What Happened to You?
By Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey
Reviewed by Darbie Valenti Huff
When round pegs don’t fit in square holes, we have a tendency of asking, “What’s wrong with you?” Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey team up to help shift this paradigm and to have people begin considering the question, “What happened to you?”
This book is a captivating collaboration between Dr. Bruce Perry, a child psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and talk show host and author Oprah Winfrey. Dr. Perry is well known for his work focusing on childhood trauma as well as for writing the intriguing book The Boy Who Was Raised by a Dog. Capitalizing on Dr. Perry’s work in psychiatry and Oprah’s impactful storytelling, this book melds research with powerful narratives that bring relevancy to the learning.
As someone who experienced childhood trauma, this book offered healing and a sense of understanding. The information shared deepened my self-awareness while helping me develop a sense of peace within myself, even decades after experiencing the traumatic events of my childhood. Beyond that, it helped me to better understand the impact of trauma on the developing brain, which is incredibly beneficial to educators. So, whether you have experienced childhood trauma, like many of us have, or are an educator that supports students with adverse childhood experiences, this book is incredibly enlightening, empowering and educational.
Neuroscience is very complex, but the authors make the learning very accessible, pairing research with stories that demonstrate the scientific concepts. Gaining insight on the neurosequential model helps the reader to understand how the brain develops, how it processes information and how it heals. This is also essential in beginning to understand how adverse childhood experiences can impact one’s personality and how they behave.
The subtitle, Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing, captures the unique structure of the book. The entire book is literally a conversation between Dr. Perry and Oprah, which makes it an extremely engaging audiobook. The print version is color coded, with Dr. Perry’s comments related to his research in black and Oprah’s commentary in blue. Having both read and listened to the book, this feature made it seem like a fast and relatable read.
Although discussing and dealing with trauma can be very painful, this book offers hope by transitioning from coping to healing. Between the pandemic being a constant source of stress and educators helping support students who have experienced increased amounts of trauma, this book provides ways for educators to help students heal from the traumatic events in their lives. We are better equipped to deal with trauma than ever before and What Happened to You? will continue to make us even more prepared to support our students that need it the most. It is my hope that this book will help educators to shift their thinking from “What’s wrong with you?” to the more insightful question of “What happened to you?”