Community Trauma

The Commons calls her salvation. The outside world calls it control. Lucy Elowen Vale has always belonged to Solista: a secluded mountain community where every song has a purpose, every grief is witnessed, and every girl learns the cost of being needed. Raised beneath antlers, winter rites, and old stories, Lucy is treasured for her gift as a mediator—the one who can turn fear, shame, and rebellion back into peace. When the elders send her beyond the ridge to college, Lucy is supposed to learn the outside world’s language without forgetting her own. But freedom arrives in unsettlingly ...

An original and groundbreaking examination of the psychological devastation of war through the lens of Homer’s Iliad in this “compassionate book [that] deserves a place in the lasting literature of the Vietnam War” (The New York Times). In this moving and dazzlingly creative book, Dr...

During and after a traumatic experience, survivors experience a cascade of physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, relational, and spiritual responses that can make them feel unbalanced and threatened. The second edition of Building Resilience to Trauma explains common responses from a biological perspective, reframing the human experience from one of shame and pathology to one of hope and biology.

Embrace your innate power and find growth from trauma with this essential guide filled with groundbreaking solutions and strategies for your healing journey. Amid collective trauma, it helps to know that our bodies are built to respond to stress and what we might do to shift those reflexes...

When Laurel Everhart returns to Booey Creek to work in the mountain fire tower, she expects quiet days and open skies. Instead, the ridge begins stirring pieces of a childhood she has spent decades trying to forget. Small, long-lost objects appear along her path—fragments from the night her best friend, Sarah Kate, fell from the ridge and the truth slipped into silence. With the help of Mira, a gentle memory healer, and Rylan, a steady presence she never saw coming, Laurel begins piecing together what really happened that night. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more she realizes ...

An immersive account of a commercial fishing disaster at sea whose repercussions haunt its survivors to this day, lauded by New York Times bestselling author Ron Suskind as “an honest and touching book, and a hell of a story.” In March of 1984, the commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left...

A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia -- and the writer determined to put the pieces back together. In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian...

Discover the power of collective healing in this research-based and real-world guide to moving past trauma and adversity—together. Adversity comes in many forms, and can make us feel alone in our pain, even years after the fact. But as wellness coach and licensed therapist Minaa B. observes...

A “vital, life-saving must-read” (Nora McInerny, author of Bad Vibes Only) manifesto for communal resilience based on in-depth investigations into history, social science, and psychology, from the bestselling author of Rage Becomes Her. We are often urged to rely only on ourselves for...

From bestselling author Lisa Graff, this important coming-of-age story follows a thirteen-year-old with a mysterious scar on her face—and a big secret she feels pressured to keep. Fallon Little has a secret—and it’s not how she got the enormous scar that divides her face in two...

How do we do effective, sustainable social change…without burning out, internalizing systemic toxicity, or replicating urgency culture? A trauma-informed anthology with contributions from 13 activists and community organizers—for readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Ejeris...

When it comes to Christ-centered recovery, we, the church, have work to do. Our legalistic, box-checking, one-size-fits-all programs produce astonishingly high failure rates—which means far too many people are left to fight addiction, mental health problems, and suicidal thoughts on their own. The goal of The Uncovery is to help the church—and the world—see recovery through a grace-laced, gospel lens. Every single one of us has some trauma or issue from our past that may still be affecting our life today. This book offers listeners nudge to go deeper in the recovery space.

A memoir of sex, angst, and rocks, Turn to Stone chronicles one woman’s ascent—on walls of stone and within herself—as she faces her demons and finds freedom and power in the raw and wild adventure of rock climbing. Down on the ground, it was hard to connect, hard to attach, hard to...

A poignant and heart-wrenching coming-of-age story that follows the friendships, hopes, fears, and struggles of a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s North End, illuminating what it's like to grow up in the heart of an Indigenous city WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S...

From the Founder of the World Happiness Foundation comes a musical that does not entertain audiences — it transforms them. Unlocking Your Light Within is a full-length musical in two acts and twelve songs, written for any stage, in any country, in any language. It is the complete libretto — dialogue, stage directions, integrated lyrics, and production architecture — for performers, directors, producers, and dreamers preparing to bring this work to life. At its center walks Lia, an eight-year-old who steps onto the stage from the audience itself. Guided by four luminous beings — ...

In the shadowed hollows of 1890s Ashe County, North Carolina, the enigmatic Melungeons—descendants of African, European, and indigenous blood—face a world of whispers and prejudice. Sensationalized by journalist Will Allen Dromgoole, their myths of shifting skin tones and exotic origins ignite public fascination, while census takers label them "free persons of color" amid flickering illusions: blue eyes and high cheekbones that shimmer like holograms under mountain light. But as racial reclassification laws tighten and discrimination bites deeper, a darker horror stirs—people ...

Have you ever wondered how someone ends up handing over their life to a leader behind the guise of enlightenment - and how they claw their way back out? In Cult Chaos, step inside six chilling first-person accounts from people who thought they had found purpose, belonging and salvation - only to discover they were trapped in systems of psychological control, coercion and fear. A yoga studio that demanded devotion and debt. An Instagram “mentor” who monitored every decision. A spiritual commune where leaving meant death. A corporate “family” built on silent obedience. A political ...

Connecting to Our Ancestral Past is a pragmatic, spiritual journey that introduces a variety of specific rituals and conversations in connection with Constellations work, an experiential process that explores one's history and powerful events of the past in order to understand and resolve...

The acclaimed author of Red Clocks returns with a biting, lyrical novel about an intergenerational group home run by an ex-musician determined to make a place for those without one On a bluff above a river rises The House, where elderly and disabled residents live alongside young people who help...

Historically, sexual minorities are the first targets of authoritarian movements. Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York University has documented that you can draw a through line of attacks on gay people by dictators from Mussolini right to the present. Ironically it is this degradation that causes stress and trauma in the lives of the LGBTQ community. Professor Eric Kandel of Columbia University has stated that "Brain science can be a liberating influence in our lives. As we understand the biology of our own gender identity and sexual orientation better and become more comfortable with ...