Memoirs of A Healer/Clinical Social Worker: Autobiography of Bruce Whealton

Acknowledgments And Recommendations

Book recommendations:

This is what Amritari wrote about my book:

I really feel like I get to know you through most of the book and then when everything falls apart it is really shocking and disturbing. As a reader one really cares about you as a character. As a reader, I really want to know what happens to you.

You are such a beautiful writer. I just love how you write. It is so easy to read and get engrossed in all the details. I just enjoyed your book so much and was up into the early morning hours reading it. I couldn't put it down.

- Amritari Martinez adding:

I stayed up till 2 am to finish your book. Oh my god. You have suffered so much. The turn of events was shocking. You are such a good writer. It all sounds like such a nightmare. I really hope the next chapters can be about how you returned to your life and healed from all of this misfortune. Your love story was also beautiful. You are such a romantic. It's so sad that all of these things happened to you.

- And later Amritari added:

  This is really Fantastic and engaging. I was totally captivated by your story and drawn into it with your prose and the character of yourself that you created. I want to know more of you. I feel connected to you. I care about you.

Followed by the following:

You did a terrific job bringing more details into your book. I think it is a lot clearer, I really thought you did a good job writing about your romantic encounter with Lynn. That was really beautiful.

It is all so shocking. You have suffered so much. I really think you can turn this around. You are such a nice person and a great writer.

Acknowledgments

I wanted to thank all those who made this book possible.  

I wanted to begin by thanking my good friend and colleague Amritari Martinez.  We both have experience working in the mental health or allied fields.  Without her feedback, support, questions, and guidance, this book would not be possible.  She asked questions that helped me clarify areas where the details of events had not been explained well in earlier drafts.  That sense of someone wanting to know what happened next or what happened with the love of my life, Lynn and me... those questions were so helpful and demonstrated that someone is reading and paying attention and that someone cares!

So, Amritari was like a colleague in the field and an editor all in one.  As a writer, publishing my first novel-length book, we need editors.  Because of everything I have experienced, I am not in a position to pay top dollar to expensive editors.  Mainly I wanted to get the story out there.  I wanted to connect with others.  That is what I found ever since I first shared this book with Amritari!

Cari M. and others from the Orange County Rape Crisis Center were very supportive in recognizing my own victimization. We discussed the gender bias that exists when one considers who can be seen as a victim. It might be rare but sometimes, as in my own experiences, a male can be the victim of a violent female. It's sad that this is so hard for many people to imagine this can be true.

I wanted to thank Kirra, the girl I met in the hospital in 2019.  Without her friendship, compassion, and kindness, empathy and so much more, I literally wouldn't be here to write this book.  I can't give her last name because we met in a psychiatric hospital.  This is described in the Introduction that follows.  

I want to thank Amy H. also who I met in the same hospital during the same period.  We are still friends.  She was a good listener and similarly compassionate, caring, and empathetic, not to mention a good friend.

During a writing group, I received some great feedback and suggestions from David Scott Binanay which came as an epiphany to me.  David suggested that I start the book with a pleasant account of how I met my first wife and that I should help the reader to get to know me as a person.  This flipped a switch in my mind.  

My autobiography had seemed like it was full of so many ideas that I couldn't articulate a theme or a sense of what the book was about.  It had seemed to be about so many different things and the ideas had not come together as part of one coherent narrative.  I was able to revise the content of my book and to know where it was going with each chapter of the book.  With that advice, I knew why and how each chapter would fit into the overall narrative after this.  I could see each chapter flowing from the previous chapter after that feedback from David.  I had an overall theme for the entire book now and I could see how the different pieces of my story fit together.  

The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health was very helpful and supportive over the past year or more in helping me to find the strength to write this book.

My friend Suzanne Hoy demonstrated compassion, empathy, and curiosity about what has happened to me beginning when I first met her.  We talked that first day for over twelve hours when showed a fascination with my story and wanted to understand all the details.  Her many questions and willingness to listen were very powerful in helping me to tell my story.  I was so lucky and encouraged by her interest.  

The advocates at Community Empowerment Fund were so helpful with their support over the past year.  I was seeking a platform where I could tell my story and they suggested Wattpad.  This publication is part of my effort to get my life back after an extremely tragic miscarriage of justice.  Initially, it was hard to talk about what had happened to me.