Trauma Stewardship, Revised and Updated: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others

The trusted guide for surviving overwhelm and trauma in today’s world, now revised and updated.

Trauma Stewardship is the seminal work on sustaining oneself while bearing witness over time to the hardship, overwhelm, suffering, and trauma of humans, other living beings, and the planet itself.

Whether through personal caregiving, school, work, or efforts to make the world a better place, trauma exposure is ubiquitous, often experienced as burnout or compassion fatigue. This essential resource helps readers understand the toll on their nervous system, individually and collectively—including, though not limited to, exhaustion, numbness, cynicism, guilt, decision fatigue, or the sense that one can never do enough—and offers practical next steps.

Drawing on four decades of frontline experience, this new edition blends the latest in neuroscience, field wisdom, emerging research, and diverse spiritual traditions to offer fresh guidance and steady companionship amid intensifying pressures.

Inside:

• Tools for recognizing the trauma exposure response in yourself and others
• Concrete practices for staying present and whole
• Proven strategies for continuing to engage in one’s community, work, and life
• New Yorker cartoons, because humor is critical

Trauma Stewardship offers an accessible and compassionate framework for remaining grounded, connected, and purposeful while continuing to show up—for the long haul.

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is the founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute and author of Trauma Stewardship and The Age of Overwhelm. She is the host of the podcast Future Tripping, which is dedicated to conversations about overwhelm. Widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of trauma exposure, she has worked nationally and internationally for more than three decades. Much of her work is being invited to assist in the aftermath of community catastrophes, whether they are fatal storms or mass shootings. Simultaneously, she has long been active in community organizing and movements for social and environmental justice and has taught on issues surrounding systematic oppression, structural supremacy, and liberation theory. Laura is on the advisory board of ZGiRLS, an organization that supports young girls in sports. She is a founding member of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition, which supports the development of capacity to address the climate crisis. Laura also served as an associate producer of the award-winning film A Lot Like You and was given a Yo! Mama award in recognition of her work as a community-activist mother.

Connie Burk is the executive director of Kol HaNeshamah. She previously directed the NW Network, where she founded the National LGBTQ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence, the National LGBTQ TTA Institute, and the annual Q&A summit.