Books
Narrative writing is a pathway home to yourself and a trail for others to follow
Fierce Boundaries:
Somatic Exercises for Healing in a Traumatized World
If we want a bright future for our grandchildren, we need kindness, strength, and engaged action now more than ever. However, witnessing the collapse of our political and educational systems, the unraveling of our loved ones’ mental health, and the destruction of the planet’s exquisite beauty has left many of us feeling helpless and in despair. But we cannot wallow in the darkness or let ourselves be numb, unmoving, or hollow any longer. There is too much at stake. We have work to do and our children are counting on us.
It is time to wake up, take control of our minds, re-inhabit our bodies, and tend to the grief in our hearts, so we can light the way forward with clarity, conviction, and love.
I’m Dr. Cynthia Garner, a somatic psychotherapist, leadership coach, author, former classroom teacher, single mother, and survivor of complex relational trauma. In this book, I shares my experience and expertise to provide a field-tested pathway for reclaiming attention and cultivating a sense of agency and embodied kindness in troubled times. I offer proven therapeutic practices for healing our relationship to ourselves, and a new narrative for those of us willing to try a different approach — believing that healing is possible, that there is a future worth saving, and that we all have the power within us to pierce the darkness with our radiant light.
Out of Grace: An Extraordinary Journey Through Guatemala’s Haunted Highlands
Guatemala City is officially classified as one of the most dangerous cities in the Americas, where murders make daily headlines, and men hiss at women the same way they hiss at dogs. Here, in the shadow of the country’s many volcanoes, a 22-year-old anthropologist embarks upon her Fulbright research—unraveling the mysteries of the Mayan Highlands, and unexpectedly losing her long-held Christian faith.
After a weekend climb of the Pacaya Volcano turns tragic, the author struggles to shake the helplessness and fear that haunt her. In the midst of searching for a new faith, she discovers the bewildering town of San Pedro la Laguna—a place where Mayan culture collides with globalization and a tourism industry fueled by the drug trade. As she navigates her own spiritual crisis, Cynthia is drawn to explore the haunting beauty of the rugged highlands, the stories of the Tz’utuji’il people, and their connection to the land.
This fast-paced narrative and anthropological field study is at once an adventure, a coming of age story, an exploration of spirituality, and a reflection upon the shadow of fear in all our lives.
Thrown from the Nest: A Memoir of Belonging, Recovery, and Generational Healing after Adoption
About the book:
As an adoptee, all Cynthia has ever wanted is to be the mom she didn’t get to have.
But navigating single motherhood amidst her ex-husband’s mental illness, and his constant accusations and threats of self-harm, is more than her heart can bear. During her final year of classroom teaching, when her daughter is still a toddler, her spirit finally cracks. Within a single semester, she unravels into crippling anxiety, panic attacks, job loss, illness, a back injury that temporarily confined her to a wheelchair, and addiction. Then, when she tries meditation in an effort to make peace with her fears, she is battered by images of violence and pre-verbal memories of men that paralyze her with terror and add fuel to her rage.
When she discovers the intersection of trauma-sensitive mindfulness and somatic psychotherapy, she finally finds effective tools for healing her attachment wounds and her relationship with herself. After symbolically annihilating her mother’s attacker on the dance floor, Cynthia embarks upon a journey of reclaiming her power that takes her to the dream world, through the “death cave,” and into the desert where she comes face to face with the dark masculine inside herself, and an epic battle rages.
Thrown from the Nest is a story about fierce dedication to motherhood that triumphs over abuse and interrupting the cycle of generational trauma by choosing radical kindness, even towards those who have hurt her the most.
Release Date TBD: Currently Seeking Literary Representation