Description:
A memoir about the humanity hidden behind the labels and the profound difference one trusted adult can make.
Brief description: C.P. Handler spent six years providing therapy inside state and county juvenile correctional systems, working with traumatized, often gang-involved youth in one of the most challenging institutional environments in the country.She is the founder of Ocean Counseling and offers therapy across Florida, Michigan, and Ohio. Her clinical work specializes in EMDR, Brainspotting, juvenile justice, and work with parents and teens. C.P. also provides trainings internationally. Her book, The Light Within the Walls, explores the lived experiences of incarcerated youth, the systemic failures that harm them, the obstacles to providing healing in systems built for control, and the long-term relationships she continues to maintain with the young men she served.
Review Quotes:
"An essential first-hand account of juvenile incarceration in America, rendered with rare emotional intelligence, empathy, and unflinching honesty... both a testament to the resilience of incarcerated youth and a searing indictment of a system that fails the very people it claims to serve."
-Eli Saslow, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, New York Times writer-at-large, and best-selling author
"A deeply human portrait of meaningful therapeutic work in an environment fundamentally unequipped - and often unwilling - to provide the conditions for necessary healing."
-Kathie Klarreich, Founder of Exchange for Change, journalist and author
"A testament to what healing looks like - and a call for our systems to evolve into places where healing is the rule, not the exception."
-Thomas Zimmerman, MS.Ed., LPCC, author of EMDR with Complex Trauma
"Handler shows what becomes possible when a clinician shows up with courage, consistency, and unconditional regard."
-David A. Singleton, former Executive Director, Ohio Justice & Policy Center; Professor, UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
"Behind those walls are real kids, real pain, real potential, and real stories that deserve to be heard."
-Michael "Rondo" Bonilla, Gen Z organizer; Co-Chair, Future Shapers Advisory Council at REFORM Alliance
"This book tells the truth... C.P. was one of the people who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself."
-"Three," one of the youth in the book