Cynthia Garner writes from lived experience. As a trauma survivor, divorced mother, educator, therapist and leadership coach, she knows the cost of generational abuse and the transformative power of mastering mental fitness, reclaiming your body, and healing your attachment wounds.

She shares raw, personal stories in Fierce Boundaries, like the time she finally burned a stack of abusive emails from her ex-husband, mixing the ashes into a powerful piece of art that symbolized her freedom (shown on the book’s cover). Or how a mindfulness practice saved her from total emotional collapse and outbursts of rage while juggling a demanding teaching career, single motherhood, debilitating chronic pain, and relentless harassment.

By undertaking deep training in somatic psychotherapy and mindfulness-based interventions, Cynthia began to reclaim herself and to offer these practices within trauma-impacted communities as a pathway toward systemic healing. Writing this personal and practical book, and including these field tested practices as a pathway allowed her to finally draw the line, say enough, and stop the cycle for good.

It was not clear at the time that our political landscape would thrust so many of us into relationship with narcissistic abuse, and that these skills and practices would become so needed on a collective level so quickly.

The pathway she outlines—setting boundaries, reclaiming your mental real estate, moving from reactivity to intentional, compassionate action—is exactly what’s needed at a large scale in these divisive times. We must master our own minds and tend to our own hearts to break the cycle and we must end our isolationism and welcome our humanness to flip the script on generational trauma.