My Grandmother's Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Resmaa Menakem

• Publisher: Central Recovery Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781942094470
• eBook ISBN: 9781942094487
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Index: Psychology

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

" My Grandmother's Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice."— Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.

The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

• Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.
  
• Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.
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  Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch ( Passionate Marriage ) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk ( The Body Keeps the Score ). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.
  
  

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Do Not Cross This Line
• Watch Your Body
• Acknowledging Our Ancestors
• Our Bodies, Our Country
• Part I: Unarmed and Dismembered
• Part II: Remembering Ourselves
• Part III: Mending Our Collective Body
• Afterword
• Five Opportunities for Healing and Making Room for Growth
• Acknowledging My Contemporaries
• Deepening Your Experience of This Book