The Secret and Its Price

"The Secret and Its Price is a wonderful, vivid and compassionate book which takes us on a journey into the secret world of incest. In its pages, Marlene Carmen Nappa takes a risk and shares how her experience impacted her family, her relationships-and ultimately, her entire life. Her story helps the reader appreciate how our original wound may serve as a gateway to new possibilities and healing. This book is like no other book I've read in the way that it captures the triumph of walking through the pain and finding the courage to speak with vulnerability and openness.

-Charlene Tosi

Founder of "Woman Within" Training Author of Discover Your Woman Within Marlene Carmen Nappa has written a moving memoir of childhood incestuous abuse by her father and the subtle and florid long-term effects the abuse has had on her ability to develop relationships and to trust and be intimate with others. Hers is a story of perseverance and determination to get beyond the abuse and its effects and it demonstrates that breaking the silence and posttraumatic growth are both possible. This book is a gift for other sexual abuse survivors looking for inspiration to heal.

-Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP

Psychologist, Private Practice,

Courtois & Associates, PC

Washington, DC

Author: Healing the incest wound: Adult survivors in therapy (Revised edition) Recollections of sexual abuse: Treatment principles and guidelines

Treating complex traumatic stress disorders: An evidence-based guide (with Julian Ford)

The treatment of complex trauma: A sequenced, relationship-based approach (with Julian Ford)-forthcoming, late 2012


What do you do when you find yourself victimized by those you most love and trust? Who is it safe to tell-or is the cost of the truth too high to pay? Being forced to carry a terrible secret is like living behind a high wall. From that point of separation, we call out silently and in vain, desperately hoping that perhaps one day, someone will guess the truth and liberate us from our fortress of alienation. In The Secret and Its Price, author Marlene Carmen Nappa leads the reader down the twisted and rocky path she traveled as the victim of childhood incest. Step by step, we follow her, as she sets out on a journey not of her own making and slowly finds her way out of the maze to create a life on her own terms. This heartbreaking story is ultimately the tale of a champion, who miraculously prevails, despite the profound internal fracture created by the weight of the worst possible kind of secret. Readers will be invited to face their own demons, reconcile their own secrets and lies, and live boldly, authentically, and courageously as the author has learned to do-devoted to the light and the truth, no matter the cost.