Lora Devore
Book: Darkness Was My Candle: An Odyssey of Survival and Grace
Bio:
Author, Therapist, Educator
Lora DeVore is a writer and catalyst for transformational change for both individuals and systems. Her wisdom comes from the field of psychology, transpersonal development and spiritual psychology. Most importantly, it comes from the inside-out, from facing the darkest aspects of human experience and mining the dark for the treasures that can be found.
In doing so she has not only moved through post-traumatic growth, but beyond as she is transcending all previous limitations to living a Luminous Life.
With an advanced degree in clinical psychology and recognized as a national expert and catalyst for change, Lora is also known as a powerful storyteller. She has witnessed how stories shift consciousness around the world.
Lora is a respected professional - and has experienced trauma that once lay secreted in a dark inner world wrapped in shame, confusion and a ravaged nervous system. She's learned how to navigate in the dark and the light. Lora is a survivor of abuse, sex trafficking, illegal pharmaceutical drug research, and institutional abuse: she can speak for those like her, who have been silenced for decades.
Lora can show those who've experienced trauma the way through the dark. She also speaks as a respected healthcare professional to those who want another way, a more conscious way to see and work with others.
Lora integrates her experience as a psychotherapist and educator in her role at PrairieCare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and she has been a senior faculty member with the internationally recognized Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. for the past twenty years.
About Darkness Was My Candle:
Born into poverty and violence, Lora’s early life was one of extreme vulnerability. She was prostituted for the first time at the age of nine and suffered unspeakable treatment from those who should have protected her. The impact of this early trauma led to her institutionalization soon after she started college, an incarceration she would not have survived but for a courageous nurse who fought for her release. Fifty years later, after a long career as a successful mental health professional, and recognized as a leading educator and sought-after public speaker, Lora revisited the grounds of the Illinois state mental hospital where she was once kept in inhumane, degrading, and life-threatening circumstances. This profound and compelling memoir traces her life as a survivor of child abuse, sex trafficking, illegal pharmacological drug research, and institutional abuse. Having experienced such horrifying and traumatic events, how did she survive? And to what purpose? Seeking the resolution to these unanswered questions, Lora’s experiences illuminate and validate the power of love and the strength of the indomitable human spirit that lives within each one of us. This is her story.