My Grandmother's Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

By: Resmaa Menakem MSW LICSW SEP

Narrated by: Cary Hite

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

A National Best Seller

"My Grandmother's Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice." (Robin DiAngelo, New York Times best-selling author of White Fragility)

In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.

The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans - our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

Paves the way for a new body-centered understanding of white supremacy - how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.

Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.

©2018 Central Recovery Press (P)2018 Central Recovery Press

Best book on racial equity I’ve read

This is the most helpful book I’ve read on race in 2020-2021. Practical tools and a call to action with something that everyone can do. Highly recommended!

Excellent Groundbreaking Insights

This is excellent anyone who seeks to help their paradigms to shift will want to listen/read this book.

Absolute Must Read for Racial Justice Work!

Loved it! Black, Brown & White Body Trauma. New foundational grounding for me!
LOVE!

Mind Opening

This book should be required reading for all Americans. If we better understood our history and the way our minds and bodies work, there would be must less violence. Resmaa does a wonderful job explaining trauma and making connections to our history.

Enlightening and actionable

This book presents a new and disruptive idea in a simple and understanding way. I specifically enjoyed the philosophy for its inclusiveness and distinctive elaboration of human condition as it relates to the past, present and the future.

An excellent step forward

I can't think of many people this book wouldn't be deeply helpful to. If you want a body-mindful therapy book that dives into the US's greatest trauma, white supremacy, this is surely it. The traumatic stress reduction exercises and practices are enough for me to highly recommend it. The narration is excellent too.

Every American human will make their world better by reading this important book, and getting in touch with their “soul nerve”

After hearing an interview with Resmaa Menakem on Krista Tippett’s On Being podcast, I felt compelled to read this book. It is clear from any reasonable standpoint that discussions of race — including racial tension or bias, history or race relations, equity and equality, or anything else in this country conditioned by skin color and culture — are all, without exception, experienced as strongly emotional and deeply impactful for everyone involved. It should be obvious to even casual observers that progress in such discussions is frequently, if not uniformly, beset by barriers that come from subconscious and visceral reactions to the issues at hand and the people involved. This reality is so pervasive that we almost miss it, like fish swimming in poisoned water that has simply come to be the norm.

Stepping outside oneself just long enough to perceive this situation — which the interview helped to foster for me — is the first step toward becoming aware of this uncomfortable situation, becoming more present in one’s own body with its limitations and potentialities, and working through the “clean pain” of resolving trauma before blowing it through others mindlessly or maliciously.

If you can see, even briefly or fleetingly, how this can improve your own life, the lives of those close to you, and the community and world you live in, no matter where you stand or sit in this scenario, then you will find this book as powerful and life-altering as I believe it will be for me.

Inspiring Read!

Inspiring book that creates a framework to understand the social dynamics of our time. Where they came from and a roadmap for recovery.

The best book for right now!!

healing yourself is how you make the biggest difference. this book is a great guide.

Super Informative!

I really needed this book, the concepts about healing the body and soul on the way to stronger mental health.