What My Bones Know

By Stephanie Foo. Penguin Random House, 2022.

This book is a thoughtful and intimate exploration of the author's childhood, which left her with cPTSD, and the efforts she undertakes to heal and grow. Foo invites readers into her world, and she lays out the direct lines she traces from the loneliness, isolation, and abandonment she experienced in her childhood to the perfectionism and punishing work ethic which brings her great successes in the journalism world, and then to her ultimate burnout and need to heal herself and her past.

Foo's impressive background in research and journalism are a gift here, as she dove into the research around complex PTSD and thoughtfully, carefully synthesized it into very clear and approachable language that is accessible for someone without any academic background in psychology or psychotherapy. Frankly, that is not something I often see, as many of the go-to books on trauma in the mental health field tend to assume some background knowledge. If you are interested in finding out more about complex PTSD, how it differs from PTSD as it is more classically conceptualized, and how one person went about healing from it, this is a wonderful book to pick up.

A gentle content note, however, that there are some scenes that depict the childhood violence and abuse Foo experienced at the hands of her parents, so if that is something that you carry in your own history, make sure to approach those parts of the book carefully. The flip side, however, is that this book is a testament to the fact that healing is possible in the face of cPTSD, an important message, as many with cPTSD believe themselves to be beyond healing.

For more on the book and Stephanie Foo, find her website here.