Not an ordinary life. : Rising above my circumstances.

Author: Idris Wyn Jones

Wales

Published on 1 December 2025 by Aileni Press in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 400 pages
234 x 156mm | 636g

Part memoir, part healing guide, this is the story of a boy who learned to survive by staying silent, and the man who had to find his voice in order to heal.

Idris Wyn Jones takes the reader into the hidden world of C-PTSD. Growing up in the quiet fields of rural Wales, he lived through childhood abuse and neglect, then carried the fallout into adulthood, relationships and work.

Writing in an accessible, conversational style, Idris unpacks what trauma really is and how it shows up in everyday life. He explores shame, memory, emotional flashbacks, dissociation, attachment, addiction, identity and the slippery nature of truth. Drawing on psychology, philosophy and biology, he makes sense of why the nervous system reacts the way it does and what begins to help.

Now a qualified therapist as well as a survivor, he bridges both sides of the therapy room. He shares what was healing, what was harmful, and what he wishes every therapist understood about C-PTSD.

For survivors, this book offers language, understanding and the steady company of someone who has been there. For therapists and anyone walking alongside others in pain, it provides rare first-hand insight into the courage real healing requires.

This is more than a memoir; it is a quiet celebration of resilience and a reminder that, even after long years of suffering, light and peace can return.