From the Heart of an Abandoned Daughter: My Personal Journey Through Family Violence and Beyond

From the Heart of An Abandoned Daughter is about the trauma of family violence. It highlights the inner struggle of the author’s childhood attempt to cope with a terrorizing father and a mother who was so focused on survival that she had to block her own feelings and, consequently, disconnect from her children, leaving them to feel emotionally abandoned rather than protected. Without passing judgment on her parents, Helen tells the story of what happened and how she coped by creating strategies for survival that then became crippling patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving in her adult life. She explains these patterns and offers resources for personal change. This book helps women who grew up with family violence understand its effects on their adult lives, find hope for healing, and feel empowered to re-write their own life narrative.