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Secret Bad Girl: A Sexual Trauma Memoir and Resolution Guide

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Secret Bad Girl is a deeply healing memoir and trauma resolution guide for women who've suffered secret rapes or sexual abuse--and want both stories and instructions for being set free.

Rachael Maddox bravely shares her own story of statutory rape and recovery, inviting readers into the possibility that their current sex issues, fears, stunted confidence or self-worth troubles, private addictions or private depressions, or impossible-seeming dreams, could in fact be resulting from unresolved sexual trauma.

There's a myth that so many women bear the burden of in today's world. The myth is that we're bad for the violations that happen to us, as well as the mess of the aftermath of those abuses.

Secret Bad Girl not only dispels this myth, but illuminates exactly how you can transcend it, embodying the aliveness, resilience and vitality available to you.

Secret Bad Girl reads like works by Eve Ensler mixed with Peter Levine and a dash of Andrea Gibson. Stories. Science. Poetry.

Most people never resolve their trauma because fear of entering into the territory of violation is so abrasive that they freeze. Rachael Maddox understands this fear and meets her readers in a place of compassion and grace, so that they can move into their long-awaited healing.

119 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2016

11 people are currently reading
116 people want to read

About the author

Rachael Maddox

5 books9 followers
Rachael Maddox is a trauma resolution educator, coach and guide who’s helped hundreds of women and men resolve their sexual trauma and reclaim their pleasure, power and wholeness.

In her first book, SECRET BAD GIRL, Rachael tells the story of her return to wildness, sensuality, health and embodied safety after a decade living under the trauma spell.

Her next book, ReBloom: the path to healthy sex, love and intimacy after trauma, publishes fall 2018, and is full of stories, maps and strategies for emotional and embodied thriving.

On a fierce mission to help as many women as possible who’ve experienced trauma, Rachael offers one-on-one support, groups, articles and courses for women who are ready to dance hard with life.

Rachael’s professional training includes Alchemical Alignment Trauma Resolution & Embodiment of Spirit, The Coaches Training Institute and The Awakened Leadership Academy.

For fun, Rachael writes songs on her ukulele, swims naked as often as possible, and lays quietly under trees.

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for T.
47 reviews
Read
January 30, 2017
I read this book in 24 hours, with pauses to breath and reflect. There is so much work to be done. But it can be done. It will be done. I'm doing it.

This book provides an overview of trauma, physiological explanations and steps to release yourself from the binds of your past. The book provides comfort, plenty of 'Oh my goddess it's not just me' moments and snippets of hard truths. The explanations make sense, allowing those 'I'm crazy' and 'my body is wrong' thoughts to fall away. Our bodies are perfect. They respond how they need to. Perfectly.

A really useful book. Not too long, but gets to the crux of things. A good addition to any healing journey.

Thank you x
Profile Image for Greg.
122 reviews27 followers
Read
January 25, 2021
I have thoughts on this book, but also I'm very much not in the main audience the author is trying to reach. Which is why I haven't rated it.

What I can say is that it's an extraordinarily accessible and straightforward guide to addressing bottled up trauma. Despite not being in the primary demographic, I nonetheless learned a lot about trauma and came to understand much of my own.

Most helpful, I think, is Maddox's blunt presentation of her own mistakes and the gruesome details of trauma and its aftermath. A lot of similar books seem to tiptoe around the hardest stories, and that's a mistake. Hard topics need very open conversation to reach resolution. As soon as we start pulling punches, the more we ourselves get punched. Solid book.
Profile Image for lauren deardorff.
33 reviews8 followers
August 15, 2018
I really can’t begin to describe what this book has done for me. I just know that you if you find yourself even thinking about reading it, you must listen to that call and dive in. You won’t regret it.
Profile Image for Cydney.
10 reviews5 followers
September 11, 2018
Incredibly timely and completely necessary for all the secret bad girls out there living in shame.
Profile Image for Tori .
603 reviews7 followers
December 29, 2016
"I'm not willing to be uncomfortable for you."

"You know, the rules of entry?"

"Creating the boundaries for what wasn't allowed in meant I had space to start visioning what was allowed in"

"follow your aliveness"

"Sometimes we must feel the might of our power before we can soften into the power of our kindness"

"Sometimes the kindest thing we can truly do is build and insurmountable boundary of STAY THE FUCK OUT. Sometimes that's holiness."

"Sometimes we have to rage our trauma out until we find the kind of help that teaches how to unwind from the hell of raging."

"According to Jesus by way of Caroline Myss, forgiveness is when you agree not to pass on your suffering."
Profile Image for Julie.
129 reviews
September 10, 2016
Can I curse here? What a fucking fucking fucking powerful book. I've read a lot A LOT of books on trauma and healing, forgiveness, etc. and this one, this book, well, it doesn't sugar coat, it doesn't talk in PhD words, it doesn't take the long route around an issue and it isn't politically correct. Not saying that no other books have helped me progress, just not quite like this.

I did not read this book fast or slow. I started reading, as just as it does when it "hits home", I had to put it down or I would glare over words that I wasn't ready to hear and I would pick it up again later or read and re-read a sentence, paragraph, chapter, that my mind wasn't willing to swallow.

There were certain things I know I should have highlighted and I intentionally didn't because something in the back of my head (my wise ol' self) was telling me, you don't need to highlight, that will not help you, you just need to read the book again, slowly and with purpose and use it with your therapy (bringing it with) as a tool to go further in and heal more more and more.

It's not an easy read, meaning, it can be painful for a person that has been through something similar or someone empathetic (or in my case, both) but when I read her words, it helped me peel back my layers in a safe place, in unison of reading her story.

If you read this Rachael, I give you a giant hug filled with love, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your story.


Profile Image for Serafina Christine.
52 reviews
March 20, 2016
This book was amazing! The author was very honest and clear about her experiences and what she's learned about them. As I was reading this book I felt like she was part of my tribe and that I personally knew her. Very recommended.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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