ZunTold to publish ‘therapy memoir’ from Olson and Walsh

ZunTold will publish a ‘therapy memoir’ about healing from child sexual abuse by Sophie Olson and Patricia Walsh. 

The Flying Child—Finding a Purposeful Life After Child Sexual Abuse Through Compassionate and Creative Therapy—A Cautionary Fairy-tale for Adults, will be published in 2024. Elaine Bousfield acquired world rights directly from the authors.

Olson is a child sexual abuse survivor, activist and founder of The Flying Child CIC – a not-for-profit organisation which aims to improve awareness of child sexual abuse. She couldn’t speak about the experiences and was about to give up on therapy when her therapist and co-author advised her to write about the events as a fairy story in order to detach from them. Olson said: “I went home, and I started to write. And I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. It was an amazing feeling—it was such a release.”

The synopsis for the book adds: “That fairy story became the cautionary fairy tale for adults which forms the basis of the book. Woven into the book is another tale – the journey Pat and Sophie took together via face-to-face sessions, emails, WhatsApp messages and phone conversations.” 

Bousfield said: “When we read Sophie’s manuscript and met Sophie and Pat, we knew there was another tale here. The therapy journey itself, had to be shared with other survivors, therapists and those working in the mental health system. It is both testament to the difference an intuitive therapist can make to a client healing from adverse trauma, and how writing and working creatively can enable a person to rediscover their agency, make sense of their trauma and understand how it has shaped them. Sophie is a remarkable woman. This book, and the work she does through her charity, The Flying Child, will bring hope to other survivors. We hope it will inform service design and policy too.”