Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook: Somatic Skills to Help You Feel Safe in Your Body, Create Boundaries, and Live with Resilience

“In this vital and beautiful workbook, Erika Shershun guides us through the process of understanding our sexual trauma, and ultimately working toward a place of thriving. What really emerges for me from these exercises is that she is equipping survivors with the tools and processes that embolden us to move beyond surviving to flourishing. Erika is inviting survivors on a powerful journey of transformation—and I’m grateful to her for entrusting survivors to be the drivers of that process.”
—JoEllen Chernow, cofounder and codirector of Survivors Know“Erika Shershun has written a much-needed, empowering resource for sexual assault survivors. Her Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook explains how trauma impacts the body, mind, and soul. It provides a comprehensive array of worksheets, body-based exercises, and support tools for recovery. It addresses concerns common to survivors that are often overlooked in treatment. And it compassionately offers the guidance, hope, and support that all survivors of sexual assault need and deserve.”
—Susanne Babbel, PhD, MFT, author of Heal the Body, Heal the Mind; and blogger for www.psychologytoday.com“Erika Shershun has managed to create an invaluable handbook for the many courageous survivors of sexual trauma who are working hard to find their way back to a life of normalcy. What is particularly notable about this, among so many others, is that Shershun knows the territory directly, having found a way to access her own considerable gifts of healing both herself and others. She provides a clear path toward finding one’s way.”
—Don Hanlon Johnson, PhD, professor of somatics in the School of Consciousness and Transformation at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS); and author and editor of several books, including Bone, Breath, and Gesture and Body, Spirit, and Democracy

“This workbook is a must for anyone struggling with unhealed trauma. Erika gives tangible tips to safely move through trauma in an empowering and validating way. Learning to listen to your body and emotions is scary and hard, but Erika’s workbook makes this practice gentle, which is so needed. So many trauma survivors will be able to reclaim a part of themselves after finishing this.”
—Stevie Croisant, founder of We Are HER

“I highly recommend this compassionate and gentle book to both clients and practitioners as a tool for healing sexual abuse using somatic practices. This step-by-step guide is an excellent source of information to help survivors better understand their body’s reactions. In addition, it offers valuable instructions on everything from grounding to tapping exercises, and from practicing self-compassion to how to handle triggers and flashbacks.”
—Beverly Engel, licensed therapist, and author of Escaping Emotional Abuse and It Wasn’t Your Fault

Erika Shershun, MFT, is a licensed psychotherapist and supervisor working in private practice in San Francisco, CA. Specializing in treating survivors of sexual assault and incest—and a survivor herself—she facilitates an ongoing weekly group, Surviving and Thriving: Healing Sexual Trauma. A graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies clinical psychology MA program with a concentration in somatic psychology, she is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), and the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP). Erika welcomes and values diversity, including all races, sexualities, genders, body sizes, and abilities. To contact her please visit www.healingsexualtrauma.com, www.erikashershuntherapy.com, or follow her @erikashershun.