Garden of Souls

About the Book

This book is about trauma, but it is not about therapy or individual correction and transformation. Instead, it is about the ways our small tribes of families, friends and colleagues can create wholesome environments and groups that understand the nature of trauma, and thoughtfully counteract the conditions that make harrowing experiences possible. After a discussion of the nature of traumatic events and the variety of human responses to it, the book explores how traumatic experience relies on chaos and the destruction of norms, and suggests ways we can build meaningful structure and rhythms. It proposes that a world of isolation can lose its effect when people make connections with others based on what is good and lovely and shared. It considers ways to practice discernment and critical thinking as a counterbalance to confusion and lies. Helplessness is a signature factor in traumatic experience, but is loses its power when a community identifies personal and social resources, and makes sure people have access to what they need. Grief, uncovered, can be shared. Life-affirming strength can be differentiated from domination and selfishness. Traumatic events that are layered by repetition of racism and ostracism can be seen and understood, and advocates can step forward. Release is possible, but only when we, as communities, create safe and wholesome places where each of us can be respected and valued. This book suggests many ways to understand these ideas, to practice them, and to question our assumptions about what is broken. It calls for us to stand for humanity, beginning with those we know.

About the Author

Diana Gurley holds a PhD in medical sociology, with further training and experience in epidemiology and psychiatry. For over thirty years she has worked extensively on the ground in communities challenged by violence, poverty and isolation, focusing on trauma and its consequences, seeking to understand the ways small bands of people help the recovery process or exacerbate it. She has found that there are key components to healthy communities that can encourage growth and transformation, and that can counteract traumatic events. She brings to the study of trauma personal stories of adults who were severely abused as children, of men and women in prisons and jails, of couples in fertility treatment, of the homeless, from people living in Central Harlem and on Native American reservations and in Appalachia, through hospitals and substance treatment, and from families with few resources seeking to care for the very old and the very young. The themes of help and harm cross all of these social boundaries. She has noticed that the most damaging of traumatic events often arise from social circumstances, but that in our culture, most of the treatment for traumatic harm is individualized. She proposes that there are ways our families, neighborhoods, faith groups, school and work environments and helping facilities can help to restore well-being after harm.