Holding Onto Air

A top mental health writer, trauma researcher, and survivor illuminates the dual nature of loss—the science behind it and the art of transforming it—with a breakthrough book and truly holistic approach.

After experiencing two rare heart attacks at the age of 33—and a third a decade later—Michele DeMarco knows trauma intimately. Trauma breaks your relationship with time by upending your expectations, fracturing your memories and identity, and destroying your innocence.

With poignant wisdom and refreshing insight, DeMarco explodes traditional myths of resilience and shows what it takes to thrive through any of life's challenges. DeMarco situates meaningful challenge and loss specifically in the context of "lost innocence," and challenges common notions that we can think our way out of despair and back to a "normal," happy life when the unimaginable shatters it.

Leveraging advances in emotion science, somatic psychology, neuroscience, and trauma, Holding onto Air brings the body and spirit into the solution, as much as the mind and so presents a truly integrated, "whole-person" approach to recovering from lost innocence and building resilience. It also makes spirit accessible for anyone of any background or belief—or of no aligned belief.

More than a rudimentary map for navigating grief and loss' rocky terrain (with tired tropes and shop-worn strategies), Holding onto Air is a unique and trusted guide for an arduous journey every human being will have to face—the realization of evil, pain, or mortality that occurs after a person experiences trauma.