New York Best Times Seller novel “What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma” by Journalist Stephanie Foo explores the science and experiences behind Complex PTSD (C-PTSD). C-PTSD is often a result of the repeated trauma of childhood abuse, but can have a variety of different causes. 

“The difference between regular PTSD and complex PTSD is that traditional PTSD is often associated with a moment of trauma. Sufferers of complex PTSD have undergone continual abuse—trauma that has occurred over a long period of time, over the course of years. Child abuse is a common cause of complex PTSD.”

In this memoir Foo shares her experience with the constant abuse from her parents through her childhood before they abandoned her as a teen. She soon learned that even with the freedom from the abuse, the impact it had on her was far from over. The impact from years of abuse trickled into her health, career, and relationships too. Foo shares the limited resources available to her and thus made it her goal to share what she could. 

Foo shares interviews with different scientists and psychologists, and shares her experience with a number of different therapies. She also examines the impacts of immigration trauma and multigenerational trauma. Eventually she came to the realization that one does not move on from trauma, but they can learn to move forward with it. 

“Here’s a theory: Maybe I had not really been broken this whole time. Maybe I had been a human—flawed and still growing but full of light nonetheless”

You can find “What my Bones Know” on Amazon.

Image Credits:
Feature Image: Pascal Bernardon, On Unsplash, Creative Commons