Have you ever picked up a self-help book only to find you weren’t ready to go there yet? It happened to me in my thirties when I first tried to read Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis. People praised it for how much it helped them. I read a few pages then skipped to the exercises.

As I continue my mission to retrace the last days of Dian Fossey in my upcoming book, Voices from the Mist, an underlying theme keeps surfacing. Dian experienced trauma during childhood, as many of us have. She felt betrayed by those who were supposed to love and protect her. Awareness of the source of our trauma gives us the opportunity to make more healthy choices. There is a process of recovery. I've learned how to become aware of trauma, choose my response to it, and manage it.

Writing Voices from the Mist: The Last Days of Dian Fossey (working title) has taken me on an unexpected journey of self-awareness and healing. I’ve learned more about myself in the last year than in the first six decades of my life. It takes awareness of a childhood trauma to begin to heal. Some of us become aware later than others.