My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Such a beautiful thoughtful and powerful book. My heart was full the whole time reading it. The exercises he has you try are simple but work. If we all read this book and started to cleanse and heal our traumas, our bodies would feel more open and connected, and we would have more understanding in the world.

This books offers practical, doable ideas for healing trauma. Be prepared to do the work! The activities actually require movement.

This book will cause you to really give thought to the way you view and deal with yourself and others. The title is somewhat misleading because . It does not just confined you to your family’s views but allows you to explore the existence of humanity; past, present as well as how we will coexist in the future.

Great read, highly recommended

A very idealistic approach in dealing with the racial trauma that is very much alive in America. I like the way the author built the narrative based on his grandmother’s unspoken experiences in her life which was exemplified by the condition of her hands (and feet). The author made references to the trauma being in our bodies, which was different. The only issue I had with this book is where the author tried to equate the trauma that White folks experienced in Europe before coming to America with the plight of Black folk that is ongoing. How did White folks overcome their trauma? Prosperity! I believe that there is a correlation between our trauma as Black folk and reparations and why this country is so adamant about not giving us reparations…because it will help to offset our trauma, and they don’t want us healed. However, if they are inclined towards healing, then this book makes some practical suggestions (and exercises) to do so; for Whites, Blacks, and even the PO-lice.

As a psychologist who works primarily with individuals in marginalized communities, I see a lot of clients who have experienced historical, intergenerational, developmental and ongoing current trauma, often as a result of systems of oppression (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.). I was very excited to dive into training in somatic experiencing (SE), a "bottom up" approach to trauma treatment that recognizes the ways that traumatic experiences get stored in the body, and therefore need to be healed through the body.However, I was disappointed to find that most of the books on SE, as well as the trainings themselves, rarely if ever mention racism or other systems of oppression and the trauma they cause. This was such a disappointment to me, especially given that racial trauma is so prevalent in the everyday lives of my clients and perpetuated daily by the current political climate.Therefore I was thrilled to discover this book. Resmaa Menakem filled in the gap I was feeling in the SE literature, applying somatic experiencing to racial trauma and the ways that racism impacts the bodies of white people, black people (and all people of color), and those who are charged with "serving and protecting" us, the police. This book was a huge eye opener for me. Not only did it give me compassion for my own white body and the ways that trauma has been metabolized and passed on from white folks to POC through the mechanisms of white supremacy, but it gave me new and more embodied ways to understand the lives of people of color and work effectively with my POC clients. It also gave me new compassion for cops, who, through their own trauma responses and the effects of white supremacy, are now more like soldiers whose mission is to control and suppress black and brown bodies. Although I will continue to feel outrage and grief at every unnecessary police killing of an innocent man or woman of color, this book helped me to remember that we are all impacted by centuries of white supremacy conditioning and that cops need and deserve healing around racial trauma too.I highly recommend this book to therapists and healers, especially those who work with individuals in marginalized communities. Each chapter provides exercises to embody the learning in the chapter, so that healing is happening not just from the top down, but from the bottom up. There are exercises for individuals and groups, for white bodies, POC bodies and police bodies. The book is extremely timely and relevant and should be required reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the history and current conditions of racism in America, its impacts, and how to heal.

I got this book for class and I enjoyed it

So often the "get in touch with your feelings" type practices seem like performative nonsense. The embodied practices in this book made sense both contextually within the content of the book as well as practically in terms of what you were asked to think and feel about.

I got it because I need it for my class. I wasn’t expecting much to be fair, but I’ve gained so much. The body practices that are in the book and the history and references to real life examples always settle in my body differently. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this book, I’ll even recommend it to friends. Truly amazing

Everything you need to practically deal with experiences and stuck feelings and emotions. An eye opening book on humanity. I have recommended this book to all my friends and family.

The idea of the book, the numerous exercises, references of historical facts, acknowledgments of the arms of bodies and stories are informative, emotional, and I enjoyed that. Unfortunately this book - which could have been more open to the bigger World - is American people centred, a bit too much in my opinion. As an European I had to translate each steps with my own situation and contexts of micro aggressions where I live. Thus I could not sink in it and unfortunately I did not manage to read till the end 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is so sad that as I read this book, I knew what the author did not know at the time he was writing it. That we would be reacting to the trauma of the death of George Floyd. I was feeling helpless, shocked and angry. I am now committed to think of healing as a new way of being, a culture in itself. I will remain on course by sinking in to my body and noticing the truth that lies there. We can intellectualise segregation, race, otherness and political differences, however our bodies are driven by healing, connectedness, awareness and cannot be fooled.

I just finished reading this profound book...I'm at a loss for words. So many emotions are running through me. All I can say is that this is such an important book for all to read. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Be open to healing your own traumas so we can stop punishing others. I can't wait to get a hardcover copy instead of reading this on kindle.