Dr. James' Books
When Heaven Went Silent:
Wrestling with God
Through Anger and Grace
What happens when faith shatters under the weight
of suffering—and God stops speaking?
After years of enduring emotional and spiritual trauma,
Dr. Karolina James found herself sitting in the ruins of a faith that no longer fit the world she was surviving.
When Heaven Went Silent is her raw, poetic, and profoundly honest account of wrestling with a silent God—and discovering grace on the other side of fury.
Through prayers, reflections, and deeply personal letters,
James leads readers through the emotional terrain of spiritual deconstruction and trauma recovery. Drawing from the work
of thinkers like Bessel van der Kolk, Brené Brown, and Richard Rohr, she explores how the body remembers what the soul cannot yet name—and how healing is both psychological
and sacred.
Written with tenderness and theological depth, When Heaven Went Silent invites anyone who has ever screamed into the silence and heard only their own echo to sit in the sacred
in-between—where anger becomes prayer, pain becomes wisdom, and love outlasts the dark.
Because sometimes faith isn’t what you hold onto.
Sometimes, faith is what holds onto you.
This is not a story of easy answers or tidy redemption.
It is the story of:
Learning to pray again after feeling abandoned by Heaven
Finding peace that hums quietly instead of shouting certainty
Forgiving God—not for what happened, but for what didn’t
Discovering motherhood as a living metaphor for divine compassion
Misunderstood:
Living Loudly Inside Invisible Trauma
This is not a clinical textbook.
It’s a mirror held up to every survivor who’s ever smiled through panic, prayed through pain, or performed strength while breaking inside.
With unflinching honesty and lyrical precision, Dr. Karolina James invites readers into the quiet, unseen world of Complex PTSD—a body that remembers what the mind tries to forget. Blending memoir and trauma science, she explores how emotional and spiritual abuse reshape the nervous system, how faith and fury can coexist, and how motherhood becomes both trigger and teacher in the long work of healing.
Drawing on the insights of van der Kolk, Maté, Levine, Fisher, and Herman, James writes as both researcher and survivor, mother and woman of faith, mapping the biology of endurance and the grace of recovery. Her story is a testament to the body’s brilliance: how vigilance can become wisdom, how anger can coexist with grace, and how healing begins not in silence—but in being finally, fiercely heard.
This book is for the ones who have appeared calm while their bodies screamed.
You are not broken.
You are exquisitely adapted.
And your earthquake is sacred.
When Love Hurts:
Talking to Your Child
About a Narcissistic Parent
When You Have to Explain the Unexplainable
Talking to Your Child About a Narcissistic Parent
— Without Losing Their Trust or Your Sanity
How do you protect your child from a parent who rewrites reality?
How do you explain manipulation, gaslighting, or cruelty — without breaking their heart?
In When Love Hurts: Talking to Your Child About a Narcissistic Parent, Dr. Karolina James offers a rare combination of research-based insight and lived wisdom for the parents quietly fighting to shield their children from emotional harm while navigating custody battles, confusion, and grief.
Drawing on the work of trauma experts like Bessel van der Kolk, Bruce Perry, Janina Fisher, and Daniel Siegel, this guide translates complex neuroscience and attachment theory into everyday language. You’ll learn how to:
Talk about difficult truths without turning the child against the other parent.
Recognize trauma responses in your child — and in yourself.
Stay calm when they idolize the abusive parent.
Create safety and stability in a high-conflict co-parenting environment.
Teach empathy, critical thinking, and boundaries without fear.
This is not a book about revenge or bitterness. It’s a book about protection with grace — about raising children who can see truth, trust themselves, and grow beyond the chaos they were born into.
Written by a mother who’s lived it and a trauma-informed educator who’s studied it, this book is part field guide, part lifeline — a steady hand reminding you that:
You are not crazy for protecting your child. You are courageous for doing it with compassion.
But He Never Hit You:
The Untold Story of Post-Separation Abuse and Institutional Betrayal
He never hit her.
And for too long, that was all the world needed to look away.
When Dr. Karolina James escaped her marriage, she believed the worst was behind her. Instead, she entered the hidden battlefield so many protective parents know too well: post-separation abuse, legal harassment, coercive control, and institutional betrayal wrapped in polite language and stamped with a judge’s seal.
In But He Never Hit You, Dr. James blends lived experience, trauma science, and rigorous research to expose a dangerous myth that abuse only counts when it leaves bruises. With candor, courage, and sharp clarity, she illuminates the invisible tactics abusers use long after separation—weaponizing children, the legal system, finances, and faith communities to maintain power and punish survival.
This book is not a story of victimhood. It is a testament to endurance, a roadmap for protective parents, and a call to action for every institution sworn to protect vulnerable families. It names what the courts overlook, challenges systems that reward calm abusers and penalize traumatized truth-tellers, and honors the quiet, daily heroism of parents fighting for their children’s safety in systems that would rather preserve appearances than lives.
If you have ever been told to “just co-parent,” if you have sat shaking in a courtroom while your abuser smiled, if you’ve been called “high-conflict” for protecting a child - this book will make you feel seen, steady, and far less alone.
And to every professional, pastor, policymaker, judge, and advocate: this is a book you must read because a bruise is not the only way to break a person, and silence is not the only way institutions harm.
Powerful. Necessary. Unapologetically true.
You don’t have to bleed to be wounded.
You don’t have to be hit to fight for your life.
You don’t have to be quiet to deserve safety.
After the Leaving:
Understanding Post-Separation Abuse
You escaped the relationship — now you’re surviving the system.
Everyone tells survivors that leaving is the end. But for many, it is only the beginning.
When coercive control doesn’t vanish with divorce papers, it often resurfaces in court filings, emails, custody exchanges, and weaponized parenting orders.
After the Leaving is a lifeline for anyone navigating post-separation abuse — the silent battlefield where emotional and legal warfare collide.
Drawing from research, lived experience, and trauma-informed practice, Dr. Karolina James offers a compassionate, practical guide to reclaiming safety, clarity, and dignity in the aftermath of narcissistic abuse. Through grounded strategies, somatic tools, scripts, and real-world guidance, this book helps you:
✅ Understand why abuse escalates after you leave
✅ Navigate family court, documentation & boundaries
✅ Protect your children while staying regulated
✅ Rebuild identity, safety, and self-trust
✅ Heal without waiting for the system to change
This is not a book about endings — it is a book about becoming.
About finding the self that coercion tried to erase.
About building a life where peace isn’t borrowed — it’s yours.
You didn’t fail by still struggling after you left.
The system failed you — but you are rising anyway.
For the protective parent.
For the survivor rebuilding.
For the woman who left — and refused to disappear.
Narc Radar:
How to spot a narcissist anywhere
before they damage your world
You’re not imagining it.
You were targeted—because of your light, not your weakness.
Narcissists leave confusion where clarity should be, chaos where safety should be, and self-doubt where self-trust should live. They rewrite your reality, distort your memories, and convince you that you are the problem… while they hide in plain sight.
This book hands you the flashlight.
How to Spot a Narcissist Anywhere is a groundbreaking, deeply validating guide that exposes the patterns, psychology, and tactics of narcissists across every area of life: dating, work, family, faith spaces, friendships, and online communities. Drawing from the most respected research in trauma, psychology, and narcissistic abuse, this book gives you the clarity you were never meant to have, with tools you can use immediately:
· The Love-Bombing Blueprint and why it feels like destiny
· Devaluation, Gaslighting, & Hoovering explained through real-life scripts
· How to read your body’s alarm system when your brain is still negotiating
· Red Flag Checklists for dating, work, church, and family
· Boundary scripts that shut down manipulation instantly
· Case studies that reveal patterns in romantic, spiritual, and professional settings
· A complete Exit Plan for leaving a narcissistic relationship safely
· Green flags to help you identify safe, emotionally mature people
· Healing exercises that rebuild intuition after gaslighting
Whether you’ve escaped a narcissistic relationship or you’re still trying to make sense of one, this book will help you see what you were never supposed to see and believe what you were trained to doubt.
You are not crazy.
You are not needy.
You are not too much.
You were manipulated.
And now? You’re unmanipulable.
When you learn the patterns, they can’t fool you anymore.
When you trust yourself, they can’t access you anymore.
When you know the truth, they can’t rewrite it.
You’re not just spotting narcissists—you’re reclaiming your life from them.
A 6-7 meme children's book, written by my 7-year-old!
The Heaven of 67
What if your favorite plushie came to life… and took you on an adventure through Heaven?
The Heaven of 67 is a tender, wonder-filled picture book about a curious boy named 67 and his best friend, a blue plushie shaped like the number 67. One magical night, the plushie wakes up glowing and together they are whisked above the clouds, where they meet a loving, gentle God and discover that Heaven is full of color, laughter, and peace.
From giggling flowers and rainbow fields to a sparkling Sky Slide and a Hall of Memories filled with happy moments from Earth, 67 learns that love never disappears and that Heaven is closer than it seems. With a glowing feather to guide him, he returns home braver, comforted, and sure that he is never truly alone.
Perfect for families who want to talk about Heaven, miracles, or what happens to the people we love, this story offers:
· A gentle, faith-filled way to comfort children who are anxious or grieving
· Imaginative, cinematic illustrations that bring Heaven to life
· An uplifting life lesson page that reminds kids: Heaven grows wherever we choose love
Ideal as a bedtime read-aloud or gift for ages 4–9, The Heaven of 67 is a magical tale of friendship, faith, and forever love.
Step into the life you desreve!
