What it is

A book by Oprah Winfrey and Dr Bruce D. Perry called What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing. The book dives into how traumas, both big and small, effects our nervous systems and how we can learn to heal from them. 

 Why it matters 

 Before reading this book I had become reluctant to use the word trauma. It seemed that a new definition of what I understand it meant was evolving and I somehow missed the memo on the new definition. Teachers that were applying to teach movement and meditation at my studio kept telling me they were trauma-informed, but I wasn't super clear on what exactly they meant. I took a few workshops, listened to some podcasts and though my understanding improved, I still wasn't crystal clear. This book changed all that. 

Have you ever looked at someone and thought to yourself....What is wrong with you? What is wrong with the way you act, think, live? I have silently (or maybe not always so silently) asked this question thousands of times about my family, friends, collegues, students or strangers. This phenominal book helped me reframe this toxic judgement and instead taught me ask this: What happened to you? I now have a better framework to understand and accept when people, or myself, don't behave the way I think they 'should'.  

The book dives into trauma and gives a succinct, clear and concise explantion of what it is, how it can show up in different people, and how this connects to how we are in the world. I hope you can read it, or even better if you can listen to it as the authors read it beautifully on Audible.

 Here's an interview about the book and more on the incredible  Dr Bruce Perry 

   You can hear a great interview between the authors and Brene  Brown HERE.