Oprah Winfrey has released a new book titled What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, which was co-authored with psychiatrist Dr Bruce Perry.
The US media personality and author wants to help people confront their childhood traumas, understand their impact and start being kinder to themselves and those around them by asking the question “what happened to you?”, rather than “what’s wrong with you?”
In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Winfrey and Perry said the book seeks to provide readers with the right tools to help them heal from past traumas.
Oprah Winfrey said each of us creates a unique world view shaped by our life’s experiences and that world view is shaped when you are a child.
To promote the 300-page book Oprah Winfrey shared some of her childhood experiences in an Instagram series.
In one, she opens up about how she was beaten as a child to silence her. This resulted in her becoming what she called a “world-class people pleaser” who struggled to set boundaries.
“The long-term impact of being whupped — then forced to hush and even smile about it — turned me into a world-class people pleaser for most of my life. It would not have taken me half a lifetime to set boundaries and learn to say no with confidence had I been nurtured differently,” she wrote.
