The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice

Posting this now as I have spent the months since the book release slowly working my way through each rich chapter with the attention and time spent in reflection and practice that they each call for from the reader. It is a gift especially in these most challenging of times, and an invitation to come home to our own bodies so that we can become more fully resourced, choiceful, and effective in achieving all we care most about. You will find no resource on Somatics that is more complete - honestly this is likely to become a reference manual and guidebook for all those doing work in, or informed by, Somatics on an individual, group and societal level for years to come.I’ve lost track of the number of people to whom I have recommended this book over the past few months. I bought the paper copy -- but when my 16 year old daughter took that to read (she had read one of the excerpts I posted, along with following Prentis Hemphill’s work and podcast, and wanted to learn more), I then bought it on Kindle and Audiobook (when that came out).As a writer, an English major, and as a trained Coach, I appreciate very much the balance Staci Haines has struck between theory, practice, and first-person voices. All of the content resonates for me, most specifically Nathan Shara’s description of over-braking, but also every aspect the wider set of applications of Somatics to social change. Given I have spent most of my life and career working in and with nonprofits, you can imagine how squarely what Staci wrote has landed. Some of the chapters I’ve gone back and read twice, and I know I’ll continue to work in relationship to it for years to come.Deeply grateful for this book which is clearly the result of a tremendous amount of work, informed by her decades of fruitful and deep practice in the field.

What an immensely valuable and important book! At a time when the traumatizing effects of the oppressive uses of power cry out daily for deeper understanding and response, this book could not be more vital. Staci Haines, a leading teacher and organizer in the area of Somatics and trauma, poses and addresses crucial questions related to the politics of trauma: What are the social and political forces operating in the U.S. that keep producing trauma and that are left unchanged by a focus only on individual healing? How can activists organize, confront, and transform these societal forces if the impact of trauma in their own personal lives has not been acknowledged and healed? The Politics of Trauma underscores the urgent need to address trauma holistically, through individual healing, but also through systemic transformation to uproot fundamental causes of trauma, such as racial, economic, (hetero)sexist, and environmental exploitation and injustice.But it goes much further. It provides a pragmatic, detailed guide for embodied transformation that is both personal and systemic. The book is full of practices and processes that support movement through cycles of individual and organizational healing. And the effectiveness of these processes is powerfully demonstrated in moving personal stories of transformation that follow each chapter and that the author, herself, tells throughout. In all, this book maps a practical direction toward achievable personal and systemic embodiment that is ever more aligned with integrity, resilience, vision, and longing. It is a rare and essential offering to survivors of trauma, activists, those in healing and teaching professions, and all who care deeply about a more just and vibrant society and world.

This book is great, especially for those interested in social change and well as trauma work. Whether you are new or experienced I encourage anyone to read this book, the worst that could happen is what? It doesn't land with you? Totally normally. I am not a graduate and I wouldn't call myself a specialist, yes the book is dense but I found that this book does a brilliant job of building concepts from the ground up so that an inexperienced reader can follow along. The person who said you need some sort of credentials to comprehend this book is just gatekeeping and it is quite condescending. You don't need to be a college graduate to learn new information. Also what a privileged thing for that person to say, higher education in itself is problematic and requires restructuring. It is financially inaccessible for many folx , AND it tends to serve a single type of learner, and often those with neurodivergencies as well as atypical learners struggle due to lack of resources, accommodations and representation. I encourage you to learn and grow into the social activist you want to be regardless of you academic background. Learn, grow and get inspired! This book is a wonderful place to start. I highly recommend it!

For so many of us, personal and social change have been presented and experienced as separate projects, sometimes even mutually exclusive. This book makes a powerful case for how inextricably linked they are. More importantly, it walks us through a theory and methodology of change that describes not only why but how to get there. The Politics of Trauma actually marks the path, describing the steps of somatic transformation. It occurred to me often while reading how generous Staci Haines was to include such detail. She wisely cautions that “[r]eading this book alone…will not make you competent in somatics and trauma….It’s like anything embodied…it takes vision, embodied practice, teachers and guides, and feedback” (13). That said, The Politics of Trauma gives us a whole lot—while not quite a workbook, it is a map. Seems like an antidote to the current tendency to throw around words like “embodiment”—instead it gives us a clear sense of what at least one version is and isn’t. Maybe a better title would be The Politics of Somatic Healing.

Good text book for Interpersonal and Structural Violence University course. Great insights and information for social work students.

Excellent resource.