The Modern Trauma Toolkit: Nurture Your Post-Traumatic Growth with Personalized Solutions

by Christy Gibson

Embrace your innate power and find growth from trauma with this essential guide filled with groundbreaking solutions and strategies for your healing journey.

Amid collective trauma, it helps to know that our bodies are built to respond to stress and what we might do to shift those reflexes. Having studied brain-based and body-based approaches to wellbeing, Dr. Christy Gibson teaches readers how to embrace their innate power and catalyze community wisdom. Drawing on her work with people suffering from stress and societal challenges, Dr. Gibson shares practical and effective mental health advice you can personalize.

In clear and accessible language, The Modern Trauma Toolkit describes new theories in brain biology, such as the polyvagal theory and epigenetics, and explains how you can remodel your brain to achieve post-traumatic growth. While noting how particular communities face inequitable stressors, she empowers readers to identify and harness their unique and cultural strengths. Dr. Gibson shares over forty activities that can be self-taught and practiced so you can begin your healing journey today,  

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Social Work, Mental Health, Counselling

336 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2023

About the author

Christy Gibson, MD is a physician and change‑agent, a TEDx and international speaker, and trauma clinician. She is a thought-leader and a vocal advocate for policies that enhance equity. She has created a residency program in health equity, formed Global Familymed Foundation, and Safer Spaces Training, a start-up that helps organizations become trauma-informed. She lives in Calgary, Canada.

Reviews

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m truly unsure of who this book was written for because it seemed to be both not for therapists and not for the general public. No tools that were actually useful and just felt like I got mansplained to about trauma. Two stars because one star is mean.

[Stormy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Modern Trauma Toolkit is an excellent primer in trauma, healing, and post-traumatic growth.
First, the author has provided the MOST inclusive narrative I have experienced; I finished the book inspired to more deeply consider inclusivity in both my personal and professional life.
Secondly, the author is very kind in the narrative. Trigger warnings and compassionate words are a staple of the text.
On to the content:
This absolutely is a toolkit. The first part of the book breaks down trauma pathways and responses in a way that becomes intuitive to understand and not lost in academic verbose. The second part of the book explores different pathways to healing with beginner exercises for all of them so the reader can explore and find what they best resonate with. I am not new to trauma and therapies focused on healing trauma, and there were exercises and therapies that I was introduced to or gained a broader understanding of from this book. Refreshingly the therapeutic focus is not just on Western medicine either.

I recommend this book if you are beginning your healing journey, especially if you are unsure if trauma even applies to your experiences. I also recommend this for those that have been and are working on their post-traumatic growth for additional therapies and resources to explore to find meaningful ones to incorporate into your practices.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was given an advance copy. I couldn't get past page 25 because of an example about the mask mandate and poor phrasing( the I can't breathe argument from anti-masking.)If it read as there are a small percentage due to traumatic events it would be a different matter. It instead gives cart blanche to those of that movement in my opinion.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess with the title including in the title both toolkit and solutions, I was expecting more in terms of activities/solutions to actually help with stress/trauma and found it rather lacking in that department. I would say that the majority of the book is more about identifying what could cause trauma, definitely with a political slant to it too. While it is fine to write a book about politics, I don't think that should be included in a book who's claim is to help with one's mental health, especially since it seems to be bottle necking causes into certain areas. Also the majority of the book seemed to be focused more on childhood trauma, which should be mentioned, which again is fine, but not overly helpful if you are looking for solutions for other areas. The voice seemed to go from academic, which it was more interesting to read, to almost patronizing and talking down to the reader, which I would think most people, especially someone traumatized would not appreciate as it comes off as belittling to them. I appreciated the academic and medical information in understanding how the body/brain works, but there that seemed to just be barely hit, in favor more of a political cause focus. The practices that were covered seemed very much child focused for the most part and the few others that would have gone much deeper and much more helpful, were either just mentioned or skimmed over when I think those are what should have been covered, as you are offering a toolkit, people are looking for tools to help handle trauma for themselves or dealing with someone else who needs help handling it and again those were not really covered at all. The first three quarters of the book, were mostly cause focused with a few details peppered in, and I think most people know what caused their trauma/stress (whether they admit it or not is another story), but they are looking for more help in how to deal with it and not some much identifying it. There seemed like there were a couple helpful exercises, but again they were very basic instructions covered in the book itself and just having a QR code to direct further -seems like why bother having the book at all if you are not going to really cover must of it in there. Also, a website would be useful, if you don't use QR codes. To me, it seemed both in the voice and the direction of the book was all over the place in whether it was going to cover a medical view, a political view, be for kids, or for adults. It would have been much more helpful if most of the cause stuff was left out (which seemed to be about 3/4 of the book) and the last 1/4 that was actually dedicated to tools/exercises/tips was delved into much further. I guess overall it was just not what I was expecting or all that helpful, I as I personally did not really see that many tools, or solutions for that matter.

[Megs_Ginelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is indeed a toolbox. It covers topics such as ancestral trauma, birth trauma, polyvagal theory, somatic therapy, and reparenting ourselves.
Trauma gets trapped in the body, and the author is looking for ways to help get it out. There are some very interesting interactive exercises to do, actual actions you can try out, explore, and see if they work for you. I learned a lot from this book and was introduced to new and different treatments, things I’ve never even heard of or knew existed.

Since the author attempts to cover so much information, it was a little lacking in depth. But it provides an excellent jumping off point.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Books and Christy Gibson for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Bethany French · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it hard to read because of the dumbing down of concepts and definitions included in the writing. I wish she had just put a small dictionary at the back for terms she uses. Her points mention great exercises, but the good advice is hidden around unnecessary filler anecdotes and mind-numbing writing. The works and methods she mentions are truly fascinating, but her description of them is hard to read. I think the value this book provides is giving complex information in a way that would appeal to the masses or people who don’t usually read. Not as useful for someone wishing to understand deeply the methods to aid in the processing of complex trauma.

[Katelyn Cheatwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

When first beginning to read this book I felt like I was embraced and enveloped in her inviting and warm tone. I found this book very helpful and informative. This book includes some great exercises and ideas on working with clients and to improve my practice. I really enjoyed the book references and I've visited the website via the QR code to view the videos on some of the practices she discussed in the book. I enjoyed the discussions of healing practices across different locations across the world.

[Juliann Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great alternative to the Body Keeps the Score for people who want to understand and deal with trauma but have found other books to be re-traumatizing. This is not a put down on books like that. I’ve read Body Keeps the Score and liked it but I also don’t have significant trauma. I did feel that some of the work was written in a somewhat hokey way that made it feel less research based even though it is, but that may just be part of spiritual based work.

[Alexia · Rating 1 out of 5]

underwhelming for something titled the modern trauma toolkit. the exercises are based on imagery and perception which is not really helpful to someone with PTSD. all of this information is streamlined from some basic internet searches.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somatic experience seems super necessary for processing and getting over trauma. I downloaded a trauma toolkit app from this book that I hope to use and saved a tension releasing exercise (very much like yoga poses).

[Happygiraffe01 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually found this book pretty interesting and resourceful. Would recommend to my colleagues.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the information in this book was redundant. However, there were a few things that I did learn from it.

[Kirsten Eckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely great book to help anyone along on their healing journey. I even liked her on TikTok!