In this episode of Good Grief, Dr. Christine Malone talks with author Adrienne Caldwell about Unbroken: Life Outside the Lines—a memoir that faces childhood trauma, abusive foster care, addiction, and loss with clear-eyed honesty. Adrienne shares why she finally opened decades of CPS records, how writing forced her to “unbox” long-buried pain, and why success means changing even one life. Together they explore forgiveness, family patterns, motherhood, and what it takes to break cycles without pretending there’s a simple how-to.

Chapters

0:00 – Show intro: Good Grief & resilience mission

0:54 – Meet Adrienne Caldwell, author of Unbroken

1:25 – Why she wrote it: CPS case files & foster-care abuse

3:32 – Trigger warnings & trauma overview (what the book covers)

4:59 – Writing as exposure therapy: “opening the boxes”

6:42 – Success metric: helping even one person

7:37 – On forgiveness & the foster mother

10:03 – Family patterns, protection, and cycles

12:09 – How trauma shaped empathy & resilience

13:29 – Who the book is for (and what it isn’t)

19:38 – Choosing motherhood; breaking generational cycles

22:05 – Bedtime ritual & her father’s last words to their daughter

Trigger warnings (applicable to this episode): childhood abuse, foster-care abuse, addiction, suicide attempts, grief/loss.

Get the free prologue + chapter one (while it’s still available) at UnbrokenCaldwell.com

Thank you for listening.

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