What my Bones Know : : a Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma

Locations
Call Number: 616.852 Fo, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Foo, Stephanie
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	616.852 Fo	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	616.852 Fo	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	616.852 Fo	4-week checkout	Due 04-12-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Foo, Stephanie	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Foo, Stephanie	4-week checkout	Due 03-28-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Foo, Stephanie	4-week checkout	Due 05-14-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Foo, Stephanie	4-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024

"A searing memoir of reckoning and healing from an acclaimed journalist and former This American Life producer investigating the little-understood science behind Complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life. By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as a radio producer at This American Life and had won an Emmy. But behind her office door she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk. After years of questioning what was wrong with her, she was diagnosed with Complex PTSD-a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. Both of Stephanie's parents had abandoned her as a teenager after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd overcome her trauma, but her diagnosis illuminated the ways in which her past continued to threaten her health, her relationships, and her career. Finding few resources to help her heal, Stephanie set out to map her experience onto the scarce scientific research on C-PTSD. In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Stephanie interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies with the determination and curiosity of an award-winning journalist. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on a community, she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, and learns how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma-but you can learn to move with it, with grace and joy. Powerful, enlightening, and clarifying, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body-and one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Difficult topic but informative and beautifully written submitted by russelan on June 20, 2022, 8:14pm Foo is a great writer and I appreciate the vulnerability and research that went into this book. I found some parts in the middle a bit less compelling but the piece outlining her experience with Dr. Jacob Ham was incredible. Her writing was truly beautiful.

Healing submitted by bookasaurusray on July 27, 2022, 10:19am This was a well-written memoir mixed with research and other anecdotes. The topic is hard to read about as the author suffers from complex PTSD, which is something I wasn't familiar with prior to this book.

Excellent memoir submitted by redwood on July 3, 2023, 12:19pm This memoir, by former NPR producer Stephanie Foo, deals with the roots, but mostly with the treatment, of her complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD. Foo’s eye for story, attention to detail, and penchant for rigorous research all come together to make a compelling read. Part I recounts Foo’s trauma, the constant and intense abuse she faced from both of her parents, who also abandoned her as a teenager. I won’t repeat the details here, but one of the most powerful moments of the book comes when Foo realizes that, actually, her parents did not love her.

Foo’s purpose in recounting her trauma is not to make readers feel sorry for her. Most of the book is about her journey to healing, and the trauma simply helps us understand what she is healing from. In an author’s note at the beginning, she gives a spoiler: “This book has a happy ending.” Foo quits her job and devotes herself full-time to treatment, trying various modes of therapy, from EMDR to IFS, until she finds Dr. Jacob Ham, the right fit for her. While showing how hard it can be to find the right therapist, she also gives history and context on both these modes of treatment and the disease itself. She also returns to places of her childhood, San Jose, CA, and Ipoh, Malaysia, to unearth memories and understand who might have known about what was happening to her. Throughout, she plays with and against stereotypes, including her own, about Asian families. By the end of the book, Foo isn’t cured, but she is more stable, ready to understand that she deserves love. It is a happy ending.

People praise Foo’s vulnerability, but what I admire is her generosity. This is a book written to help others believe in the possibility of healing and embark on it. I suspect this book has already helped a lot of people and will go on to help even more. My life experiences are completely different from Foo’s, but it is helping me. I want to buy a copy and reread this, marking up all the passages that meant something to me, and then leaf through it in times of need. This book made me remember, realize, and hope. I am beyond grateful for it.