Why everyone should read the book What Happened To You

What happened to you

Why everyone should read the book What Happened To You

I’LL ADMIT that I didn’t know a lot about trauma and how it shows up in our lives. Until very recently I considered it a heavy topic related to extreme experiences like rape, racism, or abuse. I hold the assumption that trauma had to be a big, gigantic thing experienced.

After reading this book I realized I missed out on a lot. Not only does the majority of the world’s population deal with some form of trauma, but we also don’t need to have experienced the deeply distressing or disturbing moment ourselves, to be traumatized — which was also new to me.

What Happened To You? made a lasting impression on me, and I truly recommend reading this book to all of my readers. Even though this book might seem fairly difficult to read at first glance, the message about trauma is important to us all, as it refers to the most integral and universal parts of the human experience. This book is for everyone who wonders about how trauma shows up in our lives and those who are interested in the path toward healing.

Default mode

After reading the book I realized how so many things in life are connected and that everyone is on their own path of healing and growing. There is just so much from anyone’s childhood that you bring with you into the present. By shifting the conversation from, what’s wrong with that person to: what happened to them? Trauma can be described as something that happens inside of us as a response to what happened to us in life. The reader is reminded time after time again that empathy is key. It’s just not justified to judge ourselves and others harshly. We are not able to grow from that behavior.

Many faces

By shifting the conversation from, what’s wrong with that person?, to: what happened to them?, allows us the space for empathy. It suggests an approach to trauma as something that happens inside of us as a response to what happened to us in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

319 499 Lisanne Swart
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