DuSage acknowledges that it’s hard work to, as she puts it, “just get over it,” and that often “truth can be so painful that it makes us feel like we want to die.” But she reminds readers that it’s unhealthy to accept anxiety or stay mired in “survival mode” rather than push oneself toward transformative change. So, writing with the upbeat, inviting tone of a coach or mentor, she lays out clear-eyed action steps toward healing, from letting go of denial to understanding and shaping one’s perceptions to speaking your own truth.
The approach is both nuts-and-bolts practical, with a chapter digging deep into the question of whether to tell one’s story to others, and encouraging of meditative practice and embracing of spirit, energy, and David R. Hawkins’s vibrational scale of consequence. DuSage is an energetic facilitator, whose practice involves helping guiding people who have suffered abuse toward transformative experiences; her treatment of energies, spirits, and vibrations here is matter of fact, with an emphasis on achieving peace and self knowledge, including of one’s “limitless limitations.” The mystic, here, is always in service of the pragmatic, of understanding, forgiving, and embracing one’s deepest self.
Takeaway: This guide to change for people who have faced abuse embraces the practical and the mystic.
Great for fans of: Mariane E. Weigley’s Abuse & Energy, Beverly Engel’s It Wasn’t Your Fault.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: B
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
