Val Walker

Val Walker is the author of The Art of Comforting: What to Say and Do for Others in Distress, which won the Nautilus Book Award. She is a contributing blogger for Psychology Today, and also contributes to the Health Story Collaborative in Boston. As a rehabilitation consultant, speaker, and writer, she deeply believes in breaking through the barriers that isolate us by building our confidence as well as our communities.

With a Master of Science degree in rehabilitation counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University, Val has explored and developed the art of comforting since facilitating her first support group in 1993. In the trenches of isolated and disadvantaged communities for twenty-four years, she has organized and led support groups for people living with serious illness, disability, grief, and trauma.

The Art of Comforting was recommended by the Boston Public Health Commission as a guide for families impacted by the Boston Marathon Bombing, and was later featured by Penguin/Random House on their 2016 list There's A Book for That: Hope, Healing and Doing Good. Val's articles and interviews about comforting have appeared in Time, AARP, Whole Living, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Coping with Cancer magazine, Boston Globe magazine, Chicago Tribune, McClean's magazine (Canada), and others.