Research & Literature

The ‘me too.’ Movement presents this collection of resources as one of the many places you can start your healing journey. Whether you find a memoir that lets you go inside the mind of an actual survivor through their first-person account of harm and healing, or you want to read up on statistics and research that can propel your own healing or activism, this ever-expanding library is for you.

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Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected

African American Policy Forum | 2015

Against the backdrop of the surveillance, punishment, and criminalization of youth of color in the United States, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected seeks to increase awareness of the gendered consequences of disciplinary and push-out policies for girls of color, and, in particular, Black girls.

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Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting

Terrie M. Williams, Scribner, 2008, Self-help

Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting thoroughly chronicles the multigenerational pain of Black Americans by using stories and statistics to make the case, for anyone experiencing depression, that you’re not alone.

Williams does a good job of including a balance of stories. From Mariah Carey to Deborah from Flatbush, Williams illuminates the similarities of our struggles with stigmas about mental health and other people’s insistence that we just “shake it off.”

The downside of the book is how long the reader must wait for signs of hope. Black pain is real, and so is black resilience, which, unfortunately, doesn’t come until 3/4 of the way through the book.

Unapologetically black in her framework, Williams strikes a balance between healing through spiritual practices and managing depression via prescription drugs. Bernice McFadden’s story is a great example of this.

Williams also addresses “emotionality masquerading as spirituality” in black churches, a critique that proves the church is ill-equipped to help depressed people.

The book also fails to draw a clear line between experiencing sadness versus depression, that is, until close to the end of the book. That case should have been made earlier, rather than in the last paragraph of the last chapter where Williams’ acknowledges the importance of “fighting to feel, to have fear and sadness rather than anxiety, and to become reacquainted with calm, vibrancy, and joy.”

The readers of Black Pain will encounter raw stories, but the healing strategies are easy and timeless.

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Blossom: 7 Steps to Sexual Healing

Carolin Hauser-Carson, Carolin Hauser, Self-help

Blossom by Carolin Hauser-Carson, is for “women who have experienced sexual abuse and yearn for a fulfilling life and relationship. They will find hope and a clear road map to healing in this fresh and deeply compassionate guide.” Hauser-Carson write that she is “marrying the power of her personal story of healing from abuse with 15 years of experience in the field of alternative healing and psychotherapy.” In the beginning of the book, she shares her family history, details which she notes are necessary. However, the history wasn’t presented in a way that showed its relevance to the premise of the book—other than the fact that she was abused by her grandfather and didn’t realize it until she was older. It would have been more helpful if she was able to be more transparent and had shared more of the actual story of abuse in order to connect with the reader. There was a lack of depth in that regard.

That said, Blossom does serve as an effective guide. Most appreciated were the lessons and exercises. Journaling can be a great way to work through the healing process and her prompts were great facilitators for healing. Some standout takeaways from the lessons and exercises were: Nobody can save you. This exercise encourages readers to let go of the rescuer/savior mentality. Another idea that resonated is: You are not broken. The shame of the abuse often causes readers to believe that there is something wrong with them, leaving them feeling unwanted. This lesson helps the reader work through that painful notioin. The final idea that was powerfully presented is: Releasing your parents. Blame is often not helpful in the healing process. Blossom allows the reader to do some self-examination and reflection. Self-care is vitally important and a critical focus of Blossom, along with meditation and introspection. These final themes are the strongest aspects of the book, making it worthy of recommendation.

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