I loved how this book framed trauma as embedded in American society and how it has infiltrated all parts of our lives and communities. As a mental health professional, this book was powerful and an important read. While heavy at times, it also provides hope and messages of healing and encouraged readers to notice the traumas happening around them.

The first line of the description says it all.
Trauma can feel like a labyrinth, twisting on itself like a maze of despair, without end or exit. This seems particularly true in today’s chaotic world of pandemics, climate change, social conflict, and systemic violence. Increasingly, the conditions of the larger world aggravate, if not cause, the traumas in our individual lives.
I've read this and am sharing what I've learned with my clients whom have experienced trauma. Highly recommend!

Trauma's Labyrinth: Reflections of a Wounded Healer is a collection of essays that reveals the effects of trauma and how systems, institutions, and broader society contribute to people's experiences of trauma. Dr. Laura Kerr brings expertise both as trauma-focused psychotherapist and also as a person who has directly experienced trauma. She organizes the book into four parts: Recovery from Trauma, Society and Trauma, Reforming Mental Health Services, and Leaving the Labyrinth. The book includes essays addressing a variety of contexts where people experience trauma, such as sexual assault and military combat, while offering practical guidance for healing. The sections that incorporated material from Jungian analysts and Carl Jung (including the Red Book) were particularly fascinating. An essay that describes how the DSM is a model from modernity, and thus antiquated for diagnosing in a post-modern context, was also illuminating.

As a person who has experienced trauma and who works in a helping profession companioning others who have experienced trauma, I found Kerr's book helpful for describing trauma and processes for healing in ways not addressed in other trauma-focused books. Professionals working with people who survived trauma or anyone interested in this subject will benefit from reading this book.

Thank you LK Kerr Books and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.