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What Happened to Me? vs What’s Wrong with Me?

What Happened to Me? vs What’s Wrong with Me?

Indian Perspectives on Childhood Trauma and Recovery

Gunjan Y Trivedi
,
Riri G Trivedi
,
Hemalatha Ramani
Select Preferred Format
Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

Do you struggle with anxiety, people-pleasing, perfectionism, burnout, or relationship difficulties? These aren’t flaws; they may be the quiet footprints of experiences you never had words for.
You’ve spent years asking, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ The kinder question is ‘What happened to me?’ That’s where self-blame ends and self-understanding begins.
Through real-life narratives from Indian families, stories of joint households, comparison, silence, and survival, this book gives shape and language to experiences that have long gone unnamed.

Why India Needs Its Own Conversation About Childhood Trauma
Based on 3,000+ interviews and 14 peer-reviewed studies, the authors show how traumatic childhood experiences surface decades later as anxiety, depression, PTSD, Complex PTSD, and relationship difficulties in adulthood.
Indian parenting has shaped generations of capable adults. But success and suffering can coexist.
Joint-family dynamics. Constant comparisons. Bullying. Emotional neglect. These Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) shape Indian childhoods and have been largely overlooked by global research.

Built on research, not opinion. Grounded in solutions, not just analysis.
• 3,000+ interviews • 14 peer-reviewed studies • 50+ illustrations • Real-life narratives

This book is for you if:

 

  • You struggle with emotional patterns you cannot explain
  • You’re a parent who wants to raise resilient children
  • You’re a therapist seeking evidence-based tools grounded in Indian family systems

What you’ll discover inside
Section I: The childhood experiences India has never named, and why trauma’s imprint is not limited to body or mind alone
Section II: Practical recovery tools: breathwork, guided visualisation, and the SEE protocol for self-hypnosis
Section III: A clinical framework for mental health professionals: evidence-based psychotherapy tools for trauma in the Indian context

Imprint: Ebury Press

Published: Jun/2026

ISBN: 9789377309350 (Paperback)

Length : 360 Pages

MRP : ₹499.00

What Happened to Me? vs What’s Wrong with Me?

Indian Perspectives on Childhood Trauma and Recovery

Gunjan Y Trivedi
,
Riri G Trivedi
,
Hemalatha Ramani

Do you struggle with anxiety, people-pleasing, perfectionism, burnout, or relationship difficulties? These aren’t flaws; they may be the quiet footprints of experiences you never had words for.
You’ve spent years asking, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ The kinder question is ‘What happened to me?’ That’s where self-blame ends and self-understanding begins.
Through real-life narratives from Indian families, stories of joint households, comparison, silence, and survival, this book gives shape and language to experiences that have long gone unnamed.

Why India Needs Its Own Conversation About Childhood Trauma
Based on 3,000+ interviews and 14 peer-reviewed studies, the authors show how traumatic childhood experiences surface decades later as anxiety, depression, PTSD, Complex PTSD, and relationship difficulties in adulthood.
Indian parenting has shaped generations of capable adults. But success and suffering can coexist.
Joint-family dynamics. Constant comparisons. Bullying. Emotional neglect. These Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) shape Indian childhoods and have been largely overlooked by global research.

Built on research, not opinion. Grounded in solutions, not just analysis.
• 3,000+ interviews • 14 peer-reviewed studies • 50+ illustrations • Real-life narratives

This book is for you if:

 

  • You struggle with emotional patterns you cannot explain
  • You’re a parent who wants to raise resilient children
  • You’re a therapist seeking evidence-based tools grounded in Indian family systems

What you’ll discover inside
Section I: The childhood experiences India has never named, and why trauma’s imprint is not limited to body or mind alone
Section II: Practical recovery tools: breathwork, guided visualisation, and the SEE protocol for self-hypnosis
Section III: A clinical framework for mental health professionals: evidence-based psychotherapy tools for trauma in the Indian context

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

Gunjan Y Trivedi

Gunjan Y Trivedi is a co-founder of Wellness Space. He practises and teaches evidence-based psychotherapy using trauma-informed care. With over two decades of experience (India, China, Singapore and Japan), he brings well-rounded global perspectives to his work. Gunjan works on childhood trauma, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD. His PhD research explored the influence of humming (simple Bhramari) on mind–body health and heart rate variability. He is a certified coach and a project management professional. A former cricketer and classical music enthusiast, he continues to blend science, wellness and the Indian knowledge system in his daily work.

Riri G Trivedi

Riri G Trivedi is a co-founder of Wellness Space and has a PhD on the impact of adverse childhood experiences on adult mental health. She practises and teaches evidence-based psychotherapy, focusing on inner child therapy, hypnotherapy and spiritual regression. She promotes parenting and mental health awareness through her social media presence, with more than 1.4 million followers across Meta and YouTube. She has recently co-authored ‘This Book Won’t Teach You Parenting’, published by Penguin Random House India. She is a mother of two and loves painting and playing the sitar.

Hemalatha Ramani

Hemalatha Ramani holds a PhD in economics and has co-authored two books. She has taught economics at several educational institutions in India and abroad (for the Cambridge and IB curricula). She has also worked with the Behavioural Science Centre (St Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad), the Indian Institute of Management, Women’s World Banking (Ahmedabad) and the Samaritans of Singapore.

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