Fire of the Five Hearts

In stark, elegant prose, Holly Smith presents an unflinching account of her work with victims of incest, a crime that affects one in five children, and immerses readers in the grueling details of her tiny patients' lives, punctuating the accounts with her own range of emotions: disgust, shock, anger, guilt, joy at victory tempered by sadness of innocence lost.

Holly A. Smith is the supervisor of the Boulder County Sexual Abuse Team in Colorado. She has taught graduate-level courses on the treatment of incest and sexual abuse at the Naropa Institute and has trained at the Denver University School of Social Work.

Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Ricky Still Loves Lulu 2. Isabella 3. The Sins of the Fathers Are Visited Upon the Daughters 4. Laying Down with the Offender 5.To My Haunting Ophelia, Who Brings Me to My Knees - Tie My Hands: On Esthetics, Art, and Spontaneous Weeping 6. On Siblings and Sex 7. The Therapist with Child: Transference and Counter-transference Ad Nauseum 8. On Finding a Voice 9. Falling From Grace 10. Spank Me: On Sex and the Unthinkable 11. From Field to Administration 12. Pockets of Compassion - When Mine are Empty