How Deep Is the Wound? Receives Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award

Honored to Share Some Exciting News

I am delighted to share that How Deep Is the Wound?: A Guide to Investigating, Understanding, and Resolving Your Emotional Pain has been named a Silver Winner in the 2025 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

This recognition is especially meaningful because the Foreword INDIES Awards celebrate outstanding books published by independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors. To have this work acknowledged among so many remarkable books is both humbling and deeply gratifying.

When I began writing How Deep Is the Wound?, I had a simple goal: to help people better understand their emotional suffering.

Over the years, I have observed how often emotional pain is misunderstood. Sometimes people minimize their struggles because they believe they are "not serious enough." Other times, every painful experience is automatically interpreted through the lens of trauma. In reality, emotional suffering is far more nuanced.

One of the central ideas behind the book is that not every painful experience is trauma, but every emotional wound deserves attention, care, and resolution.

Understanding the difference matters. When we can more accurately identify what we are experiencing, we become better equipped to respond with clarity, self-compassion, and resilience. Healing begins with understanding.

The book brings together insights from psychology, neuroscience, trauma studies, and decades of clinical experience to offer readers practical tools for investigating their emotional lives, understanding the roots of their pain, and finding pathways toward healing and growth.

Receiving this award is an honor, but what means even more to me are the messages I have received from readers who have found comfort, validation, and hope in these pages. Those conversations are the reason I write.

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Foreword Reviews, the judges of the INDIES Awards, and everyone who has supported this work. Thank you to those who have read the book, recommended it, reviewed it, shared it with others, and incorporated its ideas into their personal and professional lives.

This recognition encourages me to continue the work of helping people understand emotional pain with greater depth, accuracy, and compassion.

Thank you for being part of this journey.