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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Dedications | |
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| Special Pages | |
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| Introduction | |
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| About Language | |
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| Where Am I Right Now? | |
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| What It Will Feel Like to Use This Book | |
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| About the Exercises in this Book | |
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| Writing as a Healing Tool | |
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| About Freewriting | |
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| Art as a Healing Tool | |
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| About Making Collages | |
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| Survival Skills for Healing | |
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| Creating Safety | |
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| The Five Building Blocks of Safety | |
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| Create Ground Rules | |
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| Build a Container | |
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| Find a Safe Spot | |
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| Establish Your Privacy | |
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| Establish a Protective Ritual | |
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| Building Your Support System | |
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| Creating a Support System | |
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| Helps and Hindrances to Healing | |
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| Therapists and Therapy | |
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| Dealing With Crisis | |
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| When I'm Lost and Scared | |
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| Phone List for Hard Times | |
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| When I Start to Panic | |
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| Things I Can Do When I'm Overwhelmed | |
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| Dealing with Suicidal Feelings | |
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| My Suicide Prevention Plan | |
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| The Emergency Stage | |
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| Simplify Your Life | |
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| Ask for Help | |
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| Create a Light at the End of the Tunnel | |
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| Nurturing Yourself | |
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| Learning to Nurture Yourself | |
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| Marking the Way | |
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| Marking the Way: A Writing Exercise | |
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| What Have I Already Accomplished? | |
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| Celebrating Your Accomplishments | |
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| Taking Stock | |
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| Where did I Come From? | |
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| When I Was Growing Up | |
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| Name the Abuser | |
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| The Effects: How did it Change My Life? | |
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| Assessing the Damage | |
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| Identifying My Strengths | |
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| Activity: Picturing the Effects | |
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| Putting the Abuse in Perspective | |
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| Coping: How did I Survive? | |
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| Identifying Coping Mechanisms | |
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| Forgiving Yourself | |
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| The Pros and Cons of Coping Behaviors | |
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| Developing Healthier Ways of Coping | |
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| Aspects of Healing | |
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| The Decision to Heal | |
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| Preparing for Change | |
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| Facing an Uncertain Future | |
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| Willingness | |
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| About Courage | |
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| Activity: Designing a Warrior Mask | |
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| Expanding Your Capacity for Hope | |
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| Putting Hope Aside: A Writing Exercise | |
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| My Hopes Today | |
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| Making Hopes Come True | |
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| Remembering | |
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| What Is a Memory? | |
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| Piecing Together the Puzzle | |
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| If You Don't Remember | |
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| What Am I Afraid Of? | |
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| Activity: Picturing | |
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| Believing it Happened | |
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| I Don't Want to Believe It | |
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| Research Your Childhood | |
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| Breaking Silence | |
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| Why Tell? | |
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| Simple Telling or Confrontation? | |
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| Childhood Lessons: Silence | |
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| If You Told | |
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| A Few Choice Words on Telling the Truth | |
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| Guidelines for Telling | |
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| Understanding that it Wasn't Your Fault | |
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| Letting Go of Shame | |
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| Identifying Hidden Shame | |
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| Replacing Shame with Reality | |
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| Observing Children | |
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| Evidence of Childhood | |
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| The Child Within | |
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| Activity: Picturing the Child Within | |
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| Letter to an Abused Child: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Learning to Trust Yourself | |
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| Being Present | |
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| Internalized Messages | |
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| The Inner Voice | |
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| Learning to Say No | |
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| Saying No: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Grieving and Mourning | |
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| Naming Your Losses: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Activity: Creating a Grieving Ritual | |
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| Anger | |
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| Anger Inventory | |
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| Fear of Anger | |
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| Letters to an Abuser: A Pair of Writing Exercises | |
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| Anger into Action | |
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| Activity: The Banner Project | |
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| Forgiveness? | |
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| Confrontations | |
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| What Have I Done Already? | |
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| Should I Confront? | |
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| Vanquishing Secret Hopes | |
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| Making a Confrontation Plan | |
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| After the Confrontation | |
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| The Other Eulogy: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Dealing with Your Family Now | |
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| What Is a Family? | |
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| Evaluating My Family of Origin | |
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| Redefining Family | |
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| Looking at Individual Relationships | |
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| Setting the Ground Rules | |
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| Planning for Family Contact | |
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| Developing Realistic Expectations | |
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| Giving Up the Fantasy: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Letting Go: An Activity | |
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| Enjoying Your New Family: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Resolution and Moving on | |
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| How Far Have I Come? A Writing Exercise | |
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| Why Has It Been Worth It? | |
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| Tooting Your Own Horn | |
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| Things I Like About Myself | |
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| Things I've Dreamed of Doing and Becoming | |
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| Activity: Creating a Celebration Ritual | |
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| Guidelines for Healing Sexually | |
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| For Whom Am I Doing This? | |
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| What Is Sex? | |
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| What Is Sex? (Part II) | |
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| Sexual Ground Rules | |
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| Safe Sex Guidelines | |
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| Activity: Massaging Hands | |
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| Sexual Hopes: A Writing Exercise | |
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| Resources | |
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| Organizations | |
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| Healing Books | |