November 18th marks the release of a new parenting book determined to start a conversation that will change the lives of millions of Americans. One-third of American children experience childhood abuse, and yet the question is never asked: what happens when those children grow up and have families of their own?
Editors Joyelle Brandt (of Port Moody, BC) and Dawn Daum (of Northville, NY) are survivors working to break the cycle for their own families. Raising children as an abuse survivor is often a lonely and isolating experience. When Joyelle read Dawn’s article Raising a Girl as a Survivor, she sought Dawn out to ask if they could create a book together. They discovered that they had both gone looking for a parenting book that dealt with these issues, and had not found what they were looking for. So together they started an online community specifically for parent survivors, and started collecting essays to create the Trigger Points Anthology.
The Trigger Points Anthology is a collection of writing by 21 parents who are survivors of childhood abuse. Included in the anthology are two essays written by fathers, a queer woman expecting her first child, mothers from inside and outside of North America, women of different ethnicities, single and married parents. What they have in common is a determination to give their children the safe and happy childhood they wish they’d had.
Parenting when you experienced childhood abuse often feels like walking back into a war zone as a soldier with PTSD. There are flashbacks and triggers everywhere, and most parents are completely blindsided by them because no one talks about it. This book starts a conversation about what it takes for families to heal from generations of abuse.
Our Mission
- To let survivor parents know that they are not alone, and that what they are experiencing is a perfectly normal reaction for those with a history of childhood trauma.
- To educate health care and social service providers who work with parents about common triggers are that arise for survivor parents.
- To help partners and families of abuse survivors understand what we are going through.
The anthology is available in print and digital formats on Amazon.
For more information, or to receive a pdf copy for review, contact:
triggerpointsanthology@gmail.com
www.triggerpointsanthology.com
www.facebook.com/triggerpointsanthology
