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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
This book was long, and at times a little overwhelming, but despite that it was still an excellent read. I would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for his take on ADHD, which is mostly wrong (it IS genetic... it's just exacerbated by trauma). And he has completely hit the nail on the head about what is wrong with society today. Alas, I am at loss on how to fix things just as he is.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
I got turned off by the discussion of sleep training and then felt that maybe he didn’t know that much about all of what he was talking about. Overall some interesting ideas but in the end dismaying and depressing rather than helpful and enlightening.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I loved this book and how well the science of the brain is explained, along with real world examples and some practical advice at the end. Mate is able to talk about difficult subjects and behaviours without judgment and that's huge for me. I also love how this is a collaboration between father and son. This book has really helped me.
It got into a therapy type mode. I was not reading the book to approach therapy. It had become redundant. Critical thinking throughout the book leads you to the same conclusion, thus I do not need my hand held.
informative
slow-paced
I had great expectations for this book but I was quite disappointed. It took me months to finish it and considered DNFing it multiple times but my FOMO took over. The book is much longer than my usual reads too (around 500 pages without references), but I felt that it didn’t have to be that way. The poor organisation of the book and its chapters compromises the overall reading experience and its purpose of bringing the “trauma conversation” to a larger audience. Most of the time the argument gets lost in the hundreds of quotes from interviews, speeches and articles that the authors manage to include —don’t get me wrong, referencing is important but it is not a substitute to actually writing. In short, it felt like reading an unfinished, unedited manuscript rather than a published book. It makes me wonder whether there was any editing and proofreading done at all here. Still, if the reader manages to get through all the facts and quotes mentioned there, I think the book can provide useful and general insights for healthcare professionals lacking any knowledge on trauma-informed care, the politics of health, illness and addiction, Indigenous healing practices, or the body-mind connection explaining the links between childhood trauma and chronic disease and pain in adulthood. However, this is not the book you're looking for if what you need is to dive deeper into the contextual specific meanings, debates and experiences of trauma, chronic illness and healthcare from a clearly defined political and/or philosophical perspective that can actually drive change in collective thinking and action.
informative
reflective
slow-paced