Growth After Trauma: Beyond Save-My-Life School, Is Now Available!

Growth After Trauma, co-authored with Dr. Jonathan Douglas, PhD, and published by Wintertickle Press is now available!

This book has been six years in the making.

What began as a conversation during the lockdown in 2020 was originally expected to become a much shorter project. Instead, life happened. Dr. Douglas and I both continued our work, our learning, and our own growth, and in many ways the delay became one of the book's greatest strengths.

Over those six years, the manuscript continued to evolve, allowing us to revisit each chapter with new insight, greater perspective, and a deeper understanding of what growth after trauma can actually look like.

The book is built on something quite unique.

It combines lived experience with clinical psychology.

Years ago, I began noticing that people who reached out to me after experiencing trauma often described remarkably similar stages of recovery. Although every story was unique, there were common themes that seemed to emerge again and again. I shared those stages with Dr. Douglas and asked a simple question:"Does this resonate with what you've observed in your clients?"

His answer was yes.

That conversation became the foundation of this book.

Together, we explored each stage through two different lenses—my personal experience and his clinical understanding. As the years passed, I was also able to return to every stage and reflect on how my perspective had continued to evolve.

Each chapter unfolds in three parts:

• My original reflections, written beginning in 2020 while I was still integrating many of these experiences myself.

• Dr. Jonathan Douglas's clinical perspective, connecting lived experience with psychological science and what he has observed in his own work with clients.

• An updated reflection, written five to six years later, sharing how my understanding of that stage has continued to grow over time.

  
  

In many ways, readers get to witness growth happening within the book itself.

What we originally thought would simply explain recovery became something much larger—a conversation about identity, meaning, purpose, contribution, and the lifelong process of continuing to grow.

My hope is that whether you're navigating trauma yourself, supporting someone you love, or working professionally with people who have experienced adversity, you'll find something in these pages that helps you better understand not only recovery, but the possibilities that can emerge beyond it.

Thank you to everyone who has shared your stories with me over the years. Your courage, honesty, and willingness to speak about your experiences helped shape this work more than you'll ever know.

And thank you to Dr. Douglas for sharing in and contibuting to this amazing journey. It's been an honour.

Growth After Trauma is now available. 📚 Purchase your copy here: https://a.co/d/0gL88xgU

This book is a testament to what it means to rise while still trembling

With raw vulnerability and unflinching courage, Natalie Harris lays bare the truth of addiction, PTSD, and the emotional fallout of a career spent saving others. Her story is fierce, honest, and profoundly humble - a rare combination that makes every chapter feel like a hand extended to the reader.

She has taken the tangled, painful aftermath of frontline service and transformed it into something powerful: a guide, a mirror, and a source of hope. Her suffering has not been wasted; she has turned it into a gift for others. This book is not just a memoir, 

it’s an act of service.

Lara Sigurdson, M.A., C. Psych., Psy.D.