Name: Trauma Stewardship
Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9781576759448

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

Connie Burk

A longtime trauma worker offers a deep and empathetic survey of the often-unrecognized toll on those working to make the world a better place.

An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others

Trauma Stewardship

Samantha M Crawford

I want to tend to this piece the best I can, but I'm not in charge of the whole garden.

carly smallbird

This was one of my best reads of 2023—not that I read that many books since it turned out to be a challenging year. Primarily oriented at care workers, but a useful read for people who find themselves being a caretaker friend as well.

Offers those who care for others and the planet a way to stay engaged, hopeful, balanced, and healthy when dealing with hardship, suffering, and trauma • Deepens readers’ understanding of the many ways they and their organizations may be impacted by dealing with trauma and suffering • Uses moving first-person interviews and even cartoons to illuminate the idea of trauma stewardship Working to make the world a more hopeful and sustainable place often means having to confront pain, suffering, crisis, and trauma head-on, day in and day out. Over months and years this takes an enormous emotional, psychological, and physical toll, one that we’re often not even fully aware of until the day we feel like we just can’t go on anymore. And our well-being and the work we’re doing are too important to risk that happening. This book is for all those who notice that they are not the people they once were or who are being told that by their families, friends, colleagues, or pets. Laura van Dernoot Lipsky takes a deep and sympathetic look at the many ways the stress of dealing with trauma manifests itself: feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, diminished creativity, chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and a dozen more. To keep from being overwhelmed, we need to respond to suffering in a thoughtful, intentional way—not by hardening our hearts or by internalizing others’ struggles as our own but by developing a quality of compassionate presence. This is trauma stewardship. To help achieve this, Lipsky offers a variety of simple and profound practices, drawn from modern psychology and a range of spiritual traditions, that enable us to look carefully at our reactions and motivations and discover new sources of energy and renewal. She includes interviews with successful trauma stewards from different walks of life and even uses New Yorker cartoons to illustrate her points. “We can do meaningful work in a way that works for us and for those we serve,” Lipsky writes. “Taking care of ourselves while taking care of others allows us to contribute to our societies with such impact that we will leave a legacy informed by our deepest wisdom and greatest gifts instead of burdened by our struggles and despair.”

Nicholas Hanemann

I went into this one expecting it to be something more general than what it was; despite the useful information about how trauma ripples out it really is more applicable to those who engage with trauma vocationally rather than through activism.

Trauma Stewardship An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others

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