The Courage to Trust: A Guide to Building Deep and Lasting Relationships

You’re probably familiar with the old saying, once bitten, twice shy. It describes a painful uncertainty many of us feel every day as we try to engage with other people. Acts of betrayal from our pasts can lead us into long cycles of wariness and mistrust. An inability to trust wisely can lead us to loneliness and isolation, or worse—putting our trust in the wrong people too easily.

The good news is that the ability to trust is both a choice and a skill that you can develop. You do not have to be controlled by the past. To a child, trust is a feeling that comes and goes, always under the influence of other people. Only as an adult can you learn how and when to trust more wisely. This book is a warm and friendly guide to achieving greater self-confidence and deeper levels of intimacy and trust.

Helped along by the book’s exercises and ideas for self-reflection, you’ll begin to develop new patterns of trust. Start by getting comfortable trusting your own instincts. Then, experiment with developing relationships based on mutual trust and curiosity. Learn from and then let go of old betrayals that have impaired your trust-building skills, and approach the rest of your life with a renewed sense of purpose and belonging.

Cynthia Wall, LCSW, earned her master’s degree in social work at the University of California, Berkeley, and works in private practice counseling individuals and couples. Her specialty is helping people claim freedom from the limits created by loss and betrayal. She is a volunteer with the American Red Cross and the local hospice in Fort Bragg, CA, where she helps train volunteers and is also involved with the Compassionate Friends, a support group for bereaved parents. A gifted seminar and group leader, she has taught classes in personal growth and self-esteem at the College of the Redwoods in Northern California. Her workshop Trust, Betrayal, and Forgiveness: A Leap of Faith helped her refine the concepts in this book. She has published the ninety-minute audiotape Embracing True Prosperity and leads workshops about the psychological and practical aspects of finance. In her latest workshop, The Courage to Trust, she presents powerful techniques that increase self-trust and trustworthiness and teaches how to trust others more wisely. She lives with her husband of twenty-five years, Marshall Rogers, on the Mendocino coast in Northern California. You can contact Cynthia Wall directly at www.thecouragetotrust.com.