Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse

by Kazu Haga

Mobilizing the Power to Stop Harm, Cultivating the Love to Heal


In times of collapse, we need a movement that recognizes injustice as a reflection of collective trauma and embraces its role as a catalyst for collective healing through transformative action.



We are living in a world where the depths of division, violence, and destruction can no longer be ignored. From political polarization leading to the erosion of the democratic process to the climate crisis continuing to perpetuate racial inequity, we need changes that heal harms at the personal and systemic levels.

Escalated forms of harm require an equally escalated response. Yet social movements often use tactics that have a tendency to escalate an “us vs. them,” “right vs. wrong” worldview not conducive to healing.

In Fierce Vulnerability, activist and author Kazu Haga argues this binary worldview is at the heart of what is destroying our relationships and our planet and offers a new way to create healing by combining the time-honored lineage of nonviolent action with the sciences of trauma healing and the promises of spiritual practice. Fierce Vulnerability realizes we can’t “shut down” injustice any more than we can “shut down” trauma; if healing is our goal, we need social movements that center relationships and promote healing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Activism, Social Justice, Psychology, Spirituality, Self Help

224 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[David Belden · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you combine individual healing with social change activism? Frederick Douglas said "Power concedes nothing without a demand." But how do you make demands without the kinds of ego, blame, self-righteousness, and violence that can stiffen resistance, alienate onlookers, and may lead to angry splits within your own ranks? The Left has a long history of that kind of dysfunction. In both his books Kazu is wrestling with these questions like nobody else. I am a friend of his, which may disqualify me from writing a review, but the reason I am friends is that I am drawn to this same area of innovation, without which I believe the human species has no future.

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book to start the year off with. was so refreshing + had me rethinking what advocacy + direct action could look when it feels like the current "structure" of direct action might not be effective anymore. this wasn't meant to be a self help book but in a lot of ways it was!! so many life perspectives shared in this that were integrated w/ Taoism philosophy that im going to take with me

[Momo · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite book of the year