Empowered Boundaries

Speaking Truth, Setting Boundaries, and Inspiring Social Change

By: Cristien Storm

Narrated by: Cristien Storm

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Strengthen relationships, build more resilient communities, and develop a stronger emotional toolbox.

Explaining power and privilege and the links between individual safety and community safety, Cristien Storm shows listeners how to set emotional boundaries that build vibrant social movements and a better world for all. As there have been increases in violence against women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQI-identified people, there has been a corresponding demand for individual and community self-defense, boundary setting, and bystander trainings. Boundary setting can be used not just as a means for personal safety, but as form of solidarity, resistance, and inspiration. 

From saying no to a boss who always asks you to work late, to setting a boundary with a loved one, to navigating an uncomfortable situation at the bus stop, Cristien Storm offers a new approach to verbal boundary setting that is accessible for all bodies and identities. Practical in scope, the audiobook includes tools, tips, and strategies from Storm's decades of experience leading boundary-setting workshops. Grounded in resiliency and trauma-informed theory, Storm pays particular attention to the experiences of women, people of color, immigrants, and LQBTQI-identified people, making this necessary listening for anyone looking to create healthier relationships and build stronger communities.

©2018 Christien Storm (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

“Storm emphasizes the nature of boundary setting, particularly among vulnerable groups such as people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and women, defining along the way topics of power and privilege and the connections between individual and community safety. She further examines the fear behind and avoidance of communicating one’s needs and then offers methods for establishing boundaries...with everyone from family members and bosses to strangers at the bus stop. Highly recommended." (Library Journal) 

"Not just theoretical but practical and useful for individuals and groups, the book provides exercises in boundary-setting skills and clarifies why individuals and groups have a right and a responsibility to set them.... Storm's book shows how essential setting boundaries is to standing against violence, creating safe spaces, and building stronger families, communities, and nations." (Foreword) 

“Empowered Boundaries is a clear, practical guide for navigating the pressures we all face in interacting with friends, lovers, coworkers, and collaborators. Cristien Storm provides a grounded understanding of what boundaries are and how we can practice knowing what we want and don't want, asserting our needs and desires in relationships, and retaining connection in conflict. I would recommend this book to anyone struggling with conflict and frustration at work, in a group, or in their family.” (Dean Spade, associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law, cofounder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law) 

Narration was terrible

I've wanted to read this book for a year and a half, and was delighted to find it as an audiobook. Ufnortunately the narrator is reading every single sentence, no matter what the sentence is about, in the same melody. This makes the listeining experience as a whole monotone. The narrator also talks too fast, jumbles words together, and sometimes do not pronounciate the whole word. I really struggle to grasp and focus on what is being said rather than how it is said, but it is difficult work, and I don't think I'm up for all that work. This being said, I've only listened to the forword and the introduction, so I guess it could change. I'll return this and read it in paperback instead, as I'm all for the book and the content, just not the way it is narrated.