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Wanda Nordlie explores self-healing in new book By Angie Sykeny
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It’s been a long road to healing for Hudson writer Wanda Nordlie, and now she wants to help others who have experienced trauma or tragedy with her new book Power to Heal My Whole Self. Part memoir and part self-help book, Power to Heal gives Nordlie a chance to tell her story. She talks about growing up in a household where she says adults suffered from alcoholism or were abusive. She also talks about spending time in the foster care system and being sexually abused. “That’s what started me in the whirlwind of self-hatred and shame,” Nordlie said. “I couldn’t bring myself to love myself.” She eventually married, but tragedy struck again when her husband and one of their two children died, leaving her to raise their 16-month-old son on her own. In the aftermath of the devastating loss, Nordlie found some relief through journaling. “For years, I would write, and that was a good outlet for me, to write what I was feeling,” she said. “There were some things that I wrote that I didn’t even know I felt.” Nordlie’s healing process really began, she said, at a women’s retreat. A friend had encouraged her for several years to attend the retreat, but Nordlie declined because she didn’t want to leave her son or her foster mother, who was suffering from dementia. In 2016, after her mother died and her son went off to college, Nordlie “had no excuse not to go,” she said. “[My friend] said, ‘You don’t have anyone else to take care of now, so why don’t you start taking care of yourself?’” she said. “Getting myself to that retreat was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” During the four-day retreat, Nordlie “received so much love and support” from the other women, she said, which was “very therapeutic” and motivated her to begin working through some of her trauma. Nordlie started seeing a trauma counselor, whom she still sees to this day, and was asked to return to the retreat the following year as a guest speaker to share her experience. She agreed. “It was then, after I spoke at the retreat, that I had so many people come up to me and say, ‘You should write a book,’” she said. She consulted with her counselor, who approved of the idea under the condition
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A New, Bigger Location! that they process Nordlie’s writing together every step of the way. “I would write a chapter and [my counselor] would read it and help me work through it,” she said. “Writing the book was the most therapeutic thing I’ve ever done for myself.” At the end of each chapter in Power to Heal, there is a summary of take-away points and questions meant to get readers thinking about their own healing processes. “I always felt like I wanted to help other people heal and not hold on to things that are holding them back from living a fulfilling life,” Nordlie said. “Writing [the book] helped me finish my healing process, and if it helps even one other person, to me, it has served its purpose.” Nordlie plans to release a companion workbook for Power to Heal, which will outline a three-step process to healing: understanding shame and vulnerability, exploring where those feelings come from, and learning how to overcome them. She is also writing another book that will be less of a memoir and more of a self-help book, and she’s looking to start a podcast, both expanding on the topics addressed in Power to Heal. Power to Heal My Whole Self The book is available on Amazon on Kindle and in paperback. For more information about the author, visit powertohealmywholeself.com.
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