Book cover of Prentis Hemphill's new book titled "What It Takes to Heal" with sections in between that say "How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World"

As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.

What It Takes to Heal asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don’t have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”

In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.

PRAISE

  • "It's a rare thing for a book to be beautifully intimate and wildly expansive at the same time, but that is precisely what "What It Takes to Heal" manages to be."

    — Brené Brown, author of Atlas of the Heart

  • “A powerful, prescient, incisive book that helps us better understand ourselves, our relationships, and how to fully be in this world, all while creating the next.”

    — Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering

  • “In a time when so many of us are being trained in cynicism, this book stands in necessary defiance.”

    — Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies and This Here Flesh

  • “I love this book. Prentis Hemphill offers us a visionary, personal, compassionate, empowering guide for our healing as individuals, within the histories of our families and deep within the broader contexts of our communities, societies, and the world at large.”

    — Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score

  • “This book reckons with our major issues—trauma, race, social upheaval—and opens us up to the possibility that everything actually could be different. And it does so one gorgeous sentence after the next.”

    — Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands

  • “This book will be both the ‘aha’ moment and the balm for so many people who are saddled with vacant platitudes that don’t give them a way forward. It is what we need in this moment and will be foundational for generations to come.”

    — Tarana Burke, author of Unbound

  • “Hemphill teaches us where healing begins, and how crucial our healing is for the worlds we want to conjure.”

    — adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism

  • “In the tradition of James Baldwin, Hemphill invites us in close and personal to experience life, pain, beauty, injustice, and healing. I’ll read this again and again.”

    — Staci K. Haines, author of The Politics of Trauma