As a former police detective, hostage negotiator and international peacekeeper, J. Paul Nadeau spent more than thirty years working with victims and perpetrators and learning from top experts in abuse situations, murder investigations, hostage-takings, terrorist attacks and human behaviour in general. As a survivor of physical and emotional abuse by an alcoholic father, he experienced first-hand the loss of hope and destructive internal dialogue that can immobilize a person as effectively as any prison.