The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference

by Stacee L. Reicherzer PhD

Overview

Rewrite your story—and this time, you make the rules. 

Were you the victim of childhood bullying based on your identity? Do you carry those scars into adulthood in the form of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dysfunctional relationships, substance abuse, or suicidal thoughts? If so, you’re not alone. Our cultural and political climate has reopened old wounds for many people who have felt “othered” at different points in their life, starting with childhood bullying. This breakthrough book will guide you as you learn to identify your deeply rooted fears, and help you heal the invisible wounds of identity-based childhood rejection, bullying, and belittling.

In The Healing Otherness Handbook, Stacee Reicherzer—a nationally known transgender psychotherapist and expert on trauma, otherness, and self-sabotage—shares her own personal story of childhood bullying, and how it inspired her to help others heal from the same wounds. Drawing from mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Reicherzer will help you gain a better understanding of how past trauma has limited your life, and show you the keys to freeing yourself from self-defeating, destructive beliefs.

If you’re ready to heal from the past, find power in your difference, and live an authentic life full of confidence—this handbook will help guide you, step by step.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684036493
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Series:	The Social Justice Handbook Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Stacee L. Reicherzer, PhD, is a Chicago, IL-based transgender counselor, educator, and public speaker for the stories of the bullied, forgotten, and oppressed. The San Antonio, TX, native serves as clinical faculty of counseling at Southern New Hampshire University, where she received the distinguished faculty award in 2018. She travels the globe to teach and engage audiences around diverse topics of otherness, self-sabotage, and imposter phenomenon.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Your Decision to No Longer Live Small

1 A Kid Who Was "Different" 7

2 What Rejection Does to Us 23

3 Gathering Tools for Your Journey to Freedom 39

Part 2 Break the Rules of Fear by Refusing to Stay Stuck

4 "You Shouldn't Complain Because Others Are Worse Off Than You" 57

5 "You'd Better Tone It Down" 73

6 "You Must Work Twice as Hard" 91

7 "Oh, You Shouldn't Feel Resentful!" 109

8 "You Cannot Change the World" 127

Part 3 Live Free of Someone Else's Definition

9 Weaken the Internal Oppressor's Stranglehold on Your Voice 147

10 Find Your Way Home Through Community 163

Acknowledgments 179

References 181

Reading Group Guide 183

Interviews

Reicherzer resides in Chicago, IL.

Editorial Reviews

The world has been telling us how to think and feel since the moment we entered it. That pressure—combined with taunts, slights, and abuses—creates a feeling of Otherness within us. Stacee Reicherzer has created a path for healing. The reader is guided gently—with compassion, love, and humor—through an exploration of the pain, shame, and guilt of feeling different in a world that values sameness.”
—Donna Sheperis, PhD, professor of counseling at Palo Alto University, and author of Ethical Decision Making for the 21st Century Counselor

Donna Sheperis

The Healing Otherness Handbook is just the medicine we needed at just the right time. In a world in which Othering hurts, harms, displaces, and creates trauma, Stacee Reicherzer invites the reader in to forge a path to healing to discover and claim our place at the table. Stacee’s presence, wisdom, and humor remind the reader that she is walking with us on this journey, reminding us that our shared story of hurt can help us heal.”
—Anne C. Deepak, PhD, associate professor at the Monmouth University School of Social Work, and International Federation of Social Workers Representative to the United Nations

Anne C. Deepak

With compassion, empathy, and an incredibly conversational tone, Reicherzer pulls you in with her uncanny ability to bring the trauma of Otherness to life. She gently guides the reader through user-friendly exercises of self-reflection, encouraging them to confront toxic aspects of dominant culture that dishonor and silence one’s true self. This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to disrupt systemic oppression and finally belong.”
—Jada K. Hebra, senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Southern New Hampshire University

Jada K. Hebra

This chef d’oeuvre was the perfect interruption to my isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. It fully satisfied my yearning for enlightenment and revived my creative spirit, consequently pulling it out of its cataclysmic quarantine. Suddenly, I was no longer alone as Stacee Reicherzer’s soulfulness and unabashed sass unapologetically knocked on my door to take my mind, body, and soul on a swift and transformational journey of self-exploration and healing.”
—Fatma Salem, MA, clinician at C.R.E.A.T.E! Center for Expressive Arts, Therapy and Education

Fatma Salem

This soulful love letter spoke to my heart and experiences of Otherness. As an African American woman, Stacee’s artful language—like identifying your rock and laying down your burden—allowed me to recognize the spaces for my own restoration. This handbook gives us all pathways to clarity and freedom from internal and external oppressors, and it is an invitation to engage in exploration and healing with prescriptions worth taking.”
—Savitri Dixon-Saxon, PhD, vice provost at Walden University, and North Carolina-licensed clinical mental health counselor

Savitri Dixon-Saxon

Stacee Reicherzer’s book is a much-needed resource. She approaches the feelings of Otherness from a personal standpoint that welcomes people into the material, but in a professional manner that is well-grounded in research and expertise. By presenting a path to help individuals overcome the fear that has governed their life, she opens up doors for those who have been excluded to walk into their full and authentic experience.”
—Tonya R. Hammer, PhD, associate professor of counseling and counseling psychology, and Jennifer Jacques Flanery Community Counseling Professor at Oklahoma State University

Tonya R. Hammer

Reicherzer provides a compendium of behaviors and feelings contributing to the pain and difficulties of feeling Othered, with helpful remedies to heal that pain and grow into healthy, happy, and self-actualized people using personal creativity and sass. She speaks to many causes of the pain of Otherness with very constructive and pragmatic suggestions for the many suffering. She also gives practitioners new clinical insights into this important syndrome.”
—Edward S. Beck, publisher and editor at Kol Central PA; vice president of the Historic B’nai Jacob Synagogue in Middletown, PA; and board member of the Jewish Community Foundation of Central Pennsylvania

Edward S. Beck

Anyone who has ever felt different will benefit from this book, connecting with Stacee as she courageously shares her own experiences and those of people like us who have been Othered. You will feel that you are with a friend, counselor, teacher, and mentor, as she expertly guides you on a new journey of healing and growth.”
—John F. Marszalek III, PhD, faculty of the clinical mental health counseling program at Southern New Hampshire University, and author of Coming Out of the Magnolia Closet

John F. Marszalek III

With wild anecdotes and heartfelt stories, Stacee Reicherzer speaks to every Other person out here. She not only provides actionable steps towards healing from bullying and ostracism, she does so with a wry humor that drew me in. The pages flew by as I laughed or cried at the shared memories all Othered people experience. Throughout this book, she brings some of the relational healing and community we so desperately need.”
—Adrian S. Warren, PhD, LPC-S, president-elect of the Texas Counseling Association, and author of Acceptance and Mindfulness for Healing and Recovery

Adrian S. Warren

An effective and thoroughly ‘user friendly’ handbook.... An extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Popular Developmental Psychology, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Anxiety Disorders collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.”
—The Midwest Book Review

The Midwest Book Review

Stacee Reicherzer is a model of resilience, bravery, intellect, and grace. Her book empowers me and will empower every reader to claim—without apology—the distinctive gifts he, she, or they have been given. Every day, Stacee helps to create the world in which I want to live, and, more important, the world in which I want our children to live—all of them.”
—Chris Gilmer, president and tenured professor of humanities at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, and founder of the National Institutes for Historically-Underserved Students

Chris Gilmer