What My Bones Know

A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

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.

Absolute Perfection

As a Licensed Therapist, as a person who has experienced some traumas, this book was relatable, understandable and absolutely noteworthy on almost every level. I’ve already suggested this book to clients who have experienced similar traumas as well. So beautiful!

what I needed.

thank you, Stephanie 💚
this book--every single word of it--is exactly what I needed to go from feeling dread to feeling hope.
an immense amount of research, reflection, and writing went into this project. it shows. and I'm so thankful for it.

Great book!

This book was very interesting to listen/read. I'm grateful for Stephanie. I've never heard of C-PTSD before this book. As someone the has gone through childhood trauma it’s nice to hear other people stories and experiences.

Amazing

This book is amazing. The author tells her story with vulnerability, humility, strength, courage and power. It’s incredible. This audio book is so unique in how it incorporates actual audio from her therapy sessions with a transformative therapist. It was a window into such a powerful therapeutic relationship and how the interactions between therapist and client are so helpful to understanding intimacy and how to heal from ptsd. I loved this so so so much. Thank you to the author for her bravery in telling her story.

courageously powerful

I was moved, enlightened, and empowered. Stephanie Foo's memoir gave me the courage to start seeking therapy for myself and to recognize that I too am not alone in my struggles.