My BOOKS
Little Sweetheart
Little Sweetheart
This is the true story of the year I turned thirteen— the year I was first groomed, then raped, and then sexually and emotionally abused by my older dance teacher. It was the year I went from being a happy and loved child to feeling deep shame and insecurities that overshadowed my life. Even though I eventually found the strength and resilience to break free from "The Wolf," it took time to undo the damage he caused. A spiritual thread runs through my narrative, because I believe God played an essential role in helping me make sense of things and, ultimately, leading me to treatment and healing.
This is a book of hope, not a book of sorrow.
Re-birth
This picture book tells the story of my daughter and me, including her early trauma from being left in a Russian orphanage for two years and our journey of healing together. Despite the hardships of our beginning relationship, today I share a close and loving bond with my daughter, who is an older teenager now.
The book is intended for foster and adoptive moms and dads, to help them recognize the early signs of attachment disorders that can often be present in children who have experienced disruption, neglect, and abuse. No picture book can offer treatment, of course, but it can serve as both an aid for identification and a source of hope for a wonderful outcome.
This book is not yet published.
Untitled Early Trauma Chapter Book
This book, currently being written and co-authored with Dr. Walter Buenning, explores his parenting principles and how they are applied in real-life situations of parenting a child who has experienced severe neglect and abuse.
Dr Buenning describes in detail not only the principles he teaches, but why and how they work when typical parenting will just not do the job. Meanwhile, I provide the real-life examples of how the trauma of neglect and abuse led to behaviors that had me and my husband feeling helpless, unable to treat the severe emotional damage left behind from our daughter's early years in an orphanage. Today, thanks to Dr. Buenning's teachings, we are no longer a family in crisis. Instead, we have become a family built on love and trust, with a beautiful and healthy daughter.
This book is still in the writing phase.