A five-point plan to usher you through heartache and toward a stronger, healthier place.

“I know how to kill someone and get away with it.” The words spoken by her father when Melissa was a teen haunt her to this day. Two years later, after confessing that he was the serial killer nationally known as the Happy Face Killer, Keith Jesperson was arrested for the murder of eight women. The pain, guilt, and shame that followed her father’s conviction stigmatized Melissa for years until she figured out a way to use her emotions as fuel to free herself from self-imposed limits andset out on a journey to rebuild her fragmented life.

Through her work as an Emmy-nominated investigative journalist, television host, educator, and advocate, Melissa createdWHOLE,a five-step program to better develop her own approach to healing: Watch the Storm, Heal Your Heart, Open Your Mind, Leverage Your Power, and Elevate Your Spirit.

Among other things, she found that the commitment to your core values makes all the difference in getting unstuck; that forgiveness gives the greatest chance of making a future not defined by the past; that there is great value in vulnerability; that creativity is essential to living a full life; and that hope is the basis for everything we feel, believe, and do.

In each phase of the program, Melissa inspires you to embrace your past to find wholeness within the parts of your life that you believe to be “broken.” If you are stuck in the rut of a painful experience—whether depression, trauma, pain, fear, addiction, or guilt—you will find comfort in this book’s advice, self-evaluation, and action plans.

WHOLEis a powerful journey of recovery and awakening that reframes the pain experience so it can be used as a way to invite understanding, growth, and transformation into your life.

Melissa Moore's profile page

Michele Matrisciani's profile page

MELISSA MOORE is an Emmy-nominated television investigative journalist with Warner Brothers’Crime Watch Daily and the host of LMN’sMonster in My Family.She is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on the topics of trauma recovery, domestic violence, and serial crimes. She is the author of her memoir,Shattered Silence.

MICHELE MATRISCIANIis a New York Times bestselling editor, collaborator, and ghostwriter hailing from several trade book publishing houses. She is the founder of Bookchic LLC, a publishing consultation firm.

"Having healed from unimaginable trauma, Melissa Moore gifts the reader with a trove of illuminating stories, insight, and practical techniques to transform suffering into wisdom. Throughout, she articulates the deepest wisdom of all: when in doubt, life crisis or emotional storm, do not do. Be."
—Gabor Maté M.D., author ofIn The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

"Melissa Moore has created a guidebook for healing the heart packed with nuggets of practical wisdom.”
—Mark Wolynn, author ofIt Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

“Deeply authentic,WHOLE makes it clear that life's circumstances are less important than how we relate to them. Melissa Moore shares her own experience, and by doing so reveals the potential beauty that gets tapped when a human being turns fully toward her life. She offers many suggestions you can apply in your own life.”
—Sharon Salzberg, author ofLovingkindness andReal Happiness

“There is a wealth of wisdom here for anyone, whether he or she is struggling with an unhappy childhood, struggling with his or her own addiction or that of loved ones, or just trying to cope with life issues. Put this at the top of your self-help reading list.”
—Booklist