“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
— a quote often attributed to Anaïs Nin (pg. 281)
The Grove is a reading circle for healers. We gather monthly to carve out a cozy space for quiet reading, intentional conversation, and connection.
As healers it can be difficult to find time to read and we’re often in the role of facilitating. The Grove is spacious and focused on nourishment. You are welcome to read the book before we meet, but it isn’t necessary. Our curator, Kate Creech, will select an excerpt (or a few) and we’ll take time to read quietly on our own, before transitioning into a discussion/learning space. There is ample permission to relax, receive, and surrender the pressure to say something ‘smart’!
Our featured book for February is What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo.
“By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.
Both of Foo’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she’d moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.
In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don’t move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.
Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman’s ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.” (excerpt from Foo’s publisher, Penguin Random House)
We chose this book because of how it highlights how important relationships are to the healing process. The pandemic has highlighted even more how we cannot do any of this work alone.
We look forward to being together!
Timing
Our gathering will loosely follow this flow:
7:00 — Arrive + get cozy
7:10 — Setting the frame
7:15 — Quiet reading
7:50 — Conversation
8:30 — Space for casual connection
Tea and chocolate will be provided. You are welcome to bring snacks, wine, or your favorite beverage to share.
RSVP
Please RSVP by Monday, February 6 at 3pm so we can prepare the space for you.
Following registration, selected excerpts are available in our members-only Resource Library. Log in through our website to download the PDFs to your favorite reading device or to print copies to bring with you.
We encourage you to support Stephanie Foo and your favorite local bookstore by purchasing the book, before or after the circle. We love our building-mates Ardunsel Books.
Kate Creech
Psychotherapist & Circle Curator
Kate is a therapist and visual artist. She is excited to curate this circle because books offer a space for us to connect and create the space to process (or simply be) with others in the daunting questions we often face as humans/healers/creatives, etc
Learn more about Kate
Our featured book for February is What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo.
Stephanie Foo
“About my career: I used to work as a radio producer for This American Life and Snap Judgment, and I’ve freelanced for podcasts like The Cut, Nancy, Reply All and 99% Invisible. Sometimes I still produce and edit audio things. I co-produced a video series for TAL that won an Emmy. Once, I made an app that tried to make audio easier to share. I now mostly edit audio pieces and write, and my work has been featured in places like The New York Times and Vox.”
Learn more about Stephanie
Save the Date
We hope you’ll save the date for The Grove circle’s coming up this spring:
March 20 — Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate
April 17 — Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
*Circles will always be on Mondays from 7-9pm in the Arboretum at Shelterwood Collective in Pioneer Square