Mary Firestone survived the unthinkable. In 2018 she lived through the Montecito mudslide that dropped 200 million gallons of rainfall in 15 minutes, washing away her home. Trapped alone in her bathroom while pregnant, not sure if her husband and four-year-old son were still alive, she wasn’t thinking that her trauma was a gift in disguise. Yet, as she began her journey to healing, this is exactly what she discovered.

In Trusting the Dawn, Firestone draws from both her own real-life experiences and her background in clinical psychology to offer a radical, integrative handbook for not only healing from trauma but awakening to even more joy and meaning because of your experiences. Stories of triumphant survival and interviews with experts bring to life an extensive resource guide and a holistic toolkit filled with a wide variety of pathways to healing—from movement therapies like yoga, to aromatherapy and flower essences, to traditional talk therapy and support groups, to pharmacology and Chinese medicine, to mystical healing methods, and much more.

Central to Firestone’s teachings is the idea that your trauma, in whatever form it slayed you, can become an initiation into a fuller, more illuminated, and more joyful life. Trusting the Dawn is a call to action to see that you are more complex, multi-dimensional, connected, and powerful, not in spite of what you’ve been through, but because of what you’ve endured.