BOSTON. JULY 23, 2026
“Why is it he’s referred to as Breaker Morant? Ladies’ man, perhaps? A breaker of hearts?”
“No,” replies Harry Morant’s defense attorney, “he was a horse breaker. I understand, the best in Australia,” and in so doing explains how “Breaker Morant” got his nickname (in the 1980 movie by the same name). This same notion of “horse-breaking” plays throughout America’s Wild-Wild-West in numerous films and novels, but it invariably came down to one idiom: “A horse ain’t no good for nothin’ ‘til it’s broken.” The goal of “that kind” of horse breaking is to “break” the wild-spirited nature of a filly or colt and turn her/him into a “broken,” “tamed,” “domesticated,” “submissive” mare or stallion.
Fifteen-and-half-year-old Hanna Johansen, the central female character in this intriguing psychodrama, is not only the co-author, but she’s also the victim of having been “broken,” psychologically, and not by a horse-breaker, but rather by a grievous breach of professional trust leading her to acts of self-harm and attempted self-extinction.
Hanna’s childhood (“filly”) Identity has been permanently fractured by a single traumatizing incident event breaking her into dislocated pieces and parts of her former Self: that’s precisely the condition in which her grandfather (Andy Collins) and her psychiatrist (Alexa Muybridge) discover when she first arrives at Andy’s lakeside cabin in rural New Hampshire.
Collaborating “behind the scenes,” Alexa and Andy develop a unique “gentling” strategy, borrowed from equestrian trainers, of engaging Hanna in a process of self-discovery based on truth and trust, two of the three most critical cornerstones in establishing a dialectical understanding of Self. Alexa and Andy double-team Hanna: Andy mentors her in ways that slowly rebuilds her trust in herself, her immediate family and new boyfriend; Alexa creates a series of brilliantly crafted, non-invasive tele-therapy sessions to gently lead Hanna back to the darkness of her trauma with the ability to accept the truth and to use that to learn to love again, the third leg of a healthy, adolescent psychotype.
Where this novel is totally unique and creative—as an unprecedented literary style—is in the candor of revelation and disclosure, in the clever ways Alexa and Andy learn to decipher the hidden meaning in “Hanna’s code,” in the lyrics of songs, and in the self-canceling metaphors hidden in her discourse leading to her dare-devil behavior.
“At its finest, human and horse are joined not by tack, but by trust. Each is totally reliant upon the other. Each is the selfless guardian of the other’s well-being.”
– Author Unknown
Or, as Hanna writes in the lyrics to “Sara’s Song” (her closest girlfriend), “Care for you. Care for me. That’s what we agreed we’re gonna do”: but the sentiment of selfless guardianship of the other’s well-being isn’t enough to save Sara’s life, with all the gentling in the world, nor to spare Hanna from the cripplingly side effects of survivor’s guilt.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CHARLES COLEMAN, PhD, began his long and distinguished career in mental healthcare even before working with Vietnam Vets committed to, and confined in, one of the Army’s only dedicated military psychiatric hospitals in the early ‘70s, as so graphically memorialized in his critically-acclaimed American cult-classic, Sergeant Back Again, (HarperCollins, 1980), “The Vietnam War Novel that Made PTSD Real!” re-released by PTSD Press in Sergeant Back Again: The Anthology of Critical and Clinical Commentary in 2010. He’s a recognized author and lecturer on the causal relationships between physiological diseases and mental disorders with a focus on the origins and treatment strategies for both military and civilian populations afflicted with traumatic stress disorders.
HANNA JOHANSEN, fifteen-and-half at the time this story takes place, is a first-time author who is quick to point out in her “Afterwords” to The Gentling of Hanna Johansen: A Betrayal of Trust, that her “participation” in co-authoring this novel was the last thing she ever wanted, especially when the story suddenly becomes so personal, candid and shocking that not even she can write about all of it. Hanna is “as honest as I know how to be” in the ways in which she reveals her multiple personalities, whether in the lyrics of her songs, her immersion in risky and self-destructive behaviors, her warmth and love and humor, or her devotion to her friends, all of which are acknowledged with thoughtful understanding by each of the memorable characters in her book.
PTSD PRESS
Publisher: PTSD PRESS www.ptsdpress.com
Press Release Date: June 23, 2026
Genre: Historical Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Family Drama, Coming-of-Age
Date of Publication: April 17, 2026
ISBN: 978-9-697592-11-1 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-971659-23-7 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-971659-24-4 (Hardcover)
PAGES: 361
CONTACT: author@ptsdpress.com
Also Available in Spanish: El Amansamiento de Hanna Johansen: Una traición a la confianza. On AMAZON BOOKS.