Review: Releasing the Emotional Wound

Title:  Releasing the Emotional Wound: Shamanic and Psychological Tools to Transcend Trauma and Rebuild Your Life
Author:  Gina Goldfeder
Publisher:  Findhorn Press
Date:  March 17, 2026
Pages:  176 

Psychotherapist Gina Goldfeder shares details from her own life and case studies from her private practice to illustrate that unresolved trauma leaves behind unresolved wounds. Throughout “Releasing the Emotional Wound” are tested tools and practices to help heal those scars.

While primal emotional wounds can affect self-perception and disrupt the lives of injured individuals, identifying those wounds and the behaviors they trigger can be transformative. This book is a manual for those seeking a path to healing. It guides readers through the messy work of understanding their suffering, honoring the wound, and releasing it – thus turning old trauma into a new chance for happiness. 

Using a four-step approach she developed, Gina assists readers through a process that begins with facing and feeling painful experiences that have been buried deep and long avoided. Employing free association, floating attention, transference, and interpretation, she demonstrates how wounds can be portals offering wisdom and opportunities to flourish. 

The first third of the book focuses on understanding the wound and its effects. Part Two introduces tools that can help transcend pain, promote healing, create a new identity, and live a more fulfilling life. They include mantras, journaling, amulets, mandalas, and emotional ceremonies and rituals. Readers learn the power of words, the importance of crafting a personal amulet, the twelve functions of a ritual, and steps to create a personal journal. Part Three consists of self-love exercises and practices such as taking yourself on a date, creating a new identity, and handling forgiveness when no apology has been offered. Lists of clinical cases and exercises are in the appendices, along with a bibliography, and an index.

For those wanting a more joyful life and are willing to stop running from the pain, this book is a useful self-help tool. With the many stories and case studies, readers are likely to recognize themselves, find hope, and start on the path to creating a new identity enabling a new and happy life ahead.

About the Author
Gina Goldfeder Ph.D. is a psychologist who specializes in individual and couples psychotherapy. Working with clients for almost thirty years, she draws on her training in shamanistic healing modalities, psychodrama, sacred geometry, and ThetaHealing. Gina offers courses and workshops on childhood wounds, couples’ communication, self-esteem, and dream interpretation. She lives in Mexico City. For more information, email her at [email protected] or reach her through Facebook or Instagram (dra._gina_goldfeder).

About the Reviewer:
As an eclectic solitary practitioner, I travel the country in a converted school bus and share magick with those I meet. Find me at https://thewitchonwheels.com/ and on Facebook.