Writing A New Story with Stephanie Foo

Content warning: child abuse

Trauma is everywhere we look. Most prominently, trauma is marked by a sense of powerlessness and loss of control. This is one of most overwhelming parts of experiencing trauma. It’s terrifying to lose control over our bodies and our lives. Recovery is then about regaining control over all that was taken from us. 

One tool that can help us is the act of writing our stories. When we are able to reclaim our own stories, we can find a power greater than the power we lost. For Stephanie Foo, author of What My Bones Know, a memoir about healing with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, writing about her family’s intergenerational immigrant trauma slowly helped her rearrange the puzzle pieces of her own life. 

Once she had distance from her experience, she was able to use what she discovered in her writing to craft a memoir of hope and healing for the countless others experiencing the impact of chronic trauma. Today, Stephanie, journalist and radio producer, formerly of This American Life and Snap Judgment, joins us to break down how she approached writing What My Bones Know and the radical power available when we reclaim our stories.

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript and more.

 For more, follow: 

Stephanie @FooFooFoo

@KendallCiesemier

@Ms_Magazine