The Scars You Don’t See: Moving Beyond the Challenges of a Dysfunctional Family

"Normal" can be a mysterious, unreachable goal to people who grew up in dysfunctional families. The good news is, there's a solution for adults who struggle in their relationships, their social interactions, and with their concepts of themselves. Negative childhood experiences teach developing personalities to misinterpret others' motives and behaviors, making them stumble and blame themselves in situations when others wouldn't. Feeling isolated and "different" becomes cyclical. So if you've been waiting to hear "I get you, because I've been you," here's how to change what your childhood experience taught you. Part memoir and part self-help, The Scars You Don't See gives readers new understandings and new interpretations of a childhood filled with angst, confusion and embarrassment - and an adulthood of twisted perceptions and tortured social failures. Be cheered: a more enriching life awaits, minus the unhealthy childhood conditioning. Perceived liabilities rooted in the past can be turned into assets. The Scars You Don't See is a candid, raw and honest, blue-collar first-person perspective, full of effective ideas and daily practices to help identify and overcome the damages adults face after a childhood in a dysfunctional family.

Not a lofty sermon from an onlooker, The Scars You Don't See traces the path out of a dysfunctional upbringing, so others don't have to experience what I did. The resonant tale of an escape from painful clenched confusion, The Scars You Don't See shares validation and accessible practices to a path for self-acceptance and empowerment. It's not academic or clinical, and it's not just my story, it's an alternative to the twisted lessons shared by so many. The solution can be approached through physical, emotional and spiritual practices. This book shares lessons from two decades of treating people with voice disorders, musculoskeletal problems and breathing impairments; restructuring "dysfunctional" into "productive and fulfilling" also requires recognizing the struggle with painful lessons of daily lived reality. I bring you the unique blend of personal perspective, training and experience that allows looking at the world through different lenses. That new vision makes it possible to start living more effectively, steering toward a not-painful "normal." What this book shares will benefit anyone who spent their developmental years being shaped in a dysfunctional family, and help you move from painful to exceptional.