I Will Not Break

As a child she had to forget in order to survive. As an adult she had to remember in order to be free.

Judith Mattison had a conventional 1940s Midwestern childhood, followed by college, marriage, and children. Still, throughout her life, she was haunted by a mysterious terror of deer head hunting trophies. With the help of a therapist, she began to recover memories of severe abuse at the hands of her father.

Unearthing her repressed past, she learned that forgetting was how she coped as a child. Remembering as an adult broke her apart--and then put her together again. In the process she struggled to overcome shame and fear, to embrace anger, and to claim her truth.

I Will Not Break was a finalist in the annual book awards of Midwest Independent Publishing Association memoir category. It has been a valuable resource for survivors of trauma and their support people, as well as those people concerned about issues of shame, family or abuse.