What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

Stephanie Foo

Feb 2022 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life

“Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Mashable, She Reads, Publishers Weekly

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Both of Foo’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she’d moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.

In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don’t move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.

Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman’s ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.

Ratings and reviews

"Captivating,real and essential. The realness promise's an equal amount of well thought tried tested and obviously used therapeutic self helping stredigy, can't wait to buy the book and read the rest!"

In What My Bones Know, journalist Stephanie Foo shares an honest, compelling story of her childhood trauma and journey to heal from complex PTSD. Parts of her story were hard to read, because she experienced some pretty awful abuse, but overall, this story is inspiring and informative. Intermingled with her personal story, Foo shares what she has learned from her research about the Asian immigrant experience, intergenerational trauma, family estrangement, and complex PTSD. She also discusses her experiences with different therapists and healing modalities, which I found very helpful. Although I have already read many books about trauma and worked with several different therapists, I learned a lot from this book. Some of my own experiences and reactions make more sense to me now. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand complex PTSD. I was provided an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

Definitely worth the read I highly recommend especially if you feel alienated due to cptsd. This book helped me realize that I'm not alone.

About the author

Stephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer, most recently for This American Life. Her work has aired on Snap Judgment, Reply All, 99% Invisible, and Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. She lives in New York City with her husband.