To Be Loved

A Story of Truth, Trauma, and Transformation

By: Frank G. Anderson MD

Narrated by: Frank G. Anderson

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Rarely does a trauma therapist disclose their own trauma history...yet it's the untold, brutally honest, incredibly heartbreaking story of Dr. Frank Anderson that made him the world-renowned trauma expert he is today.

Known for his magnetic and radiant personality, Frank spends his time training thousands of clinicians around the world on how to help clients with complex trauma make sense of their suffering. But underneath this charismatic exterior are his dark family secrets, including the marks of child abuse from his father and the invisible scars of shame.

In To Be Loved, Frank shares his confusing experience of growing up an outsider in a typical Midwestern Italian American home that was at one turn fiercely loving, but at the same time unaccepting, abusive, and rife with secrets.

After enduring six years of therapy as a child in the 1970s, he was programmed to be something that he wasn't for decades, and became driven to create the perfect life—until it all fell apart.

It was only then that he realized resilience, forgiveness, and facing his trauma were the keys to living an authentic life—and finally knowing what it feels like to be loved.

©2024 Frank G. Anderson (P)2024 Tantor

A beautiful memoir!

Frank Anderson’s memoir is authentic, powerful, and captivating. He is a true story teller. I thank him for his profound vulnerability and truth telling. He shows us that healing is possible. This book is a true gift to the world! I can’t wait to listen to it again.

Pleasure listening to this audiobook

Frank Anderson does such a great job brining his voice (literally) to this memoir on audiobook. He is vulnerable, honest, insightful, and courageous in his tale of his life thus far. It was a true pleasure listening to the author narrate the book and it flew by!

A gift to a everyone’s healing journey

Frank is warm, honest and full of love. I couldn’t stop listening!!! I have the outmost gratitude for this gift.

A surprisingly healing story that helps me understandmyself

I started to listen 👂 the audiobook without knowing what to expect. Yet, the level of empathy that ignited in me and the connections with my life were beyond any expectation. This book 📚 helps me understand some of my behaviors and how being successful has been my way to being socially and family-accepted. However, what really fills me up is the sense that everything is going to be better 🌟, not perfect, just be good in the end. It'll require hard work, but it has helped me be conscious of family issues and wounds I hadn't realized until now. Thank you, Frank, for sharing your journey and dragging us empathetically into your life and healing process. Thanks!

Courageous, Beautiful, Profoundly Authentic and Full of Transformative Love and Insight, A Sacred Gift

As a social worker, educator, and clinician, and as a human being struggling to live authentically and understand the harm I have caused and experienced, and the call to be a wounded healer, I found Dr. Anderson’s beautiful, courageous, and compassionate memoir to be full of deep and profound insight and inspiration, inviting transformative love, hope, and healing. It is a sacred gift. With deep gratitude, Dr. Anthony Nicotera, JD, DSW, LCSW

Testifying his healing process from Childhood trauma brinda hope.

It is a very corageous descovery of himsef and his way of confronting his mistakes and reactions.

Oh my heart.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us. I see my reflected in it and it helps me to continue my journey into healing and I feel proud of myself.
Thank you again!

A Beatiful Memory for me on the Beach

I listened to this book while enjoying the beach this summer 2024. I laughed at many moments that were similar to my recollections of living in a large Italian American family as the oldest daughter of five! I had tears at moments that showed a beautiful tender vulnerability and story of lived experiences and I celebrated the moments of personal triumph and joy. I loved this book and its message that love heals trauma…

a brilliant memoir

That's a impressive memoir, filled with hope and insights. it's not too triggering, but really engaging

Indeed, a great book!

For some reason, the first chapters didn’t sit well with me. I sensed a lack of authenticity and perhaps constriction in the story. I have C-PTSD and somehow I couldn’t relate to this book. I was thinking about not wasting my precious time and return it but I’m thrilled I didn’t.

No spoilers, but a big opening changed everything and made me realize that what I sensed on the previous chapters made sense. From there on, I found the book so relatable and precious. I wonder how those chapters would read if that opening came earlier…

It’s stunning how Frank navigated and negotiated the turmoil with his complicated family dynamics, plus the integration of his personal life and finding his own healing and authenticity.

This story definitely warms my heart and gives me hope, but at the same time it frightens me. Not everyone has the resources and capacity to move through such upbringings. Of course I’m still processing and absorbing parts of this book. For sure, re-listening is a must.

Frank, thanks for shining your light. I too love Frankie.