Return of the Exiled Child is a guide for adults who want to understand the emotional patterns shaped by trauma, stress, and early conditioning. The book blends narrative insight, mindfulness practice, and parts work to help you develop emotional literacy and a clear inner voice. You learn how to regulate your system, examine protective patterns, and build the capacity for presence. The book offers stories, reflective tools, and science based practices to help you reconnect with the parts of yourself that were pushed aside to survive. The goal is simple. Support you in creating a grounded and conscious relationship with yourself so you can live with clarity, connection, and choice.
About the Author :
Keith W. Fiveson is a mindfulness based coach, author, and integrative health practitioner with more than thirty years of experience in leadership coaching, trauma recovery, and mind body practices. He is a U.S. Army veteran and a two time cancer survivor who brings clinical training and lived experience to his work with individuals and groups. He is the founder of the Work Mindfulness Institute and host of The Mindfulness Experience Podcast. His work supports emotional regulation, presence, and resilience across personal and professional settings.
Review :
Dr. Anna Yusim, M.D. Clinical Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine; Author of Fulfilled
"In a world that prizes productivity over presence and performance over peace, Return of the Exiled Child is not just a book - it's a homecoming.
Keith Fiveson has woven clinical wisdom, spiritual depth, and raw human vulnerability into a tapestry that doesn't just describe healing; it invites it. Drawing from Internal Family Systems, mindfulness, and his own courageous journey, he shows us how to return to our exiled parts not as broken fragments, but as sacred parts of a whole self waiting to be reclaimed.
This book offers an antidote: not through fixing, but through fierce, tender presence. It doesn't ask you to transcend your pain. It asks you to sit with it. To breathe with it. To whisper, 'I'm here now.'
If you've ever felt split between who you are and who you had to become to survive - read this book, not as a manual, but as a mirror. Because the child you left behind is still waiting, and Keith Fiveson hands you the lantern to find your way back."
Stephanie Campbell, M.A., M.S., M.S.W. Senior Vice President, Kent Strategic Advisors; Adjunct Professor, NYU Silver School of Social Work
"Return of the Exiled Child is more than a memoir or process - it's a medicine bundle for healing intergenerational trauma, blending Internal Family Systems, Adult Children of Alcoholics principles, and embodied mindfulness.
You bring to life the inner dramas and survival strategies so many of us inherit, showing how we can return with presence, tenderness, and radical acceptance. For those from families affected by alcoholism and trauma, this story offers permission to move beyond survival toward chosen belonging.
You do not preach but sit beside us. You do not prescribe but show us what's needed. Your work leaves us feeling less alone, more whole, and able to honor our own Golden Child - not with the burden of perfection, but with the grace of presence."
Dr. Alexander Shester, M.D. Psychiatrist and Jungian Analyst
"Return of the Exiled Child is an extraordinary account of transformation: a profound journey from trauma and illness to wisdom and wholeness.
The book's power lies in its rare blend of memoir and practical guidance. Drawing on Internal Family Systems and Jungian archetypes, Fiveson personifies aspects of the psyche and transforms them into guides on the journey from Exiled Child to Inner Golden Child.
Lyrical and wise, it is among the most creative works on psychological healing I've read - serving both as moving narrative and valuable guide for psychotherapists, healers, and seekers alike."
Dr. Kristin Barnes, N.D., EAMP Naturopathic Doctor & Eastern Asian Medicine Practitioner
"I was not prepared for the depth of this book. Its rawness startled me, because I felt like I was seeing myself in these pages.
I loved the idea of 'internal feng shui' - arranging our interior life with the same intention we bring to sacred spaces.
The answer isn't a grand epiphany - it's the quiet realization that healing is simply being."
Zubin Kapadia Advocate for Aging with Dignity Entrepreneur
"I've known Keith for more than 25 years, and Return of the Exiled Child opened a window into his journey that moved me deeply.
He invites readers into the most vulnerable parts of his life with honesty, courage, and clarity that only someone who has truly done the inner work can offer.
This isn't just a memoir - it's a guide for anyone trying to reconnect with the parts of themselves they've hidden or forgotten. This book is a gift, and it carries Keith's heart on every page."
