BIBLIOTHERAPY: My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

I originally read this book in 2020 as part of a year-long book study group. It was a pivotal time in history and catapulted my personal evolution in the realm of white supremacy culture, race relations in America, and somatics.

This book was validating, it gave words to things that I sensed, but did not understand within myself and our world. Resmaa offered a paradigm from which to understand George Floyd’s killing, the global response, and all the police shootings of black men.

Over five years later, I was pleased to see this book on the required reading list for my Brainspotting Consultant-in-Training Program. It is a book that I believe ALL people should read, especially Americans. It speaks to what we all live in one way or another, that may be unconscious until we gain awareness.

In this book, Resmaa reviews the history of white-body supremacy that was introduced in the 1680s, the idea that white people are the standard for humans. He addresses that with  education and training, as a culture we have made little shift around white-body supremacy culture in America because we have been trying to intervene using the prefrontal cortex and higher level thinking, which misses our felt sense that is held in our bodies. 

Resmaa defines trauma as a protective response, triggered when lived experience is “too much, too fast, too soon” which overwhelms the nervous system. We all carry a collective history of pain and violence. We all carry the inherited trauma of white-body supremacy and that all of us need to heal. True healing will offer freedom and serenity for us all and refusing to heal is more painful than healing.

He states “our bodies scare the hell out of each other” and “for America, it is an unavoidable time of reckoning.” He writes that all bodies want safety and tune to threats whether real or perceived. He encourages us to use body-centered practices to learn to settle our bodies. This book guides the readers through many body-based practices. My book study group did many of the body-based practices in this book. It was poignant to tune into the activation and sense of settling in my own body. 

Resmaa lists actionable steps for individuals of white bodies, black bodies, and police bodies along with systems on how to cultivate safety and growth. This book is a tangible tool for retraining your body, building resiliency, avoiding dirty pain (white fragility), and fostering a culture of belonging. When people belong, they feel safe and are able to settle. The more we are all able to settle our bodies, the more calm, alert, and present we are able to be. From this space, we are able to work on mending our hearts, bodies, and spirits.

Brainspotting is a wonderful modality to attune to the body and sensation. It offers access to our whole nervous system and creates space for the body to metabolize racialized trauma. Reach out for a free consultation from Cori Hildebrandt, MA, LPC WI, LPCC MN Brainspotting Consultant-in-Training.