What My Bones Know

A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

By: Stephanie Foo

Narrated by: Stephanie Foo

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.

Astounding, honest, hopeful, well researched

If you have ever struggled with ANY type of mental health challenges, you will find many nuggets of gold in this book!

While it is written specifically about the author’s work to learn about and grow through her history of repeated childhood trauma and eventual diagnosis with Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), any human should be able to connect to and find solace in what Ms. Foo has to say.

Her honesty is refreshing and disarming. The inclusion of several recordings from actual therapy sessions makes the audio version really stand out. To top it all off, her writing and narration are killer!

KUDOS, FOO!!! (I am your fan for life!)

acceptance

acceptance is more important than cure - curiousity leads the process of healing - discovery is the reward of new grounds

Highly recommend

Beautifully written despite the sensitive subject matter. This book held my interest through the phases of her telling her personal story, then her journey of seeking healing methods to finally finding the right fit for her to ultimately finding that elusive, but possible, peace with her past. Sharing the actual recordings from her therapy sessions were so profoundly helpful to me. Thank you for that gift. This book is raw at times but so worth the deep dig to the bones. Highly recommend for the quality writing, excellent narration and actual therapy recordings.

Stunning

I was going to say that anyone who had a traumatic childhood should read this book, but actually, I think everyone should. It’s hard and fascinating and beautiful and hopeful.
And as she says at the very beginning, it has a happy ending.

My heart is so overwhelmed

Thank you so much for writing this book Stephanie. Not only did you give a name and a face to the experiences I've had as an adult because of my trauma, you also give me different ways that I could try to heal.. I cried a lot throughout this book. So much of it resonated with me and I didn't want to to end. I definitely recommend this book to anyone dealing with pastor trauma.