Description
Overcome shame and stigma; and bring a newly felt sense of safety, awareness, and life to your body.Â
If you’ve experienced rape, sexual abuse, molestation, or sexual trauma, you may feel as if you’ve lost your sense of self. You may have difficulty setting boundaries or building satisfying sexual relationships. Sometimes, you may even feel like your body isn’t your own. You aren’t alone. The scars of sexual trauma exist not only in the mind, but also in the body. And in order to heal, build resilience, and discover a sense of hope, you must address both.
Drawing on the powerful mind-body techniques of somatic therapy, The Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook is a step-by-step guide to overcoming the psychological effects of sexual trauma, and increasing positive body awareness and vitality. You’ll find tools to help you create an internal sense of safety and become more embodied and present. You’ll also discover ways to establish boundaries; move beyond intense feelings like shame, fear, and guilt; and deal effectively with triggers.
Finally, you’ll learn how to cultivate self-compassion and the confidence needed to live your best life. What happened to you isn’t your fault, and it doesn’t define you. With the right tools, you can live a full and satisfying life beyond sexual trauma. This workbook will help guide you, every step of the way.
Heather Brown (verified owner) –
I deeply appreciate this book and the courage it takes for survivors to learn to feel safe and to trust themselves and life again. This wonderful workbook is brimming with useful, and practical information. It has helped me to regain a sense of safety, through information on the nervous system, reflective journal prompts and, healing exercises. Touching on difficult subjects, ie: reporting or not, handling triggers effectively, and forgiveness, is not easy but were highly useful to read and I had not seen them acknowledged in a workbook before. I plan to return to it again in the future and recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about healing from sexual assault.
Elaine Sifuentes (verified owner) –
I am enjoying the exercises and the ease of doing them. The information that goes with them is most helpful. I’m not normally one to do the exercises with books but this one is different. It eases one in to them and the explanations are perfect for why one is doing them and the effects to expect. It’s like I have my own personal guide helping me through it all. Thank you so much.
Marty M.<span class="a-icon a-profile-verified-badge"><span class="a-profile-verified-text"></span></span> (verified owner) –
This workbook is a great resource for those who are looking for useful skills in dealing with sexual trauma. The author has put together a comprehensive workbook that can be used as a stand alone tool or in conjunction with therapy. For those who are looking to work on their trauma, this book can be a vastly helpful. I am keeping it on my list of books that I recommend.
K E Jackson (verified owner) –
I recommend this book to anyone healing from trauma of any kind. The exercises help me feel safe in my body and establish healthy boundaries. I found it tremendously helpful overall.
Justin (verified owner) –
Erika’s narration provides a gentle, kind, supportive voice. This voice creates a sense of safety that comes through the written word. Powerful support and practical guidance that is easy to follow and accessible. This workbook provides helpful skills for dealing with overwhelming feelings and memories. Erika helps the reader feel less alone by sharing her own courageous journey.
AvocadoToast (verified owner) –
An excellent book!
Regardless where you are on your healing journey, just starting or have already worked on your trauma, this book will assist you from feeling a victim to survivor and beyond. Erika Shershun’s writing approaches you with utmost kindness and compassion. She gives you full permission to be who you are and where you are every step of the way. She empowers you and holds out a hand to you to keep you steady. She knows what she is talking about, a survivor herself; her book is well balanced conveying knowledge and understanding as a therapist as well as a survivor to thriving and freedom.
The exercises are well explained and easy to follow. You can take your time and go at your own pace. You too can become free of your trauma and stand strong as the strong and awesome person you are!
Michaela – Survivor – Healer – Michiura Healing Arts
Caitlin Nagle (verified owner) –
Empathy and personal insights from her own journey through sexual trauma, is on each page of this workbook, with detailed, guided meditations and exercises, leaving space in the workbook for the reader’s own reflections.
Shershun reassures the reader that no one needs to feel that their life is defined by events of the past. For anyone whose life has been tainted by past sexual trauma, this workbook will lead the reader toward personal insight, healing, and inner peace.
Caroline V. (verified owner) –
Healing sexual trauma can be a daunting process, but Erika Shershun’s book makes it easy to embrace the process with gentleness, care and with a sense of empowerment (something that most victims may have lost). She has a true understanding of what victims go through, and her book is very resourceful – from memories, triggers and emotions to learning how to rebuild health boundaries in relationships.
Very well written, with an emphasis on healing yourself through your body and mind and taking into consideration your WHOLE self. I particularly liked her mind-body approach, the amount of knowledge and practical exercises she shares (with pictures! Which is great when you are a ‘visual’ learner), and the questions for us to reflect/write and make progress on our healing journey. I think it is a great complement for anyone going through therapy, but also very useful when you are trying to heal on your own too.
I highly recommend it!
Miriam Barraza, AMFT (verified owner) –
“Erika Shershun offers a remarkable resource for therapists to integrate in their clinical work and a valuable resource for sexual assault survivors that builds on understanding bodily responses to sexual trauma and towards reclaiming empowerment. Through somatic-based exercises, Erika illustrates and guides with such compassion and gentleness the process of reconnecting to safety and how the mind-body connection offers a gateway to healing sexual trauma”
Loquat Licorice Salty Syrups (verified owner) –
I found this book to be a powerful tool in my healing journey. I’m grateful for Erika Shersheun’s perspective and heart-filled approach to healing from trauma beginning with the body.
Richard P. (verified owner) –
Created by psychotherapist Erika Shershun, “Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook: Somatic Skills to Help You Feel Safe in Your Body, Create Boundaries, and Live with Resilience” is a step-by-step guide to overcoming the psychological effects of sexual trauma.
As you can probably guess from the book’s title, Shershun draws on the mind-body techniques of somatic therapy in developing this workbook. As she makes apparent early in the workbook, Shershun also draws upon her own healing experiences and the work that she did to overcoming the psychological effects of her own sexual trauma.
While “Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook” is noted as being a “step-by-step” guide, I couldn’t help but feel throughout the workbook that it’s best utilized by someone a little more advanced in the healing journey and truly ready to address mind-body techniques. While some survivors do, in fact, do this early in the journey others find it to be a later stage of healing. While I, like Shershun, have my own experiences with sexual assault and also spent time working in the mental health field (in my case crisis intervention), I at times felt like the language utilized in the workbook may not be easily understood by those early in a healing journey or those unfamiliar with therapeutic language. I also found that this language issue, on occasion, altered the tone of the workbook as Shershun altered between light self-revelation to warm encourager to what could likely be considered a more sterile clinical approach. There are, of course, places for all of these in the therapeutic relationship but it comes off differently with the written word.
There’s no denying that Shershun has crafted a valuable workbook of practical, safe to explore exercises within one’s personal network of friends and home. While these types of workbooks are ideally suited to those with healthy supportive and/or therapeutic relationships, the simple truth is that not all survivors of sexual trauma choose to or have access to these types of relationships and this workbook provides “at your pace” guidance for healing skills one can explore at home.
For the most part, Shershun chooses her self-revelation well and offers glimpses into her own journey without making the “Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook” ultimately about her. While much of this type of work I’ve done, it’s valuable work that can be revisited whenever new challenges along the healing journey arise. Generally speaking, Shershun makes it clear that while this is a step-by-step guide, sometimes our healing journey calls us to move a few steps ahead or behind. Only once did I find her contradicting her own guidance in that she encouraged people to not move forward as “we’re not ready for that yet” despite earlier having stated we could work ahead if we felt ready or a need for a particular step or area of work.
“Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook” is a valuable tool for the healing toolbox that will be an important aid for survivors of sexual trauma. While all survivors can benefit from work around mind-body, especially in the area of sexual trauma, those who embrace the mind-body journey will likely most resonate with Shershun’s work here.
This is a resource I will undoubtedly refer to again. In fact, I plan to read through it again at a survivor’s pace rather than for the contemplation of review. This is a book I want to see if I can lean into more fully as I incorporate Shershun’s knowledge and wisdom into my continued healing journey of healthy integration of my mind and body and my life experiences including sexual trauma.
Barb Reinhold (verified owner) –
I have always had difficulty with self-help workbooks. In theory, they should be helpful, relevant, and easy to follow. In practice however, finding trauma workbooks that are a good fit for me has been a real problem. For that reason, I approached “Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook: Somatic Skills to Help You Feel Safe in Your Body, Create Boundaries, and Live with Resilience” with trepidation. Could a 208 page workbook really help me accomplish all of those things? I had serious doubts, but I’m happy to report that with Erika Shershun’s expert assistance, I learned more about myself and accomplished more than I ever expected. There are a lot of self-help workbooks out there for victims of sexual trauma but none of them are quite like this one. That’s both because of the author’s writing style and the fact that unlike authors of other workbooks for sexual trauma survivors, she takes a more holistic view of both the manifestation of sexual trauma as both a psychological and somatic condition. Both a gifted therapist and writer, Shershun thoroughly explains and flawlessly integrates concepts of responses to sexual trauma and how they manifest not only cognitively and emotionally but also in one’s body, including dissociation, boundary setting, empowerment, and self-compassion. The workbook manages to be both thorough and easy to follow. Shersun thoroughly explains each exercise and the concepts they are designed to address, including helpful case studies as as examples. I have started working through many trauma workbooks in the past but for various reasons just couldn’t relate to them. However, this book was different. Shersun is not only a therapist but is herself a sexual trauma survivor. I’ve never met the author, but while I was working through the exercises and reading her words, I felt like she was someone who really “got it” to the point that it was almost like having a personal coach guiding me through the healing process.
Maddle (verified owner) –
I seriously wish I’d won this in a physical giveaway… The cover is attractive, and this is the first book on this part of my trauma that has ACTIONABLE advice along with the facts. I know so many people who would benefit, but I wish this was coming out sooner than July.
Also, very attractive cover. Clean, simple, soothing.
Review on Goodreads:
I love every bit of this.
Sadly, I know so many people who will find this book helpful. While I love the more scientific books that go into the science and psychology of trauma (which is referenced throughout this book), most of them offer extremely vague recommendations of what to do. They are great for explaining what’s happening in our minds and bodies, but the advice we get is to engage or practice:
*Yoga (not all instructors are trauma informed, so it can be triggering)
*Mindfulness (fine line next to toxic positivity, and often ignores the problems)
*EMDR/Brainspotting/HypnoTherapies (which are not accessible to everyone, and certainly not at any time of day)
Here, Erika Shershun offers real, actionable, accessible recommendations to help work through these issues. While I do HIGHLY recommend seeking therapy and practicing yoga, this workbook offers extremely simple advice, and lots of journal prompts, which I find very helpful in working through complicated emotions and reactions.
The notes, questions and writing exercises throughout this book offer a great way to reconnect with the body and identify and work through emotions. Sometimes, just being able to identify and understand our reactionary tendencies, what triggers us and the surrounding emotions can be a struggle. Trauma has a major affect on the body and mind and changes the way we process so many of our daily queues. Stopping to reflect of how we’re feeling and why takes some effort.
Throughout this workbook, there are short explanations of the affects on the body including the effects of trauma on the vagal nervous system, and how to identify the types of reactions were having. Erika gives the scientific breakdown in short, easily digestible explanations. Then she gives actionable recommendations to help RIGHT NOW, that isn’t simply “imagining” your problems away, “embracing your scars” or any other type of toxic positivity techniques that only make you feel worse later.
There are several journaling prompts, meditations, affirmations, and breathing/physical movement exercises to help identify, sort out and/or release/ease the feelings and combat triggers. The workbook includes links to download the worksheets as well, so you can continue to use the resources over and over.
One thing I particularly appreciate, aside from actionable advice that can be started immediately, without any additional experts or equipment, is how the examples are handled. While there are many examples of traumas from specific people given, I did not find them triggering. The details, while awful, where laid out in a fairly scientific way, focusing on the facts of the incident(s). For me, this seemed far less triggering than other resources which have given first-hand accounts, going into details about the thoughts and feelings during the attack/abuse.
While this book is specifically geared towards sexual trauma, the exercises can truly be used for releasing many types of trauma, using EMDR practices, mindfulness and meditation, exercises you’ll see in trauma-informed yoga classes. Moreover, there are sections for advice on handling not only triggers, but FLASHBACKS. She discusses disregulation and disassociation, the guilt and shame that are often misplaced and struggles with intimacy that occur later, when we aren’t expecting it.
Overall, this is a workbook I highly recommend. I appreciate the opportunity to read this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I am so grateful for this opportunity for my own healing, and to have another resource to offer to others in need. Now excuse me while I go suggest this to everyone I can who might need this.
Mister Roboto (verified owner) –
This workbook is great and breaking down how you can manage PTSD and symptoms in the moment with real steps to interrupt it. All of the content is pointed to making real tangible outcomes in your life.
If you need a treatment plan with more immediate feedback that it is working, this one is a great start
Jessica (verified owner) –
I very much wish the cover of this book was blank or the title of it not written SO big on the front of it. I like to keep it on my nightstand because I read it before I go to sleep. I hate that there’s no real way of covering the massive label of what the book is. It just honestly gives me a very embarrassing feel to bring it anywhere with me. Even out to the couch when my kids are around. Other than that, I wish there was more room to write and the lines could be closer together to make more room. I do write big so I enjoy the space between the lines, but I need more room to write. So far the book has been very helpful.
Lorraine Warren (verified owner) –
I like how this book asks you questions, ones you wouldn’t know to ask yourself. I also love the learning side to it to do with your mind , i find it interesting and always have with help books . I have found myself remembering exercises/ methods talked about in this book and actively challenging myself to help rewire my brain . Not far in yet ( on page 34)
Would really recommend !
Gina Perugi (verified owner) –
I’ve been working on this book with my therapist since around November. I decided to purchase it myself because I wanted a hard copy instead of loose photo copy papers. Thank you to the author for this much needed book.
DDema (verified owner) –
This workbook is very helpful. I pleased with my purchase of it.
Jessica (verified owner) –
Awesome workbook I’m learning so much just in the first chapter it’s helping me understand myself better and what my life trauma events in my life have cause the little writing exercise really helps you . I’m hook .
Okie Girl (verified owner) –
I’m using this in my practice with survivors of child sexual abuse and sexual assault. It’s perfect! Just get it. You won’t be sorry.
juliana (verified owner) –
I was appreciative at first but it’s helped me a lot. It goes in depth about anxiety and why our body reacts the way it does. It helps you understand your emotions and teaches how to work through them deeper than any conversation can. It’s worth every penny.
Edie (verified owner) –
I use this in my counselling work and can recommend it as a good quality and much needed resource for both therapists and clients alike.
Faythe (verified owner) –
I use this book sometimes, it is very informative.
Amber O’Hanley (verified owner) –
i’m only to the fourth chapter but so far it has been stellar. the author’s tone is very empathetic and loving in a way that makes me feel less alone and scared as i’m reading. the text is easily digestible but packed with necessary information and although it’s hard to concisely encapsulate why, the tone of the book feels ‘human-to-human’ as opposed to ‘doctor-to-reader’ like some of the other mental health self help books i’ve read, and it makes me feel far more motivated to pick up the book and read it when i feel like i could use it. it allows you to gently confront your feelings without feeling overwhelmed, and the fact that the author is a survivor herself makes it significantly more powerful and meaningful to me. i would highly recommend this book to anyone in need of it. much love <3