Walker - Complex PTSD: from surviving to thriving: a guide and map for recovering from childhood trauma

Testimonials about Pete Walkers first book, The Tao of Fully Feeling, and his website: www.pete-walker.com

I am writing from Survivors of Abuse Recovering (S.O.A.R.) Society, located in Canada. We would like to include 13 Steps for Managing Flashbacks in our resource manual.

I found myself. I found myself in your words. Its as if you had unzipped me, stepped inside my traumatized inner self, meandered around a bit, come back outside, and wrote about what you discovered inside of me. For the first time in my life.......and Im in my fifties now........I dont feel defective......or crazy.......or weird.......or even unlovable. D.M.

I sat in the San Francisco Airport reading your book (in the washroom, shaking and weeping) to get the courage to go the next leg of the trip. It helped me so much just to know that you live in that area-strange when I havent even met you! Your website and book are invaluable to me. A. R.

I want to thank you so much for all the help you have given me (and all the people Ive passed your website link onto since finding out about it). Your understanding of emotional flashbacks has made an enormous difference in my life. Ive gone from being smashed about by huge waves to having a surfboard on which I can ride at least some of them, and even if I fall off into it, I know it wont last forever. J, New Zealand

Thank you for all of your educational information with regards to PTSD and abandonment. I have finally found something that I have tried to explain to therapists for years. Every single piece of information is exactly what I experience from my PTSD and attachment depression. A

I thank you on a personal and professional level. Your articles on healing from CPTSD have excited me and validated me both. I will be a better therapist now, and heal further in my own life. D

Your article will be one of my regular handouts now to my clients. Needless to say I feel this information and the way you articulate it is a life saver! L.P

How impactful all you have written has been for me and how much healing I have found in the pages of your website. Like the authors you note in your article on bibliotherapy - I was convinced you would have empathy for me had I the occasion to meet you - and here, in this moment, that belief is powerfully actualized. J.S.

I have been labeled and diagnosed with everything from panic disorder to separation anxiety and attachment disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, etc. Then I found a therapist who said I had PTSD from long-term emotional abuse from my father and emotional neglect from my mother and thats when things really started to click. I feel like everything I have been reading from this website is the final piece to the puzzle that I have been searching for in my journey. It is indeed very empowering and liberating. A.M.

Im a long way into my own recovery process now and have recently reached a point of wanting to look back and celebrate how far Ive come. Your words were just what I needed to see at this time. I feel really seen and understood and appreciated. What a gift. P.

After a degree in psychology, training in counseling and decades of therapy this is the first time Ive read something that describes my internal state! F.K.

Ive been working with your book for a few years, and for the first time in my life Im able to be myself and feel a full range of feelings - and my kids are starting to flower due to this hard work. So thank you. N.A.

I wanted to extend my gratitude for all the information you have made available on complex PTSD. Clearly the best resource on the internet. J.C.

I found your online articles about 5 years ago, and have consistently come back to them as I work through Complex PTSD with a wonderful therapist. Your words are sturdy and compassionate and direct and I now find life worth living again. P.S. I keep a copy of 13 Steps/Flashback in my purse. P.B.

This is and will always be a historic day in my life; simply from stumbling onto your articles. Twelve years of huge wastes of treatment time suffering. Youve nailed it. Im talking van der Kolk could learn from you. Ive always hated the psych chatter of how great it is to be able to put a name to this or that or blah, blah. But I stand converted. It is absolutely a miracle to know emotional flashbacks fit the thing. M.

Ive read your articles many many times. Particularly on abandonment depression, you have given me hope to refrain from committing suicide. Thank you so much for taking the time to write these exceptional articles on the internet. I cannot thank you enough. T.M., N. Ireland

I just finished your book. It is powerful and gentle. I am starting your book over now and am using a highlighter as I go through it again. You invite the reader into a warm therapeutic relationship as you write. A beautiful, beautiful book! Thank you A. R.

I wanted to thank you for sharing your work on your website. It was exactly what I needed to get an area of my life unstuck! Your work is insightful, your suggestions are doable, and most importantly they resulted in achieving the gentle shifts most needed to change my life. L.K.

Your articles have offered more insight and hope to me as a CPTSD sufferer, than any other, and I am grateful for this and would like to share this knowledge with others. Please could we have permission to publish your articles on www.ptsdforum.org .

Reading your article was like the clouds clearing up and the sun coming out. Im not crazy, Im not stupid, Im not broken forever. I just have emotional flashbacks and its not my fault. M.L.

Ive never read something that helped me gain such personal insight and clarity to my own life experience. After years of working with coaches, healers, and therapists, Ive never been able to pinpoint what exactly was happening in my own internal processing. I never clearly fit in any box or diagnosis... that is, until now. It is such a relief to read these articles and know that what I struggle with makes sense based on my difficult life (and childhood) experiences. And its an even greater relief to recognize that there are ways to approach and manage this in a positive way. R.T.

I dont think it would be an understatement to tell you that your work has possibly saved my life as well as my fiancs life. We both have complex PTSD and had both pretty much given up on life. Your material has allowed us to understand what is happening to us. It has really opened my eyes. M. M.

You are a gift to me and thousands of people who have suffered like me and who struggle to find their anger (its coming!), self-protection, self-sorrowing, growth. I am re-building, re-parenting myself. L.K., U.K.

I just re-read your book and underlined almost the whole thing. I have gotten so much from your web-site and now the book. Three years plus into therapy, I am amazed at how much I have changed. It blows my mind when I read the fawning stuff now, and realize that I dont really do that anymore. A.

I have been to counseling, psychologists, psychiatrists, spiritual help, you name it; I have tried it. I have many self-help books and online resources. They all give me some helpful information, but, your article gave me more than anything ever has. J. T.

I have been working in the field of counseling education for 12 years, and I can honestly say, I have never found information and theory such as this before. C.M., Asst. Professor of Counseling Psychology

I felt compelled to write and thank you for your article on complex PTSD. Reading it has for the first time allowed me to cry real tears from the depths of my body for the pain and loss I experienced on my life journey so far. M.