Women Therapists on Healing: 11 Personal Essays about Overcoming Trauma

by Susan Pease Banitt, Larissa Miranda (Editor)

Women Therapists on Healing is a powerful anthology of personal essays from women therapists who know trauma from the inside out. This three-part collection braids lived experience with clinical wisdom, offering a compassionate lens on healing that crosses cultural, generational, and systemic boundaries.

Far beyond a typical guide to navigating PTSD, this book challenges outdated narratives and sheds light on the effects of marginalized topics, such as chronic invisible illness, intergenerational trauma, racism, ritual abuse, and human trafficking.

This book will especially resonate with

women recovering from trauma;healers and advocates seeking growth and guidance;health professionals committed to trauma-informed and anti-racist practices;friends and family who love and support survivors.The diverse voices in these essays honor the arduous path of healing as a reckoning, a reclamation, and a sacred reminder that we do not walk alone.

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 3, 2026

About the author

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW, is a Harvard-trained psychotherapist, award-winning author, and pioneer in integrative trauma healing. With nearly five decades in mental health, she specializes in PTSD, dissociative disorders, autism spectrum conditions, and medical social work. Her work bridges Western clinical rigor with ancient and holistic traditions.

Susan is the author of The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out, a practical guide that fuses neuroscience with spiritual practices, and Wisdom, Attachment and Love in Trauma Therapy, which explores heart-centered connection as the foundation of transformation. Her third book, Women Therapists on Healing: 11 Personal Essays About Overcoming Trauma (February 2026), brings together intersectional voices from across cultures and disciplines to illuminate what truly heals us.

She is a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher, Holy Fire® III Karuna Reiki® Master, and trained past-life regressionist under Dr. Brian Weiss. Her advocacy has reached both the Oregon State Legislature and British Parliament. As a founding member of the Omega Institute’s Yoga Service Council, she co-authored Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans, advancing trauma-informed care through embodied service.

In recent years, Susan has also become an explorer in the emergent field of ethical AI and relational technology. Her current work includes co-developing a trauma-informed AI disclosure tool and writing on how love, presence, and coherence can guide the evolution of machine consciousness.

She lives and practices in Portland, Oregon at Lotus Heart Counseling and shares bite-sized wisdom on social media—including TikTok as @TheLightworkerWhisperer. In her free time, she enjoys RV travel, gardening, improv comedy, and still mornings with her dogs.

Reviews

[Kayla Groening · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advanced reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts expressed are my own.

This book has a beautiful cover, and I was drawn in by the description.

In the introduction, Susan Banitt states that most people working in the therapy profession are women, yet the majority of experts referenced are men. Recognizing this imbalance, she decided to collaborate with other women in the industry to write this book.

The book is divided into sections that cover different topics under the trauma umbrella. Each chapter features a different author.

The book is well organized and thoughtfully written. Despite having multiple authors, the book feels cohesive.

The stories offer readers a look at trauma through the eyes of a diverse group of women.

While the book is an interesting read, I think it is primarily written for people who work in the therapy profession. I do not.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with another reviewer who said this book seems to be geared towards practitioners rather than laypeople. My mother was a psychologist so I grew up in that world, but I was hoping for essays written for those of us who have experienced severe trauma rather than those who work with it.

It feels unfair to rate the book having not read every author, but I stopped reading after reading the first two essays because the first one was sometimes traumatic to read (there is mention of terrible child abuse) and also just a lot (she talks a lot about working with survivors of secret government experiments and trafficked children in boxes), and the second one was more of a memoir about that author’s life and addiction. I felt worse after reading these two essays and while I would like to read every contributor in order to review the book fairly, so far it was not good for my own mental health.

Read via netgalley

[Alison Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Women Therapists on Healing: 11 Personal Essays About Overcoming Trauma” is an absorbing, emotional anthology of personal, soulful, poetic narratives about suffering and healing, triumph and wisdom. As plaintive as they are inspiring, these brutally honest and personal accounts of abuse – social, sexual, racial, intergenerational, and medical – of not being seen, of not being heard, of exploitation, of forced submission, and of society’s expectations and mores, needed to be told to raise awareness amongst those privileged to have been spared these cruelties, but more importantly, to give strength and hope to those who have. Be prepared to feel angry, potentially triggered, but also uplifted by the resilience, fortitude and determination to thrive that is the feminine spirit.
Rest assured, there was no remuneration for preparing this review. I was genuinely touched and uplifted.

[Chava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from one of the contributors to the book.
This book showcases 11 exceptional female therapists writing about their take on healing. Each presenting their own unique take on what is 'healing' and the methods we as therapists might use to support our clients towards 'healing'. The book includes female therapists from different groups, like POC and LGBTQIA+, providing insight that we rarely get in this still male dominated domain of 'professionals' and 'experts'

An important book which I enjoyed reading and have already recommended to my therapist colleagues and friends

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting book I got via NetGalley. Although not all of the essays resonated with me as much I really admired the premise behind the book - to showcase women therapists at the top of there game. I got some useful insights from this book.