David W. Powell enlisted for a tour of duty in April 1966 with the US Marines after receiving an imminent draft notice. Believing he would be able to leverage his existing skills as a computer programmer, he never thought all they would see on his resume was his Karate expertise. Even less that he would wind up serving as a Rocket man in the jungles of Da Nang and Chu Lai for a 13 month tour in hell.

David’s journey from naive civilian to battle-hardened combat veteran shows us all how fragile our humanity really is. In addition to killing the enemy on the field of battle, he was witness to countless cruelties including murder both cold-blooded and casual, cowardice under fire, and a callous disregard for life beyond most people’s imagination. With each new insult, he lost a little bit of his soul, clinging to his Bible as his only solace while equally certain of his own demise.

Upon returning to civilian life after a two year enlistment, he found himself with nightmares during sleep, intrusive thoughts while awake, a hypervigilant stance combined with an exaggerated startle reaction, and a seeming inability to control basic emotions like anger and sadness. The price he paid for what would only be diagnosed decades later as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was broken marriages and relationships, inability to hold down jobs leading to bankruptcy, alcohol abuse, and having to hide the service he willingly gave to his own country.

In 1989, David eventually recovered through a simple but powerful technique known as Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) and is now symptom-free. Not just for veterans, TIR has since been successfully applied to crime and motor vehicle accident victims, domestic violence survivors, and even children. His story shows what is possible for anyone who has suffered traumatic stress and that hope, healing, and recovery can be theirs too.

Once thought of as a rare and mysterious psychiatric curiosity, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (a.k.a Multiple Personality Disorder) is now understood to be a fairly common outcome of severe trauma in children below seven years of age: most typically extreme and repeated physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse.

Got Parts was written by a survivor of DID in conjunction with her therapist and therapy group. This book is intended to be used in conjuction with a therapist and is not a substitute for therapy. Got Parts is filled with successful strategies, coping techniques, and helpful ways to increase the day-to-day functioning of adult survivors of DID in relationships, work, parenting, self-confidence, and self-care.

"I would highly recommend this book to any DID survivor, because there is a lot of information in there that I try to teach fellow DID survivors in order to manage their DID issues in terms of day to day life." --Stephanie Bryant, MultipleTreasures.org

#1 Selling book on Dissociative Identity Disorder at Amazon.com for 2005

"Beyond Trauma would appear to be a must for any clinician working with clients that have PTSD or anxiety disorder."
-- Jen Oliver, MyShelf.com(January 2004)

"Accepting the Ashes" was written by Quynn Elizabeth, daughter of a two-time Vietnam veteran in the year of her father's death and the escalation of the war in Iraq.

Due to her father's experiences in war he struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, heart sadness and alcoholism all his adult life even though he didn't get diagnosed with PTSD until 1992. In "Accepting the Ashes" Quynn shares her personal story so that other loved ones and veterans who are fighting right now might not have to wait 30 years to heal their painful feelings.

Whether you are a veteran, loved one, coworker or fellow American, you can use the 15 suggestions discussed to help you understand PTSD and its symptoms. Included are simple, yet profound ideas to help families move toward healing, such as "many times, suffering people cannot express their pain and won't seek help", "many will try to mask or numb pain" and "you have to demand the right to heal". In a time of war, understanding and healing war trauma is essential, to our veterans and their families, because we are all in this together.

Below is an excerpt from Accepting the Ashes:

"My father died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2004, and as I went through the boxes of papers of his life, I realized that he had a story to be told, and since he was not able to tell it, I decided I needed to.

He died at the age of 62, young really, by todays standards, but his spirit was old from his life experience. In 1964, when he was 23, he enlisted in the Navy because he was out of college and saw the draft coming. My father volunteered to go to Vietnam, twice.

I am a combat veterans daughter, and this story is about a veterans experiences, mostly after combat. My fathers story is of interest now because we as a people are once again at war, and like in wars of the past, combat veterans are now having experiences similar to those of my fathers and I feel I need to give voice to what came of it, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as where PTSD took him and my family. I am not a psychiatrist. I am a daughter with over 36 years of experience watching a man with a quiet, broken heart, and I am a woman who has the perspective of one who has just looked into the deepest recesses of her fathers heart and mind, and there are some things that need to be said."