The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color (The Social Justice Handbook Series)

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974This is an amazing book. I put off reading it until I was in a better mental state. Some of the content can be triggering. It’s good to know you’re not alone. I enjoyed the various aspects, spiritual, practical and psychological. This book should be used within the psychological curriculum. Trauma can be passed down similar to diabetes. With the right treatment and assistance, one can overcome.

I downloaded the audible version last week per a friend’s recommendation and two days later, I just had to order book to read along! This is the first book in years that I finish so quickly from start to finish and just keep going back to it! I feel seen!! I feel heard!!! I feel validated I feel that the author, Natalie Gutiérrez was telling my story from birth to present, even the story of my ancestors! She put into words the truths behind the complex lifetime traumatic experiences, those of us in BIPOC communities experience every single day! This book is easy to read and follow and I promise you, that you won’t want to put it down!!!As a mental health provider who specializes in treating clients with C-PTSD within BIPOC communities, I have utilized this book in sessions with clients and have recommended this book to all of my friends and colleagues.The Pain We Carry should absolutely become part of all academic curriculums, especially in colleges and universities, as well as utilized in trainings and workshops in an effort to continue growing the social Justice efforts in increasing cultural humility within all systems and institutions that have a long history of perpetuating injury, harm, and trauma unto People of Color!

This book is amazing. I’m a note taker and have a lot to follow up with and digest. The author is insightful and effective in connecting experiences of BIPOC to the feelings we feel within. As someone who has struggled with fully feeling my feelings, it was helpful to read the stories she shared and taught from.Natalie’s style of writing is so warm that I felt like I was sitting in front of her discussing this. Her compassion is so palpable and welcoming.Finally, the book provides a plethora of practical practices that I can see myself fully implementing. This is a book I plan on revisiting many time over.

I downloaded the audible version last week per a friend’s recommendation and two days later, I just had to order book to read along! This is the first book in years that I finish so quickly from start to finish and just keep going back to it! I feel seen!! I feel heard!!! I feel validated I feel that the author, Natalie Gutiérrez was telling my story from birth to present, even the story of my ancestors! She put into words the truths behind the complex lifetime traumatic experiences, those of us in BIPOC communities experience every single day! This book is easy to read and follow and I promise you, that you won’t want to put it down!!!As a mental health provider who specializes in treating clients with C-PTSD within BIPOC communities, I have utilized this book in sessions with clients and have recommended this book to all of my friends and colleagues.The Pain We Carry should absolutely become part of all academic curriculums, especially in colleges and universities, as well as utilized in trainings and workshops in an effort to continue growing the social Justice efforts in increasing cultural humility within all systems and institutions that have a long history of perpetuating injury, harm, and trauma unto People of Color!

The Pain We Carry is such an important contribution to our mental health. Natalie Gutierrez validates the suffering of BIPOC and makes sense out of our experiences. I love the practical exercises, meditations and journal prompts provided. It’s a comprehensive tool for all therapists and my one looking to heal ancestral wounds and present day oppression. I’m so thankful for this work of art. It’s reach will be immense. I hope all therapy focused programs adopt it.

The Pain We Carry is a non-fiction book written by a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, intended to be read by people of color who are wanting to navigate the Complex PTSD that comes from the trauma of racism. I read this book not as a person of color, but as a white therapist. I work with many POC and believe it is deeply important to learn as much as possible about the ways in which the trauma of oppression affects clients. As with all trauma, symptoms resulting from experiences of racism are not deficiencies in the people who experienced them – they are adaptive, functional responses to trauma. I really appreciated that this book spoke about multiple forms of racism – systemic, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized – and addressed both experiences that the individual reading may have had, as well as inherited trauma from harm experienced by ancestors.This was a fabulous book, chockfull of compassion. I loved the IFS overview and the number of exercises for readers to complete. Highly recommended for folks who are navigating the effects of racism, as well as for those who work with POC as clinicians.Thanks so much to Natalie Gutiérrez and New Harbinger Publications, Inc., for this ARC through NetGalley. The Pain We Carry is available now!

I really enjoyed this book, not fully knowing how deep of a dive it would do into what CPTSD is and the ancestral healing mechanisms that are used by people. I appreciated the various citations to people who have done vast amounts of research and who are heavily in the field of psychology and also spiritual healing.I’ve not really learned much about spiritual healing in my past, but like the author am interested in getting connected more with my Puerto Rican roots and how our people healed and the traumas that they endured. I found this to be an interesting book to jump start wanting to be more attuned to my culture. It’s my belief that those who read this will most definitely benefit from it.

This book helps with coping with certain traumas that minorities from then to modern day. The author is a genius

The Pain We Carry is such an important contribution to our mental health. Natalie Gutierrez validates the suffering of BIPOC and makes sense out of our experiences. I love the practical exercises, meditations and journal prompts provided. It’s a comprehensive tool for all therapists and my one looking to heal ancestral wounds and present day oppression. I’m so thankful for this work of art. It’s reach will be immense. I hope all therapy focused programs adopt it.

This book clearly comes from the heart and validates so many experiences of pain, persistence and healing we as BIPOC folx go through. As a therapist, I have already recommended this book to most of my clients – and also fellow trainees in trauma therapy programs. Highly recommend for clinicians as well as regular folx as part of our learning and healing journeys. It will also make a great gift for the BIPOC loved ones in your life as they navigate social and cultural exclusion and oppression in this country.

Gutiérrez wrote a highly accessible and comprehensive trauma therapy 101 book that, though it contains complex concepts, provides an easy read for survivors. This was my first-read through, and I plan on returning to the physical book to work through the exercises. The exercises surely aren’t easy, but they seem very helpful to incorporate into my healing journey.The perspective provided in this book is one I’ve needed. I appreciate its existence.

I believe this a book that belongs amongst the giants who dominate the field of mental health, therapy, and anti-racism scholars. This is a book that belongs with Brene Brown, Richard Schwartz, Gabor Maté, Joy DeGruy, Resmaa Menakem, and so many others. We need Natalie’s voice where ever BIPOC healing is being discussed. If you are BIPOC and healing from trauma read this book. If you are a white-bodied person and you want to learn how to best treat BIPOC clients, read this book. If you are a mental health professional or healer get this book, read it, underline through out it. It’s seriously one of the best books I’ve read and it is for BIPOC and by BIPOC. Thank you Natalie, I feel your ancestors spoke through you as you wrote each chapter.