Using the last year of the COVID pandemic as its primary example, this book reveals and explains the stuff that happens in our heads and bodies when we experience extreme stress and trauma. Emma combines the specialist knowledge of an expert with the ability to communicate of a writer and the warmth and empathy of a woman who’s been there. Knowledge is power and the knowledge shared here helps show how we can not just survive but thrive in the shadow of the last year - and all the other traumas that have and will damage us. Every time I was beginning to feel that perhaps the brain science was getting a little much, a story provided relief and brought the theory to life. I’ve read my fair share of self help books and this one was different in that it didn’t tell me that I needed to be mended. Instead Emma explains how brokenness is part of being human and that, understood and responded to in the right way, it can make us stronger, make us better humans - strong and beautiful like Japanese kintsugi pottery.

The past year has been ROUGH. It has pushed so many of us right to our absolute limits.

If, you have found yourself:

- Not being able to sleep
- Wanting to cry all time
- Being terrified of everything changing
- Trying to understand what has happened to the world

Then this is the book for you.

In 2020, while it seemed that the world was falling apart, psychologist Dr Emma Kavanagh began bringing together the psychological research on the impact of trauma, what it means, and what it does for us - the good and the bad. Within the psychological literature, she found important clues about why trauma and stress are not the life sentences they sometimes seem to be, and, most importantly, how they can often lead to growth beyond the despair.

This is a book about why it's ok to struggle, why it's ok to fall apart, and why it's ok to be broken. Because, once we give ourselves permission to be broken, we can put the pieces back together. And we can come back, stronger than we were before. An encouraging read I expect everyone to take something from. Definitely a book I will re read.

How to Be Broken by Emma Kavanagh is about various experiences of stress and trauma and how to deal with it.

I have read Emma Kavanagh's novels and also her recent twitter threads on living through a pandemic and so was looking forward to reading How to Be Broken. It's a quick, informative and ultimately uplifting read that I read in one sitting. Kavanagh starts by looking at what the stress response is and gives a short scientific explanation that is very accessible to non scientists. She uses her own experience of childhood trauma and of living through a pandemic with Long Covid to show how the body responds to trauma and how we can ultimately grow from it. Each chapter contains examples from Kavanagh's own experience and from those who have been through traumatic experiences such as 9/11 and the New Orleans hurricane. She backs this up with examples from research studies. Kavanagh is a trained psychologist who has also worked with the police and military personnel so alongside her own personal experience she has extensive knowledge of the subject. Most of us have found this past year challenging and I would urge you to read this short book which filled me with hope. The author ends the book by acknowledging what a challenging year we have all experienced, but as she says, that's OK, from the state of being broken we can build ourselves into something new 'something wiser and better than what was there before'. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.