Susan Gold was raised in a small rural town in central Pennsylvania and faced trauma as the middle child in a violent and chaotic household. Her brilliant, alcoholic, astrophysicist father and equally ingenious, mentally ill, homemaking mother have collided in dysfunction. As a sibling in a family of five children in short succession, she experienced rampant covert and overt abuse. Hurt and damaged children frequently raise more hurt and damaged children. Susan chose, instead, to be a chain breaker. You can read more about her upbringing in "Toxic Family: Transforming Childhood Trauma into Adult Freedom," available everywhere books are sold.