Psychologist Catherine Gildiner recounts the stories of five patients who overcame extraordinary trauma:

• Laura: Abandoned by her alcoholic father and losing her mother early, Laura becomes parent to her siblings, lives under extreme neglect and emotional abandonment; she seeks therapy for stress and recurring herpes outbreaks, and gradually learns to reclaim her sense of self and build boundaries around her worth.  
• Peter: Locked away in an attic by his mother as a young child and raised without emotional safety or sufficient care, Peter suffers from sexual dysfunction and detachment; through therapy he begins to reconnect with his emotional self, explore intimacy, and undo the protective numbness he developed in youth.  
• Danny: A Cree man taken from his family, placed in a residential school, forbidden to maintain his culture and abused both physically and sexually, Danny carries profound trauma; he enters therapy broken but slowly starts to heal identity and grief wounds, finding ways to voice pain and reclaim his heritage.  
• Alana: From the age of four she is subjected to repeated abuse by her father, then further abuse and mutilation from her grandmother, developing dissociative identity as a survival mechanism; her therapeutic work involves integrating fractured parts, facing shame head on, and building trust in herself.  
• Madeline: Raised by a cruel, unstable mother who called her “monster,” Madeline becomes outwardly successful but is haunted by anxiety, panic attacks, and physical illness; in therapy she unravels her perfectionism and fear of rejection, learns to allow vulnerability, and gradually moves into self-compassion.