88 Days: Road to Recovery from Trauma

By: Wendy Manzo, Andrew H. Smith

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

88 days: Road to Recovery from Trauma. It may be 88 hours or 88 weeks, the pathway is the same. When something traumatic happens that disrupts our ‘normal’, there are processes we must travel through to recover our passion for life.


88 Days Road to Recovery presents a four-stage sequence of the journey from shock to recovery. Based on Andrew H. Smith’s Grief Model of Change© these four stages can be used by anyone, anywhere, in almost any situation that requires us to process trauma and manage change.


Traumatic Event - Safety Zone - Acceptance - Accommodate

We must travel through these quadrants - and not remain in them.

From the initial reaction to the 'traumatic event' at Stage One, we hesitantly breathe again in the 'safety zone' of Stage Two, until we begin venturing out to try a new life, with new ways, in the 'acceptance' of Stage Three. Finally, we fully live again in the Stage Four of 'accommodate', stable and able to participate in a new life, having moved through the trauma to recovery. If we try to skip ahead in the sequence, we find ourselves re-traumatised or simply plain stuck. Frozen in time. Some people stay caught in their trauma for much longer than needed. Life is too short. Help is here now. Help for healing, clarity, and direction. We do not have to be imprisoned or 'triggered' by our traumatic events, we can choose when to trade-in our grief and change our life.

Writing from both lived experience and in-depth study in psychology and neuroscience, Andrew H. Smith turns the "psychobabble" into "real" talk for us. He speaks directly to our hearts bringing healing to our wounds.

Wendy Manzo, artist and writer, includes beautifully illustrated affirmations in a devotional-style chronicle that allows you to absorb each stage and move through the journey to recovery at your own pace.

Ponder. Perceive. Breathe.