Bruce Whealton

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About Bruce Whealton
I have dedicated my life to helping others and have done so as a psychotherapist/clinical social worker. I am also a Certified Peer Support Specialist where I can use my lived experience as a survivor of trauma, injustice, and abuse to help others. I must heal myself so that I can help others to heal and find hope. I find writing to be therapeutic and a powerful part of my healing journey. I have written in both non-fiction and poetry.
Currently, I am resuming my career journey by pursuing employment opportunities in the mental health/psychiatric field with the ultimate goal of working as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker/Psychotherapist drawing upon my many years of experience, education, and post-graduate training in psychology and psychotherapy. As a peer support specialist (PSS), I will use different skills and be filing a different role than that of a “therapist.” A PSS is not a therapist.
With all that I have accomplished, I believe anything is possible.
Are you an author?
Author Updates
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Blog postLynn Denise Krupey (1967-2015) – What She Made Possible There is a conversation that I started with someone about my guilt and problems with things I didn’t say to Lynn before she died. There was no closure. Lynn and I lived as husband and wife for years back in the 90s. It should have lasted longer but I had problems back in 2000 when she got sick. She was born with a terminal disease called Cystic Fibrosis and I felt I should have been prepared to cope with the day when her life would be t3 weeks ago Read more
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Blog postAuthor Interview: Bruce Whealton Interviewed regarding their writing Jasveena from International Book Promotion interview In the above video I was interviewed about my book series – a series of memoirs (creative non-fiction). This particular book is titled “Overcoming Shyness & Loving Lynn – A Memoir” . The book is available on Amazon here.
The book is a love story but it is more complicated than that. It would have been nice if the couple that fell in love lived happily ever aft3 weeks ago Read more -
Blog postBelieving in Love I was just reading the introduction to my book Overcoming Shyness and Loving Lynn – A Memoir which is on Amazon here. One of the intriguing details that I was reading was my lack of a sense that I will fall in love again. It has been a very long time…
I once had so much more confidence and hope. Writing is very therapeutic. Yet, there is so much more that I must do to change my perceptions and feel hope. Love isn’t measured by the length of a relationship. I can say2 months ago Read more -
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Blog postUpdates to “What Really Matters” – My Second Book Here is an update to this chapter of my book of poems about love, loss, and trauma. The nature of the trauma is not discussed in this book.
What really matters most to me are relationships and love. Second, only to my career as a clinical social worker helping others, is the joy and happiness I found in being loved and loving someone.
Joy has a definition that can include happiness and yet I find myself tempted to use both wor2 months ago Read more -
Blog postThree of my books ranked among the top 11 It is so amazing that 3 of my stories are all in the top 11 autobiographies on Wattpad and have been there for a while. The book “What Really Matters: Poems About Love” is a book that tells stories through poetry. I created an external link for this book at https://brucewhealton.com/what-really-matters
“Overcoming Shyness & Loving Lynn – A Memoir” is ranked highest in this category at #8. The link to this book is https://brucewhealton.com2 months ago Read more -
Blog postAnnouncing the 3rd Autobiographical book published on Wattpad I hope that you will enjoy this story which is the 3rd book in a series of autobiographical books. #Biobook. #Memoir, #truestory, #mystory, #shy, #lovestory, #truestory.
Other books in this series are “What Really Matters – Poems about Love.” This is at https://brucewhealton.com/what-really-matters
and “Memoirs of a Healer/Clinical Social Worker – Autobiography of Bruce Whealton,” which is at https://brucewhealton.com2 months ago Read more -
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Blog postSection One – Overcoming Shyness & Loving Lynn – A Memoir This section begins with me walking up the beach at Wrightsville Beach and into the past… a past spent with Lynn. She had lived on Wrightsville Beach – a town in Wilmington – and she was living in her mother and step-father’s retirement home. She was living on N. Lumina Ave. across the street from the beach.
So, Wrightsville Beach is the name of a town and in that town, there is a beach on the open ocean. We spent a2 months ago Read more -
Blog postIntroduction to “Memoirs of a Healer/Clinical Social Worker – Autobiography of Bruce Whealton” I began my autobiography with a story about how I became suicidal for several reasons. I’ll describe just one now. The fact is that what happened in the past – the trauma and injustice I experienced – has had an impact on […]
The post Introduction to “Memoirs of a Healer/Clinical Social Worker – Autobiography of Bruce Whealton” appeared first on .
2 months ago Read more -
Blog postWhat Really Matters: Poems About Love This book is the second in a collection or series of autobiographical books. I dedicate this book to Lynn Denise Krupey (1967 – 2015). Lynn and I lived as husband and wife for years. We had a real meaningful life. While this is a book of poems it is also an autobiography. The book deals with more than just love. There are poems titled “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” and “Fugue State.” There is a sense in which I was lost when I lost literally everything2 months ago Read more
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Blog postMy Autobiographies Rank #2 and #3. Out of over five thousand six hundred autobiographies, my books rank #2 and #3. Here is an image below.
The Memoirs of a Healer/Clinical Social Worker – Autobiography of Bruce Whealton is available here. And Munchausen syndrome by proxy – a Memoir of Abuse is available here. The post My Autobiographies Rank #2 and #3 appeared first on .
2 months ago Read more
Titles By Bruce Whealton
A fuller account of my life can be found in other books of mine. After the poems about love, there are poems with titles like "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," "Fugue State," and "Lost." Once you join your life with another person, you become one and so the loss of that person (or in my case along with other traumatic events) can feel like one has no sense of a home or a personal identity.
I never actually had a fugue state disorder, but it is a great metaphor for what I did experience.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state), we have the definition of Fugue state: a mental and behavioral disorder... The disorder is a rare psychiatric abnormality characterized by reversible amnesia for one's own personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state can last days, months, or longer. A dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. It is a facet of dissociative amnesia, according to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
After recovery from a fugue state, previous memories usually return intact, and further treatment is unnecessary ... Fugues are precipitated by a series of long-term traumatic episodes. It is most commonly associated with childhood victims of sexual abuse who learn over time to dissociate the memory of the abuse (dissociative amnesia).
In this quest to find love, I was successful. I fell in love more than once. The first girl I ever loved was named Celta. I learned on New Year's day of 1991 that she died. I didn't think I could stop crying. I was able to heal and find love again.
It is possible to overcome shyness and to find love. I was very successful in this regard. I'd love to tell you that story. It's a love story about two people Lynn and Bruce. Two poets. Two people in love who wanted a normal life. If you thought that shyness was the only challenge in our lives, unfortunately, you would not know the full story. Anyway, I was in love. I was totally, completely, madly, in love.
The book is as much about Lynn as it is about me. We had a wonderful life together. I was totally and completely, madly in love. Lynn was born with a chronic and terminal illness called Cystic Fibrosis. It affects the lungs making it hard for Lynn to breathe. At the age of just 33, in late July of 2000, she was fighting for her life while my career was falling apart because of events in my own life and my inability to cope with the possibility of living without Lynn. Tragically, we would have to go our separate ways and there was no closure for either of us. It was tragic.
By opening with a story about suicide, I want the reader to understand that the injustice was not just something that happened long ago. I have been living in a virtual prison! I was the victim of a brutal and bloody assault in 2004. Unfortunately, there are assumptions about who can be a victim based on gender. I was male and the perpetrator was female. I endured hours of questioning because the detectives believed the lies they were told by the actual perpetrator that they wrongly saw as a victim. This seemed like the final nail in the coffin of my life. I wouldn't be able to work as a mental health professional and had no one. I had friends and was going through a divorce from my second wife (Elee) but we weren't in love.
What unites the stories and memories are some important themes - love, relationships, and connections. With the support of others, I can help myself and help others who struggle as well. There are certain activities that make life meaningful and bring me happiness. Those are the kinds of activities that inspired me to volunteer at a psychiatric hospital and then to work in the psychiatric field.
Now, I am connecting with others, building relationships, and finding a reason to live again. I am writing my own story of my life. I will fight against the injustice of the past and offer my gifts to the world. I have so much to offer. I have quite a story to tell. I hope you will help me to move on with my life.
I also have friends in my life now that treat me with love, compassion, kindness, and act from a place of empathy.
I also describe in detail the losses I have known. Celta died tragically far too early. Lynn died from a health condition with which she was born. Thomas died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 2010. The loss of a wife is the single greatest stressor that a person can experience. Who am I when I lost the one person that was a part of me? As a couple, my identity was wrapped up in the idea of Lynn and Bruce and not "just Bruce." The commitment was forever. After Lynn got sick, I went about as if I was in a psychological fugue, literally lost... literally wanding about in life like in a trance... not knowing where I was going or where I might want to go.