Whole Again: Healing Your Heart and Rediscovering Your True Self After Toxic Relationships and Emotional Abuse

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 3,370 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 02-25-2025


About this item

From a leading voice on recovering from toxic relationships, a deeply insightful guide to getting back to your "old self" again - in order to truly heal and move on.

Jackson MacKenzie has helped millions of people in their struggle to understand the experience of toxic relationships. His first book, Psychopath Free, explained how to identify and survive the immediate situation. In this highly anticipated new audiobook, he guides listeners on what to do next - how to fully heal from abuse in order to find love and acceptance for the self and others.

Through his work with thousands of survivors of abusive relationships, Jackson discovered that survivors frequently have symptoms of trauma lasting long after the relationship is over. These may include feelings of numbness and emptiness, depression, mood swings, isolation, perfectionism, rumination, caretaking and people-pleasing, a need for control, physical maladies, substance abuse, and more.

But he also found that it is possible to work through these symptoms and find fulfillment and love on the other side. In Whole Again, he shares insights and tools for working through the protective self we've developed so that we can finally move on to live a full and authentic life - to once again feel light, free, whole, and ready to give and receive love.

Like Brené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection and John Bradshaw's Healing the Shame that Binds You, Whole Again offers hope and multiple strategies to anyone who has survived a toxic relationship, as well as anyone suffering the effects of a breakup involving lying, cheating, and other forms of abuse - to release old wounds and safely let the love back inside where it belongs.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Kaycee
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Find
    Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2019
    Whole Again offers Sunshine, and Jackson's thesis is that we find it not at the end of some tunnel, but inside ourselves.

    Jackson did a great job clarifying what it means to be whole again with an emphasis on personality disorders, which seem to be more and more a cultural norm. I've been eating up all the PD content I can because it causes damage in my family and I don't want any of that damage to come from me; I want to be a part of the solution. This was the first writing that I have read so far where he really clearly guides the reader into what healing looks like instead of just talking about the problem and different coping techniques.

    I loved his honesty about where he was at on his spiritual walk. I'm a Christian and it was good for me to differentiate my perspective from his in certain moments in his book; where he talks about "unconditional love" I see as 1 John 4:7-8 "God is love," God is agape (the term agape means unconditional love in Greek)... so it was a pretty clear parallel although we might have some different things to say regarding the ins and outs of what unconditional love is and means. I loved the part about our hearts being "unstruck," I loved your painting of the "protective self," and I really needed to hear about how we don't have to constantly be in the healing process, but that once we're out of our shells we'll just know it. It was the lightbulb moment I needed to break out of the rest of my shell. Yay!

    As a Christian, I see that once I have accepted Jesus (unconditional love) into my heart, the protective shell is no longer needed, since the love of Jesus (unconditional love) will heal me enough to allow me to see and even sometimes repel or avoid altogether situations and people who are unsafe for me, and to make it more of my identity to stand up for myself to create healthy, loving boundaries, and to just transparently and freely be who I am.

    I appreciated this book and not a week went by after I finished it that I gave it to a friend of mine who was going through her own recovery process. In fact she probably would not have accepted it if it were written by a Christian since she's been burned by some, so it was a good bridge for the two of us. Thank you, Jackson! xo
  • Amy
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is a powerful book
    Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2022
    I purchased this book in 2020, and I have read it four different times in two years. I have read other reviews from people who said that they found this book confusing or discouraging to read and they do not recommend the book. I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe these people are blocking/dismissing the content out of fear.

    This book has many layers within it. It examines core wounds, shame, abusive relationships, boundaries, personality disorders, self-compassion, self-forgiveness, and forgiveness. I read this book four different times in two years because I realized I had to be ready to receive and understand the content within the book. When I first read it, I appreciated one angle, but could not register the other angles. My brain blocked out abstract and painful concepts. Every time I took a step forward or experienced a painful yet significant growth in my healing journey, I reread this book. The a-ha happened. The next layer of content within the book registered for me. It clicked.

    The content notes that a person needs to sit with discomfort and pain in order to grieve the loss of a relationship, as well as come to a radical acceptance that the relationship was abusive and that it is non-repairable. I had to be ready to digest that truth and experience, and it takes time to get to that place.

    I have many books on healing from toxic relationships. I’ve attended many hours of therapy and workshops. This book affirms all that I’ve learned about healing from a traumatic relationship: self-examination, self-acceptance, grief, mindfulness, and boundaries.

    I hope this book helps you as much as it helps me. I read it whenever I need to get back on track and/or feel affirmed. I’m grateful for this book.
  • Sarahinwi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very very helpful book! Highly recommend!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2024
    Very very helpful book! Highly recommend! I feel better after this read, the information is real, I can attest to the suggested processes to clear bad feelings/ memories.
  • Brianna Weldon
    5.0 out of 5 stars it’s Gets Worse Before It Gets Better
    Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2023
    My therapist shared with me an excerpt from this book about the protective self behaviors and that helped me move forward tremendously. When I read the book after, I started to understand what was fueling the protective self and had to learn to love on the shame and hurt inside me by giving it space and not trying to silence or distract myself from it.

    I felt BAD for several days and now I notice I don’t feel as bad as I used to when things happen. I really feel like this was critical healing work that wasn’t just understanding of changing but actually healing.

    And I learned so much about my pervasive codependency. He talked about it such detail that I am able to consider how this construct shows up in various areas of my life.

    Great book.

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