WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?
Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.
“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey
This book is going to change the way you see your life.
Have you ever wondered “Why did I do that?” or “Why can’t I just control my behavior?”
Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.
“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey
This book is going to change the way you see your life.
Have you ever wondered “Why did I do that?” or “Why can’t I just control my behavior?” Others may judge our reactions and think, “What’s wrong with that person?” When questioning our emotions, it’s easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It’s time we started asking a different question.
Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.
- Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
- Hardcover
- April 2021
- 304 Pages
- 9781250223180
Buy the Book
$28.99
About Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D & Oprah Winfrey
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., a child psychiatrist and neuroscientist is the principal of the Neurosequential Network, senior fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. He is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children, and Born for Love, about the essential nature of empathy.
Through the power of media, Oprah Winfrey has created an unparalleled connection with people around the world. As host and supervising producer of the top-rated, award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show, she entertained, enlightened, and uplifted millions of viewers for twenty-five years. Her accomplishments as a global media leader and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today.
Praise
ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Essential… Revealing, intimate, and educational, it’s a testament to the authors’ wish for readers to come to grips with, and let go of, the past―and to move forward into ‘post-traumatic wisdom.” ―O Magazine
Discussion Questions
1. Dr. Perry says “Therapy is more about building new associations, making new, healthier default pathways.” He prefaces this statement with the idea that therapy isn’t about making the past go away. It’s about creating a new pattern, a new experience.What can we do to help make these new default pathways of experience happen?
2. We are taught that resilience is learned over time, can’t be rushed, and can never be assumed. What mistakes are easy to make in traumatic situations when we don’t respect the painful path of wisdom?
3. As we navigate the thrive-survive continuum we all live on, How can community care be built in your setting?
4. Dr. Perry and Oprah have a long discussion about implicit bias and racism as related to brain development and function. How can we begin changing our biases and racist practices?
5. Why is knowing our society’s history crucial to the healing of our society as a whole? How can we take advantage of the struggles we’ve faced that have provided this “tipping point of awareness” for all of us?