Home is Within You

“A powerful example of following our light within to break a cycle of trauma and consciously choose a life of happiness. Nadia is a true warrior spirit and champion for the fight against injustice.” —Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness, also a major motion picture 

“Nadia Davis is a brilliant writer, attorney, and crusader for causes. Her book, Home Is Within You, encompasses her journey from crisis to redemption. It’s truly a compelling read.” —Leigh Steinberg, American sports agent and author 

“A memoir of healing from trauma and addiction from a well-known West Coast political figure . . . With admirable candor, she shares a story of resilience, delving into childhood and adult traumas, including a nearly fatal car accident and difficulties involving a stalker, and tells how she worked to overcome intense feelings of ‘shame, fear, and resentment.’ Davis is an open and unwavering narrator who presents readers with explicit descriptions of sexual assault, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse. The work touches on issues of privacy, motherhood, injustice, and mental health, including important criticisms of how addiction is criminalized and misunderstood. . . . A remembrance with a powerful message about strength and recovery . . .” —Kirkus Reviews 

“Methodical . . . powerful . . . Centering [on] motherhood, Home Is Within You is a delicate memoir about whole-person healing and its wider impact. The text is also powerful in addressing how Davis’s public and private lives melded—though often, the two were in conflict. It muses [on] . . . a call for a healthier balance between the two, aspiring for a world in which, rather than shaming people for their struggles, communities can learn to help individuals find healing and health, all within supportive relationships. . . . Some struggles, she finds, are rooted within our family pasts; still, Davis manages to craft her personal identity [as one] distinct from these challenges.” —Clarion Reviews 

“In these tender, urgent letters to her sons, Nadia Davis reveals her life, vulnerability, and journey toward healing. Home Is Within You is alive with Davis’s honesty and vulnerability, threading both her pain and the hard work of recovery and healing into its pages. Her frank accounts of grief, loss, and assault are upsetting, but the memoir’s hopeful trajectory sees Davis—‘that little bright-eyed brown girl who simply wanted to save the world but sometimes hid in the closet’—building a thriving career, giving back to the community, and finding the strength to face trauma head on.” —BookLife Reviews 

“Davis’s prose is a perfect combination of direct, confident, unashamed, and sometimes snarky. She has a true eye for gorgeous descriptions and poetic interludes that always enhance the narrative in a meaningful way. A hybrid memoir that combines poetry, prose, and letters to her sons, Nadia Davis’s Home Is Within You is a tour de force work of striking power about learning how to live, thrive, and survive the consequences of childhood trauma, abusive relationships, alcoholism, drug addiction, and severe mental illness.” —BookLife Prize review 

“Home Is Within You captures the strength and struggles of Nadia Lockyer, which she so bravely shares to help others. 

“The courage of Ms. Lockyer to share her journey in her book is an incredible demonstration of selflessness. Ms. Lockyer has lived through challenges of addiction and recovery, and she has survived. By sharing her story, Ms. Lockyer has removed the shame and loneliness that plagued her and has plagued so many others. Her personal reflections and work are presented in her book and can give hope and success to others who find themselves in similar human conditions.” —Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County district attorney, founder of Alameda County Family Justice Center 

“I have followed Nadia’s journey from the time she was the wunderkind Santa Ana school board member doing courageous things such as supporting charter schools and have followed her successful effort to overturn a wrongful conviction of a defendant who was a convenient fall guy for a crime he didn’t commit. Nadia’s extraordinary book tells how she rose to great heights, took quite a hit, and successfully battled back. Inspiring story!” —Richard Reisman, publisher and CEO, Orange County Business Journal 

“Writing a book, any book, requires commitment, focus, and fortitude. To write a book like Home Is Within You requires all that along with a level of honesty, belief, and vulnerability that is nothing short of extraordinary. For anyone who knows Nadia, of course, it’s not the least bit surprising, since she has always committed herself to those who need help or feel helpless. I first became aware of her when she was as an attorney tirelessly working for the release of a young man convicted of a crime he did not commit—a ‘lost cause’ she eventually won. That’s the Nadia Davis her friends know, a woman of generosity and grace who readers can trust to help guide them home.” —Steve Lowery, former editor, OC Weekly 

“I have known Nadia since she was a little girl. Inspired by her father, Wally Davis, a close mentor and friend who was a pillar in our community, she carried on his legacy of public service, improving the lives of others in more ways than one. Here in California Hispanic leadership circles, we never doubted her comeback story would strike the world with hope!” —Ruben A. Smith, Esq., attorney and former president, Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County 

“It takes courage to tell your story, and Nadia Davis has acted with such courage and transparency in telling her story in a creative and conscientious way. We who have experienced trauma can all learn from her bravery and raw honesty.” —Casey Gwinn, Esq., president of Alliance for HOPE International 

“Nadia has been an inspiration to me and so many others for decades. Working alongside her for years, she is one of the few people I deeply believe in.” —Armando de la Libertad, sustainable-development leader 

“This is a can’t-put-it-down book that will keep readers engaged from the beginning to the very last word. Nadia has masterfully woven such beauty and grace into her first memoir. By exploring her family’s cultural background, her passion for those in need, her legal advocacy, and a string of addiction-fueled choices that resulted in chaos and trauma for herself and her family, Nadia has woven together rigorous honesty and unrelenting grace in a way rarely seen in contemporary memoirs. Nadia tells her story with such passion while managing to tap into broader societal issues related to her Mexican and Native American roots, gender dynamics, and personal trauma that led to a promising young attorney spiraling down and ultimately crashing in a very public way. But that’s only the beginning of her story. The real story is one of compassion, resilience, love, and eventually recovery. As a professor and clinical therapist, I plan to refer to this book often with students, clients, and friends.” —Michelle Martin, PhD; MSW; therapist; associate professor, Department of Social Work, California State University, Fullerton 

“Nadia Davis’s memoir is a deeply personal story of addiction and motherhood and the heart-wrenching, almost debilitating shame and stigma uniquely borne by women with addictive disorders. Nadia’s resilience is a testament to the power of a mother’s love and to her inner spirit, which fought to reclaim not just her personal dignity but also justice for anyone shamed in the middle of a mental health breakdown.” —Ahbra Kaye Schiff, producer, REEL Recovery Film Festival, and director of operations, Writers in Treatment 

“Home Is Within You is a strong feminist memoir. The book is rich in many things but mainly in lionhearted Nadia’s will to survive and to screw shame in the only manner that it can be done: by telling the truth of what was done to her and being honest about how difficult it is to heal from abuse. She survived the journey that unfortunately many women die trying to persevere on. Listen to and support her ideas on progressive structural change and her healing methodology. #screwshame.” —Kristina Molina, student at University of California, Berkeley 

“Nadia is a testament to the power of trauma work and breaking through the bonds of our minds that separate us from our core true innocence and being.” —Mariam Paul, MFT, trauma specialist 

“Arthur Carmona was my son. Nadia shares the fight for the truth in her book. Arthur and I were blessed to have her take on this monumental case. During that journey, Nadia’s compassion and dedication to fighting for the truth regardless of the challenges amazed me. Hope came in the form of a woman named Nadia Maria Davis. I highly recommend Home Is Within You as a must read. It is a rare opportunity to journey with Nadia as she shares her truth. The book allows you to feel her emotions about her victories as well as her hardships.” —Ronnie Sandoval Carmona, cofounder of the Arthur Carmona Center for the Wrongfully Convicted 

“Nadia’s journey of recovery is deeply admirable. I commend her as a mother, a professional, and a former spouse for having the courage to share her journey in order to help others.” —Bill Lockyer, former attorney general and treasurer, State of California; Nadia’s former longtime spouse 

“I have had the honor and privilege of witnessing the many twists and turns on Nadia’s journey from being utterly lost to finding her way to her own inner home, where she belongs unconditionally. I am in awe of her perseverance, integrity, and conviction in spite of the cascade of adversities she has faced in her life. Through Home Is Within You, she now inspires countless others to seek that unconditional home that resides within them. This book is a must read!” —Priya Jain, spiritual life coach; kundalini yoga trainer; founder of Seventh Chakra Yoga Institute of Spiritual Sciences; author of Awakening Sutras of Japji Sahib 

“Very few of us have the courage to write about the challenges life throws our way. Nadia’s courage and strength—not only to endure so much but also to share so that others can heal—are beyond heroic. I have personally known Nadia for decades, since she first hit the ground advocating for improving the lives of others less fortunate. Even after her near-death car accident, I witnessed her being in the hospital, still unable to walk, and yet going through paperwork to help others. She is an inspiration to women all over the world, regardless of color, heritage, religion, and financial status. I never doubted she’d make it through the hardships, and I am beyond grateful that she survived and now thrives.” —Bethzabe Martinez, founder and president of Nuestro Pueblo; human resources manager

“Home Is Within You is a heartbreaking yet heartfelt memoir of Nadia Davis’s personal struggles and persistent pursuit of the wholehearted, authentic life she believed was possible. Her writing sheds light on the complexities of life and the challenges faced by those most in need of the caring guidance and support required for healing and recovery. Readers will be inspired by her passion for helping others and her willingness to share painful parts of her life so that others might feel less alone. Everyone will benefit from reading this story.”—Dr. Elizabeth Cronin, author of Mindfulness Journal for Mental Health and podcast host for the New Books Network

“A demanding, illuminating, and powerful memoir of pain and healing.” —Booklist

“Home Is Within You is a fight for justice―which is but a noble and lofty goal until someone takes it on and makes it real. Nadia never let up until Arthur Carmona, a wrongfully convicted youth, was released from prison. I did what I could to lift his spirits. Nadia actually brought him back home.”―Esai Morales, American actor