. Everything I've ever done has focused on communication, using words--both spoken and written--to open hearts and minds. For as long as I can remember, I've always been an agent of change. Although my pathway keeps changing, words are always at the center."

Currently, Laura leads weekly writing groups and memoir writing retreats in the Santa Cruz, CA region, as well as in Bali and Scotland, and she has been mentoring and supporting writers for the past 20 years.

It is truly the work of her heart: "I love teaching. I love watching my students find their natural voice and their rhythm. I love it when they find their true stories and discover the courage to put them on the page. I feel like a midwife as my students birth their stories, and I feel honored to witness their bursts of creativity and pure life energy pouring out on the page. Our writing circles are safe places where skills are honed, tears and laughter are welcome, and each writer is seen, heard and deeply known."

Laura leads weekly writing groups and memoir writing retreats in the Santa Cruz, CA region, as well as an annual summer writing retreat in Bolinas, California, a two-week long writing and yoga retreat in Bali, 10 days in a Scottish castle, and other international retreats.

Laura has created and moderates a vibrant online writing community. She sends free weekly inspirational quote and writing prompt, called the Writer's Journey Roadmap each week. Readers can post their written responses to the weekly prompts online. To learn more about Laura, her books or her workshops, visit Laura's website.

www.lauradavis.net
www.lauradavis.net/roadmap
facebook: Laura Davis & The Writer's Journey

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Courage to Heal: A Thoroughly Updated Classic February 6, 2009

By ginicar

Format:Paperback

THE COURAGE TO HEAL: 4th Edition
By ELLEN BASS and LAURA DAVIS
Ginny NiCarthy

This thoroughly updated version of the classic work The Courage to Heal is a must read for survivors of child sexual abuse. No matter what the survivor`s situation, and regardless of the relationship to the perpetrator, a survivor who reads this book need never feel alone again. Bass and Davis intersperse testimonies of survivors with the latest relevant research-based findings about trauma and the recovery processes. Twenty-some years of interviews and workshops with child sexual abuse survivors have enabled the authors to collect testimonies to quote in the book. Those personal mini-stories provide a sense of immediacy and authenticity, which adds weight to the authors' professional knowledge.
Bass and Davis include information about abuse by strangers as well as by doctors, therapists, teachers and family members. There are sections addressed specifically to males victimized by other males and by women and information for women abused by mothers, as well as examples of abuse of lesbians, gays and transgendered people and abuse by them. Quotes and information about self-cutting, ritual abuse, desires for suicide, the pain of remembering and the pain of not remembering well are all included. Poetry by survivors and by Ellen Bass provides another lens through which to view survivors' experiences.
The original Courage to Heal, written 20 years ago, was a ground breaker. Since then, a great deal has been learned about child sexual abuse, and it seems as if it is all here in this whopper of nearly 600 pages. Victimized children often grow up feeling isolated or shamed by the perception that they are the only ones who endured anything like what they went through. But no matter what the circumstances or relationship to the abusive person, they are almost certain to connect with the stories related here. Some of the brief descriptions of what was done to the victims are hard to read, but the book is only partially about unspeakable acts. Most of it centers on healing.
In addition to the shorter quotes of victims/survivors used to illustrate points discussed, there are 18 much longer stories of recovery from abuse, comprising 80 pages. The authors emphasize that there is no single way to recover from the trauma and no "correct" order of steps to recovery. Chapters and sections are all short, which will encourage a reader to dip into the book at whatever pace she or he is comfortable with and can read parts of the book in whatever order is helpful. The ways of finding solace include healing based in spirituality, the body, addiction treatment, cognitive therapy and other processes. In case the reader wants even more information on a particular topic, the book includes a 60 page Resource Guide.
The Courage to Heal is of enormous value to survivors, but it is also a must read for any professional - doctor, judge, therapist, teacher, lawyer - who may come into contact with a survivor of child sexual abuse. It is chock full of valuable material that comes from both the heart and the mind. It's an indispensable resource that will deepen professionals' sensitivity to what a client may be going through. Though it may seem like an oxymoron, Bass and Davis have given us a classic that is thoroughly up-to-date.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars what a godsend March 29, 2009

By dr magic

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this for a friend who confided her history of abuse to me. I asked a great therapist friend to recommend a book and she gave me this one. My abused friend called me in tears because she felt this book was written personally for her.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Incest Survivor April 6, 2009

By Desiree Leger

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

It has been almost 25 years since the beginning of my first encounter with incest. I am a survivor. I am now in counseling going into my 8th week. I am so thankful for the authors of this book. I know I'm not the only one that there are others out there that have gone through this and who are you to turn to at the age of 5? I had no one... Now that I am an adult I can say that I am a survivor and I am in the healing process. I know it won't happen overnight it may take years. For this has been bottled up inside me for over 20 years now. Peace be with all of you who have had to face incest or has a loved one who has faced incest.

edited: As I am going through the reviews to see what others have written. I am seeing lots of bad reviews. I unless you have been abused you will not know what you we have gone through to survive. Or you may be an abuser and are objecting. I have a younger sister who was only 1 or 2 years old I was around that age of 8 my other sister was 5 or 6 that we know of were the only ones molested. Now who's to say my youngest sister wasn't. Do you actually think a 2 year old could remember that? She says she hasn't but she is exactly the same as me and my other sister. Depression, characteristics, mood swings, etc. We are all identical. I have spoken up and made it known of the incest through my family as it was family members that did this. So for those of you who are writing bad reviews. Keep it to yourselves. Sometimes the truth hurts.