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Healing Honestly: The Messy and Magnificent Path to Overcoming Self-Blame and Self-Shame

Healing Honestly: The Messy and Magnificent Path to Overcoming Self-Blame and Self-Shame

Current price: $21.95
Publication Date: June 6th, 2023
Publisher:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN:
9781523001408
Pages:
288
Still North Books & Bar
1 on hand, as of Apr 28 2:12pm
On Our Shelves Now

Description

The Least Retraumatizing Read on Childhood Sexual Abuse. 
For Survivors, by a Survivor.

Healing Honestly is a candid, poignant, and often funny survivor-to-survivor guide to navigating the salty waters of untrue stories and victim-blaming narratives that survivors of child sex abuse hear every day.

Survivors of child sex abuse (CSA) are inundated with untrue stories of their abuse, the aftermath, and what their healing journey should look like. The truth is those stories are a bunch of hot garbage. 

Healing Honestly is a guide for survivors, written by a survivor, helping to break through the negative self-talk and debunk the myths that impact victims of CSA, such as:  

  • There is a “real” survivor out there, and we are not it. 
  • It happened so long ago that we should be over it by now. 
  • We are having too much sex because of our trauma, and also, we are having too little sex because of our trauma. 

With an approachable style that makes heavy topics not so damn scary, this book shows how trauma survivors can learn to identify these untrue stories that often come up in dating, in friendships, in families, at work, and more. Readers will discover strategies for turning down the volume on the bullshit so that they can hear their own wisdom and inner truth more clearly.  

Full of wit and humor, Healing Honestly offers practical strategies for survivors of sex abuse to support themselves in living full and vibrant lives.

About the Author

ALISA ZIPURSKY is a writer, coach, speaker, and childhood sexual abuse survivor who focuses on supporting other adults healing from trauma. She is the founder of HealingHonestly.com. Since 2016, she has been blogging about her experiences as a millennial woman trying to live a full life while healing from her abuse. Along with offering group and individualized coaching programs, Zipursky travels the country speaking and facilitating workshops at college campuses and conferences. Her writing has been published in Allure, Teen Vogue, and Bust. She is quoted in prominent publications such as Time, the Guardian, and Bustle. She has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Praise for Healing Honestly: The Messy and Magnificent Path to Overcoming Self-Blame and Self-Shame

“In a world of oppressive power systems set up to invalidate the experiences of survivors at every turn, Healing Honestly meets the reader at each juncture of dismal and extends a hand toward inner wisdom. With gentle candor, practical strategy, and a healthy dose of humor, Alisa reminds survivors that healing may be an unpredictable journey, but it is not one any of us should have to walk alone.”
—Sonya Renee Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling The Body Is Not an Apology

“With a deft blend of bracing candor, thoughtful research, and irreverent humor, Healing Honestly is a book that CSA survivors have deserved for a long time. Zipursky writes unapologetically as a survivor, for survivors, weaving together intimate moments from her own life with a compassionate and accessible consideration of what it really takes to cope, heal, grow, and live after experiencing trauma. Whether you’re someone who has shelves filled with books on the subject or you are learning about CSA for the first time, Healing Honestly offers insight, validation, and guidance for how to navigate all facets of a difficult but important topic.”
—Rebecca Grant, author of Birth

“Reading Healing Honestly is like being in an honest, accountable, and at times very funny conversation with a new, trusted childhood sexual abuse survivor-friend who not only shares all the beautiful complexities of her healing journey but also creates a nonjudgmental space for readers, especially survivors, to do the same. Alisa Zipursky doesn’t talk down to her readers. Instead, her conversational style of writing holds survivors’ hands, provides the shoulder we are often looking to lean on, and continuously reminds us that we are not alone on our healing journey. Alisa speaks directly and unapologetically to survivors and to our loved ones/coconspirators who are committed to supporting our healing journey. I have immense gratitude and joy that Healing Honestly is out in the world, providing new pathways for healing from childhood sexual abuse.”
—Aishah Shahidah Simmons, editor of the Lambda Literary Award–winning anthology Love WITH Accountability and Producer/Director, NO! The Rape Documentary