Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level. “I love this book.”—Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score “In a time when so many of us are being trained in cynicism, this book stands in necessary defiance.”—Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies and This Here Flesh As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how. What It Takes to Heal asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?” In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.

Full Product Details

9780593946725

Table of Contents

Reviews

“It’s a rare thing for a book to be beautifully intimate and wildly expansive at the same time, but that is precisely what What It Takes to Heal manages to be. With every page, you can feel the shift in your mind, body, and heart. Prentis Hemphill is an incredible teacher.”—Brené Brown   “I love this book. In What it Takes to Heal, Prentis Hemphill offers us a visionary, personal, compassionate, empowering guide for our healing as individuals, within the histories of our families, and deep within the broader contexts of our communities, societies, and the world at large, showing us that the journey to the restoration of our most whole selves contains the vision and path toward a world where healing and wholeness are possible for us all.”—Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score “With What it Takes to Heal, Prentis Hemphill has delivered the profoundly deep and transformational book we so desperately need. It’s a book that reckons with our major issues—trauma, race, social upheaval—and opens us up to the possibility that everything actually could be different. And it does so one gorgeous sentence after the next.”—Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands “This book will be both the 'aha' moment and the balm for so many people who are saddled with vacant platitudes that don't give them a way forward. It is what we need in this moment and will be foundational for generations to come.”—Tarana Burke, author of Unbound “This map of prayer shows us what to build, within ourselves and between each other, in order to live beautiful lives together. Prentis teaches us where healing begins, and how crucial our healing is for the worlds we want to conjure.”—adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism “In the tradition of James Baldwin, Hemphill invites us in close and personal to experience life, pain, beauty, injustice and healing. This book invokes complexity and doesn’t look to resolve it, but lovingly asks us to become more intimate with it. I’ll read this again and again.”—Staci K. Haines, author of The Politics of Trauma “Hemphill―with rare wisdom and nuance―writes as one well acquainted with the terrors of this world, and the clarity of someone who refuses to be reduced to them.”—Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies and This Here Flesh “At long last, Prentis Hemphill has chosen to write what they have long known, practiced, taught, and embodied—that healing and social change are not disconnected, but are, when connected, the way through. This is a powerful, prescient, incisive book that helps us better understand ourselves, our relationships, and how to fully be in this world, all while creating the next.”—Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering

“It’s a rare thing for a book to be beautifully intimate and wildly expansive at the same time, but that is precisely what What it Takes to Heal manages to be. With every page, you can feel the shift in your mind, body and heart. Prentis Hemphill is an incredible teacher.”—Brené Brown   “I love this book. In What it Takes to Heal, Prentis Hemphill offers us a visionary, personal, compassionate, empowering guide for our healing as individuals, within the histories of our families, and deep within the broader contexts of our communities, societies, and the world at large, showing us that the journey to the restoration of our most whole selves contains the vision and path toward a world where healing and wholeness are possible for us all.”—Bessel van der Kolk, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score “With What it Takes to Heal, Prentis Hemphill has delivered the profoundly deep and transformational book we so desperately need. It’s a book that reckons with our major issues—trauma, race, social upheaval—and opens us up to the possibility that everything actually could be different. And it does so one gorgeous sentence after the next.”—Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands “This book will be both the 'aha' moment and the balm for so many people who are saddled with vacant platitudes that don't give them a way forward. It is what we need in this moment and will be foundational for generations to come.”—Tarana Burke, author of Unbound “This map of prayer shows us what to build, within ourselves and between each other, in order to live beautiful lives together. Prentis teaches us where healing begins, and how crucial our healing is for the worlds we want to conjure.”—Adrienne Maree Brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism “In the tradition of James Baldwin, Hemphill invites us in close and personal to experience life, pain, beauty, injustice and healing. This book invokes complexity and doesn’t look to resolve it, but lovingly asks us to become more intimate with it. I’ll read this again and again.”—Staci K. Haines, author of The Politics of Trauma

“I love this book. Prentis Hemphill offers us a visionary, personal, compassionate, empowering guide for our healing as individuals, within the histories of our families and deep within the broader contexts of our communities, societies, and the world at large.”—Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score “In a time when so many of us are being trained in cynicism, this book stands in necessary defiance.—Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies and This Here Flesh “A powerful, prescient, incisive book that helps us better understand ourselves, our relationships, and how to fully be in this world, all while creating the next.”—Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering “This book reckons with our major issues—trauma, race, social upheaval—and opens us up to the possibility that everything actually could be different. And it does so one gorgeous sentence after the next.”—Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands “This book will be both the ‘aha’ moment and the balm for so many people who are saddled with vacant platitudes that don’t give them a way forward. It is what we need in this moment and will be foundational for generations to come.”—Tarana Burke, author of Unbound “Hemphill teaches us where healing begins, and how crucial our healing is for the worlds we want to conjure.”—adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism “In the tradition of James Baldwin, Hemphill invites us in close and personal to experience life, pain, beauty, injustice, and healing. I’ll read this again and again.”—Staci K. Haines, author of The Politics of Trauma

Author Information

Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of the Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast Finding Our Way. Their work and writing have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, You Are Your Best Thing (edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown), and Holding Change (by adrienne maree brown).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available