This month’s feature is What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey. I consider this book a must-read for anyone who is interested in learning more about childhood trauma. There is a ton of important information packed into this book and as a therapist who already has a good understanding of trauma, I still learned a lot.
I consider The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk to be one of the most important and accessible books on trauma out there for a general audience, and I would put What Happened to You in that same category of essential readings on trauma.
The book does such a good job of explaining how trauma experienced early in life can impact you later on. If you have experienced childhood trauma, reading this book might help you understand the way you interact with the world better.
The book is written as a conversation between Bruce Perry, the expert on trauma, and Oprah, who experienced a great deal of trauma in her own childhood and has interviewed hundreds of others. Together, they do a great job of balancing the science with examples from real people’s lives.
Of course, the book also covers the most effective ways to treat symptoms and heal from trauma. If you have even a passing interest in childhood trauma, I think you will really enjoy this book.
