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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Healing Through Wonder by Val Walker, read by Katherine Fenton.

Val Walker's profound journey through trauma and spiritual exploration is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. This book beautifully captures the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of connection and awe. A must-read for anyone seeking healing and understanding. -- Shari Botwin, LCSW, author of Thriving After Trauma and Stolen Childhoods
Val Walker's story of healing began in her darkest moment.

Homeless, running from a violent partner, and battling suicidal depression, she found herself sitting by a river holding a bottle of pills in one hand and a bottle of red wine to wash them down in the other. Out of the twilight sky a majestic blue heron circled and landed just a few feet away. Something in the heron's piercing eyes caused her to stop swallowing the pills. In that moment, she realized that there was just too much beauty and magic in the world to give up.

Thus began a decades long quest to understand how wondrous encounters can spark healing from trauma and grief. This inspiring guide shares healing stories sparked by wondrous experiences and unpacks the neuroscience that explains how wonder helps our brains and bodies heal.

Critics Review

Val Walker's newest book Healing through Wonder is a powerful work--urging readers to draw upon their own resilience, particularly a sense of wonder as they cope with loss. Walker reminds us to embrace our own inner strengths as we struggle with grief. This book is a gift to anyone who is bereaved.
Senior Vice-President for Grief Programs, The Hospice Foundation of America, Author, Disenfranchised Grief, Grief is a Journey, When We Die
Healing Through Wonder is a luminous testament to the transformative power of awe. Blending personal vulnerability with compelling research, this book invites readers into a journey where wonder becomes a profound source of healing and hope after trauma and loss.
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Richmond, Editor of Heroism Science and the Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies, Author, Reel Heroes, Heroic Humility, Handbook of Heroism
Walker’s personal experience with trauma is both moving and beautifully written. Her study of awe as a source of healing for herself and others will bring hope, help, and pave a better future for many.
Co-author, There Is No Good Card for This, and Founder of Empathy Bootcamp
In the midst of illness, trauma and loss, it is easy to feel alone and stuck in darkness. By providing a platform for the sharing of awe-inspiring moments, the Healing Through Wonder project propels us toward health by reminding us to step outside of ourselves and to celebrate our collective humanity and the wonder of the world.
Executive Director and Founder, The Health Story Collaborative, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Author, The Healing Power of Storytelling
Val Walker's profound journey through trauma and spiritual exploration is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. This book beautifully captures the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of connection and awe. A must-read for anyone seeking healing and understanding.
Keynote speaker, media contributor, and author of Thriving After Trauma and Stolen Childhoods
Healing Through Wonder honors the truth that grief is not something to fix, but something to live within—and that awe and wonder can create space for healing without forcing it. Val Walker captures how openness and connection can gently accompany the grieving process, especially through the voices of those who have lived it.
CEO, Peer Support Community Partners, MA
Val Walker is gracious enough to open up about her own experiences and show us that the space that exists between trauma and self-compassion has the potential to make us feel comfortable in who we are and how far we have come.
Co-Author of Ten Steps to Finding Happy and author of Psychology Today Blog “The Venn Diagram Life.”
In a world that often demands neat answers and swift resolutions, Healing Through Wonder offers something profoundly different: a compassionate embrace of mystery, awe, and the slow unfolding of healing. Val Walker’s exquisite blend of personal memoir, neuroscience, and community stories honors trauma and grief not as brokenness to be ‘fixed’ but as wounds that call for gentle reverence and presence. This book reminds us that the path to wholeness needs courage but also moments of breathless wonder—moments that open us to life’s beauty and connection.
Author of How Deep Is the Wound? and Traumatization and Its Aftermath, blogger for Psychology Today

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