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Your Pain Has a Name

A Therapist's Invitation to Understanding Your Story and Sorting Out Who You Are from What Hurts

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Contributors

By Monica DiCristina

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On Sale
May 13, 2025
Page Count
256 pages
Publisher
Worthy Books
ISBN-13
9781546006435

Monica DiCristina suffered for years without words to describe the pain she was experiencing inside. Without knowing what was behind her anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and fears, she created other names for them: “not good enough,” “unworthy,” “messed up,” “wrong.” Through the slow process of coming to understand her own story and searching for accurate names for her pain, she discovered a glorious path to healing, and also a calling to become a therapist to help others in the same way.
      Now, with over fifteen years of experience counseling others, Monica has created a guide to help you identify the patterns and barriers that are keeping you from returning to your authentic self. While not every wound may fully heal, each one can be understood, and that understanding starts when you confront the pain—not just recognizing the hurt, but naming and honoring it.
    In Your Pain Has a Name, Monica offers a compassionate, open space for you to give voice to your pain. With the nurturing curiosity often found in a therapist’s office, she will help you:
  • Uncover your hurts: Pinpoint and define the hidden pain that’s been holding you back.
  • Name your pain:  Accurately describe and validate what you feel.
  • Reclaim your identity: Distinguish yourself from the false stories that pain has created.
  • Embrace your healing: Release the pain that no longer serves you and step into the truth.
Pain, Monica teaches, is an invitation to heal, and she wants to help you on that journey. In finding the language to describe your hurts, you gain the space and courage to become your fullest self–mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. With validation and deep insight, Monica shares therapeutic, practical strategies to help you understand, define, name, and then release the pain that isn’t yours to carry. Join her on this journey to discover how to release what doesn't fit and to pick up what is true about you.

Genre:

  • “Provocative and enlightening. Monica DiCristina skillfully takes us into some of the therapeutic dark places of our pain and not only shines a helpful light on where it originates, where it is perpetuated and can be changed, but also illuminates the hindrances and ‘pretenders of helpfulness’ to avoid in our journeys toward healing. A great resource for beginning the process of naming and changing.”
    Terry Hargrave PhD and Sharon Hargrave, MA, founders of Restoration Therapy and authors of Five Days to a New Self
  • “Monica DiCristina has written a must-read guide for anyone seeking to learn valuable tools in order to thrive following unnamed emotional pain, anxiety, and trauma. Monica continues to bring her unique voice, personal stories, and insights, and a commitment to help others through Your Pain Has a Name. This book is a raw and remarkable call not only to heal ourselves but also to begin to think about mental health support and healing in a broader way.” 
    Chinwé Williams, PhD, LPC, therapist and coauthor of Seen: Healing Despair and Anxiety in Kids and Teens Through the Power of Connection
  • “In Your Pain Has a Name, Monica DiCristina becomes a gentle companion to weary hearts, offering calm, comfort, and compassion. Her storytelling is approachable and wise—affirming our pain while leading us toward wholeness. Drawing on her years as a therapist, Monica puts words to the deep hurts we carry and guides us on a path toward healing. If you’re wondering if this book is for you… it is.”
    Kayla Craig, author Every Season Sacred and To Light Their Way, creator of Liturgies for Parents
  • “In Your Pain Has a Name, Monica DiCristina is more than an author and purveyor of words on pages. She is a gentle and profoundly knowledgeable guide who invites us into the sacred practice of seeing the truth about ourselves. The truth that is too often overshadowed and distorted because of past and present pain. From the first page to the last, we are met with compassion and empathy, alongside accessible and practical tools to apply to our journey of rediscovering our truest selves. Monica has done a beautiful job of providing us with the safety and comfort to explore our own redemption stories, as we are empowered to name our pain and heal.”
    Patricia A. Taylor, writer and anti-racism educator
  • “In Your Pain Has a Name: A Therapist’s Invitation to Understanding Your Story and Sorting Out Who You Are from What Hurts, Monica DiCristina writes from a deep well of healing brilliance both from a therapist’s perspective and as someone who has had to name her own pain. This book is not about quick fixes or theory-heavy techniques; rather, it focuses on the forgotten art of presence, using safe space as a catalyst for naming pain or understanding unnamed pain. As she explains, ‘Unnamed pain, which swirls around inside without understanding, definition, or boundaries, can tell stories about who you are. These stories are often harsh and untrue.’ This book is for therapists, people just starting therapy, those who have yet to process and name their pain, and anyone genuinely seeking a journey of healing and, as DiCristina says, as many guides have stated, ‘coming home to yourself.’ I chose to endorse this book because it is real, and I believe it will comfort and meet people in the reality of their pain—especially the unnamed pain.”
    Dr. Terence Lester, founder of Love Beyond Walls and author of I See You, When We Stand, and All God’s Children
  • “Prepare to be transformed. Each page of Monica's book Your Pain Has a Name is a profound gift of honesty, compassion, and soul-deep wisdom. Monica has a remarkable way of gently inviting us to face our pain with intention and courage. Through her words, both in this book and beyond—whether on social media, her podcast, or her other works—Monica offers us the tools to rewrite our stories and forge a future that heals life's deepest wounds. She teaches us to approach healing with both curiosity and grace, making this one of the most affirming and essential reads of our time.”
    Tasha Hunter, MSW, LCSW, author of Liberation, Tell Me Where It Hurts, and What Children Remember
  • “Opening the door to her 15-year therapy practice, Monica has invited readers to come and take a seat beside her. With a deeply humanizing tenderness, her words are a trustworthy companion. Her untangling of overly used words such as trauma, gaslighting, and boundaries is worth the price of the book alone. Luckily for the reader, there’s so much more here—a healing balm for anyone seeking solace.” 
    Marcie Alvis Walker, author of Everybody Come Alive: A Memoir in Essays

Formats and Prices

Price

$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  2. Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
  3. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD

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Monica DiCristina

About the Author

Monica DiCristina is a practicing therapist with more than fifteen years of experience in individuals and couples therapy, with a master’s degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She runs a thriving private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a sought-after speaker, guest, and writer on topics of emotional healing and mental health. She walks with people as they process difficult experiences, helping to bring healing to their relationship with themselves and others. Drawing on the stories and experiences from her own growth journey, as well as her extensive work with clients, Monica is passionate about coming alongside people of all stages and circumstances as they do the brave and sacred work of transformation.

Monica knows very well the audible sigh of relief that comes from someone finally understanding and untangling their pain from their identity. Through her writing, speaking, and podcasting work, she combines not only her therapeutic knowledge but also her deeply-rooted faith and the power of empathy and storytelling to walk alongside her audience to a life of deep meaning and authentic connection to themselves and others. The intersection of her years of therapy experience, artful style, personal mental health journey, faith, and bi-cultural upbringing give her a unique perspective. It’s Monica’s heartfelt mission to guide, collaborate, and make space for others on their journey of becoming who they were created to be.

Learn more about this author