With Me All Along: A Warm Welcome

Welcome to my site and blog. I’m Katy Bosso. I am a licensed mental health counselor in sunny south Florida, a professor of counseling, and a passionate advocate for whole-body wellness. For my first blog post, I would like to share a glimpse into my emotional process of writing the book, With Me All Along.

This project was part accident, part destiny. You see, I always knew that I wanted to write books. For most of my life I envisioned myself as an author. However, I was not quite sure what the books would be about. What ended up as the content for With Me All Along was the biggest surprise of all. In short, this was a book that I needed seven years ago, when my world came crashing down on top of me. My physical health had taken a dramatic turn for the worst. And if that was not enough, I also suffered the loss of one of the most important people in my life. In my “toolbox,” all that I had to cope was relentless determination coupled with periods of expert-level dissociating. It seemed as if I could completely detach from the present moment when my emotions and thoughts became too overwhelming. I could sink into autopilot and carry out my tasks and responsibilities. When I began healing, slowly but surely, I was able to become more present with myself, connecting to life again and the world around me. I had to get radically honest about not only what happened, but how it impacted my entire life. The process of writing the book healed me, in addition to all the therapies and treatments that I learned about along the way. The tools and strategies that brought me back into alignment had to be shared with others. When I began writing the book, I knew there was no way around that. What I didn’t expect is that I would end up including myself and the messy journey in the book. The process that helped me get to know myself again and yet also for the first time.

What I learned is that many of us do not process what we have been through. We push it under the rug, try to look to the future, and desperately hope that the pain will just dissolve on its own. But it doesn’t. It lingers there, affecting every aspect of our life. While it can seem like we have it all together, those feelings and symptoms are exhausting to keep pushed down and managed. It almost felt like a dam that could break open at any moment, held together by a few fragile sticks. By taking the time to not only witness, but actively transform the trauma and its residual side effects, we can live lives we never dreamed were possible. We can feel better than we have ever felt before. We can stop carrying the heavy burdens we were never meant to bear. We can transform our bodies and our health. Know that writing is a form of therapy and release. It helps us reframe, make sense of, and let go of things we didn’t realize were still in the emotional, psychological storage bin. What are you still storing? What do you need to talk about or make sense of?

How I Began Writing the Book

The process of writing this book was an interesting one. I had the opportunity to attend a virtual writer’s retreat during the summer of 2020. The members of the retreat were instructed to write for thirty days straight, at 1500 words per day. This dedicated daily writing would conclude on day 30 with the first rough draft of my book completed. The retreat provided several methods of coaching and instruction from a wonderful editor, functional life coach, and therapist. It was a truly effective and successful format that offered useful information about writing, emotional support to keep going, and creative exercises to help me feel inspired during the writing process. Some days, it was difficult getting to 1500 words. Other days, I was able to write well beyond the 1500-word mark. We read aloud several days a week in our writer’s group, with only positive feedback permitted for the 30 days. This helped strengthen the motivation to write each day and week. On day thirty, I remember feeling proud that I had completed the retreat and writing requirements. What I didn’t realize is that this was just the beginning, the initial phase of the book’s journey.

The next two years would include significant additions to the book, multiple and different types of edits, taking out parts of the original draft, the long process of compiling research article citations and resources, and many small, yet detailed decisions about the book. I continued to meet with my writer’s group every single week for over two years, still reading aloud, asking questions about the book process, and giving and receiving emotional support. I have made some amazing and talented friends from this experience, and we still meet weekly to this day. The last draft was finalized and sent to press in early September of 2022, and it was extremely emotional and hard letting it go. As a writer, sometimes I don’t think we feel that our work is complete or exactly how it “should” be. I am both honored and humbled to share the publishing and debut of this book and its information with you. It has been true soul work to bring so many of my stories, experiences, and ideas together within one work.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my site. I hope that it can be a means by which you receive helpful and relevant information for your own journey. The blog will focus on various wellness topics and strategies for the mind, body, and soul. Many of the topics covered will come directly from chapters in the book and be expanded upon.

To all the joy and health that life has to offer,

Katy