Leslie

Gura

L C M H C, N C C

Leslie Gura is a clinical mental health counselor and an author, having 'graduated' from 29 years as a journalist.

In his debut novel, Unwrapping: A Novel About Generational Trauma, first published in early 2025, Gura tells the story of a young bi woman, Maya Andino. After years of manipulation by an older girlfriend in California, Maya travels to Durham, North Carolina, to confront Steve Prescott, a ballplayer-turned-therapist with a connection to her past. He sees in Maya a story whose pieces don’t fit. However, as he engages her through eight intensive therapy sessions, the past slowly unravels, with client and therapist working through the elusiveness of healing connection.

Gura’s second novel, Mosaics of Grief: A Novel About Confronting Loss, is scheduled for publication in fall 2027 by Rootstock Publishing.

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What People Say About Unwrapping

  • "Leslie Gura contextualizes the process of psychotherapy within an engaging story with complex, compelling characters. Unwrapping is an important and rare novel about the process of trauma recovery that is both insightful and entertaining.”

    Mark B. Scholl
    Professor of Counseling
    Wake Forest University
    Winston-Salem, NC

  • “Take intriguing plot twists, romantic angst and generational trauma, and you get Unwrapping. I came away with deep empathy for Gura’s well-developed characters. An informed, touching read."

    Sherry L. Allen, LPC, NCC
    Owner and Principal Therapist
    GrowSteady
    Nashville, TN

  • "It's difficult to find a book that is teaching vital information while absorbing the reader simultaneously into a story, allowing our imagination to take us there. Gura found the middle world between reading enjoyment, learning about hard and triggering topics, and tools that can be utilized for learning."

    Laneita Williamson, RN, BSN
    Trauma-informed Care Manager
    CareNet Counseling
    Winston-Salem, NC

  • "I absolutely loved this novel! So many different story lines. The characters are real and their stories are true. I feel for them."

    Maria Teresa Jones, MDiv, BCC
    Spiritual Director and Dreamwork Facilitator
    Ceiba, Puerto Rico

  • “Others have shared the techniques and theory of the art of care; Gura is the only one that I know of who has brought that carefully honed practice into proper focus with the dramatic perspective it deserves. What could be more amazing, surprising or compelling than people helping each other along their way through life?”

    Gary Gunderson, MDiv, DMin, DDiv
    Professor, Faith and the Health of the Public
    School of Divinity
    Wake Forest University
    Winston-Salem, NC