You Are Not Your Trauma

Uproot Unhealthy Patterns, Heal the Family Tree

Caroline Beidler, MSW, with Diana Dalles, LPN, MSSW

Are you tired of feeling weighed down by your past or your family history? Are you looking for practical ways to heal and let go?

In You Are Not Your Trauma: Uproot Unhealthy Patterns, Heal the Family Tree, mental health and addiction recovery expert Caroline Beidler, MSW, helps you identify unhealthy patterns that keep you stuck and live more freely without your trauma—or your family’s trauma—holding you back.

Through personal stories, accessible research, and practical steps, Beidler provides a framework for healing. To promote trauma recovery, well-being, and wholeness, she’ll lead you through five powerful rhythms about:

• • honoring your story,
  • having radical compassion,
  • finding ways to create everyday courage,
  • getting honest with yourself,
  • and living open-handed.

Enriched with soulful interludes from Beidler’s mother, Diana Dalles, this book explores how trauma roots itself in our family tree and how we can overcome its grip no matter what we’ve been through.

You Are Not Your Trauma empowers you to truly write a new story, embracing a life where you are free from the weight of the past.

Praise for You Are Not Your Trauma

The knowledge and understanding Caroline Beidler shares in You Are Not Your Trauma make this one of the best books on the subject I have found. If you’ve experienced trauma and are having trouble believing it can become part of your past, this is the book for you. —Darlene Brock, President, The Grit and Grace Project and author of Raising Great Girls

Trauma is not what happens to you, but your responses to it. Caroline Beidler comes alongside as a trusted expert and gentle friend to show you how to make the changes you need to uproot those unhealthy responses and bring the light of hope to the future. —W. Lee Warren, MD, neurosurgeon and award-winning author, and host of The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast

Caroline’s writing is suffused with an incredible integrity and intensity that is uplifting. Her openness, insights, and intellectual generosity make her a powerful voice in the addiction recovery literature. —David Best, Director, Centre for Addiction Recovery Research (CARR) Leeds Trinity University

Rife with humor, research and a poignant recounting of her and her mother’s traumatic experiences, this book invites us to consider our own trauma, with Caroline providing a roadmap for how to move forward, if and when we are ready to embark on our own healing journey. —Dawn Nickel, PhD, Founder, She Recovers Foundation

From the first page, I was drawn into its compassionate embrace, captivated by deeply personal stories and practical wisdom that shine through like rays of hope. The love and strength guiding readers toward self-compassion and transformation could light up the world—showing us all a path to a brighter, trauma-free future. — Mulka Nisic, Chair, Global Gender Committee, WFAD

Caroline Beidler masterfully guides us through all the implications of what trauma does, weaving her own story throughout with superb creative writing skills. Thoroughly engaging, enlightening, and hopeful, this book is a testament to resilience and the healing power of personal narrative. —Pastor Ed Treat, Founder and CEO, The Center of Addiction & Faith

You Are Not Your Trauma is for anyone who longs for a future brighter than their past. Caroline has gifted us with a hopeful truth: healing is not a distant dream, but a tangible journey within reach. These pages offer more than just words— they offer rhythms that inspire movement towards freedom, one day at a time. — Manda Carpenter, Author of Soul Care to Save Your Life

Caroline Beidler, MSW is a recovery advocate and founder of the recovery storytelling platform Circle of Chairs. She has twenty years in leadership within social work and ministry, is a correspondent with Recovery Today Magazine, the founder and host of the annual International Women’s Day Global Recovery Event, and a consultant with JBS International writing and creating content for federal agencies like the Office of Recovery and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She is also the author of Downstairs Church: Finding Hope in the Grit of Addiction and Trauma Recovery. She lives in eastern Tennessee.

Diana Dalles, LPN, MSSW has been writing poetry and journaling since her teenage years, mainly for enjoyment and healing. She spent the early years of her career in the nursing field, then worked thirty-five years as a professional social worker. Her employment interests included hospice, medical social work, and gerontology. She has facilitated grief, trauma, and women’s empowerment groups. Now retired, she spends time with family, gardens, volunteers at a local food pantry, and is involved in her church’s ministries. Diana lives with her cat in a small rural Wisconsin town.

Also by Caroline Beidler

Caroline Beidler Recommends

Bestselling Lake Drive Books