A compassionate, inviting, and practical guide to a “restoration journey” for young women and girls facing the trauma of physical and sexual assault, Debellis’s inspiring Warrior Sister, Cut Yourself Free is an uncommonly frank and sensitive work, alive with straight talk, clarifying insight, and positive coaching. “Repeat after me,” Debellis writes, after sharing stories of her own path toward healing: “I am not defined by my assault(s).” From there, she offers a clear-eyed road map toward healing, always leveling with readers about the ongoing challenges of “restoration,” but pointing out “As much as you might wish, you can’t erase what happened to you. You can, however, rewrite how your story ends.”This brief yet focused work for young readers is extraordinary in its empathy, directness, and applicability. Never getting bogged down in details, Debellis emphasizes at every stage that readers should never feel alon –what they have gone or are going through is horrifyingly common – but also that they should never feel like statistics. “Know that you found a sisterhood of fellow survivors who are rooting for you on the sidelines every step of the way,” Debellis writes, taking great care to address assaults of varying types and severity. Warrior Sister is a guide in the truest sense: Debellis shepherds readers through stages of assault grief trauma, research into post-traumatic growth, options for pain management, and through lists of triggering thoughts (“Should I still be struggling to get past this?”) and strategies to face them.
Warrior Sister never dictates one route to healing. Instead, Debellis invites readers to find their own way toward their own breakthroughs, buoyed by wide-ranging strategies, prompts, and encouraging examples. “Write to work through and debunk guilt and shame items—realign with truth,” Debellis advises on the third day of the guide’s highly adaptable month-long recovery calendar. That phrase exemplifies the book’s hopeful, constructive approach, as Debellis lays out multiple routes to help readers realign with the truth of who they are.
Takeaway: An encouraging, inspired, and highly practical guidebook for healing after assault.
Great for fans of: Raychelle Cassada Lohmann and Sheela Raja ‘s The Sexual Trauma Workbook for Teen Girls, Jacquelyn Weis’s Healing the Survivors.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
"A compassionate, insightful and systematic guide for girls and young women who refuse to let themselves be defined by their assaults... an intimate and hopeful book that holds the potential to vastly improve the lives of its readers. An essential tool for both trauma survivors and their providers." -Jacob M. Appel MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
"A brilliant, beautifully written, page-turner: a manual, what she calls a "restoration journey," that will help others work through their trauma as well." -Charles W. Brice, Ph.D., author of The Broad Grin of Eternity and All the Songs Sung.
"Poet, podcaster, and activist Jenifer Debellis is a fresh and important voice in the physical and sexual trauma space." - Heather Christie, author of What the Valley Knows and The Lying Season.
"A thoughtful, well researched self-help book with the perfect marriage of intellect and compassion." - Diane DeCillis, author of When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double
"An invaluable survival tool to help girls navigate their way to self empowerment. I hope it gets in the hands of every young woman who needs help finding the light-her light." - Liz Ferro, founder and author of Girls with Sole
"An essential resource for assault survivors. I was inspired by Jenifer's authentic voice as a survivor herself, her story brimming with hope toward a bright future, free from the nightmares of the past." - Ally Shaw, Author of Chasing Tigers in the Dark, Life Lessons of a Fierce Survivor
"With deep compassion and positivity, author, Jenifer DeBellis, draws on her experiences with sexual trauma and coaching others who have experienced it to empower her readers to break free of the bonds that may be holding them back from living their fullest lives, becoming their most authentic selves." - Kim Suhr, MFA, author of Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018) and director of Red Oak Writing.
