Kia ora koutou darlings,

We have a lot of new subscribers joining us this week (hi hi hi! welcome!) so I’ll start with a teeny intro about who I am.

Welcome! Brief intro to Kerry

I’m a clinical psychologist and author dedicated to fighting trauma, work burnout, and listless living using rigorous science and relentless compassion.

BACKGROUND:

• I’m an expert on trauma, resilience, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I was born and trained in the USA and now live outside Wellington, Aotearoa. I worked or trained at the National Center for PTSD, UCSF, NYU, Penn State, and Stanford (affiliated).
• I’ve co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed studies, US Congressional reports, and book chapters on trauma and resilience. My first-authored work on violence, abuse, and treatment has been cited over 300 times.
• Now I split my time between writing, providing trauma therapy, and supervising therapists and doctors.
• and I write books. My first book was called BALLAD OF BURNOUT. My next book is called START HERE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE OVERWHELMED and comes out in NZ/GB/AUS in November 2025 from Little, Brown.

I email subscribers about once a week with brief updates about my work life and recommendations for good books, courses, and podcasts.

Finally, I’m a one woman business. I’m always happy to hear requests and feedback. Just hit reply.

I’m glad you’re here!

NOW HELLO TO EVERYONE:

• hi hi!! This email is a long one because I kept wanting to add one more thing,

• then I was screwing around with my website (ugh I redesigned it and I think it looks generally good but I’m at the stage where all I can see is all the parts I haven’t done yet)

• plus now I’m experimenting with almost-daily reels on Instagram which are equally funny and mortifying.

  • Hopefully useful and funny to you, mortifying only to me.

  • (For everyone disinclined to social media, I figured out how to also post the videos to my website here.)

Sending lots of love to you and yours xx Kerry

Below: book, app, and download recs & a brief aside about politics.

a lot of recommendations:

Nadine Hura’s Slowing the Sun

Dudes. If you knew me last year, I was shoving this crumpled Spinoff article into your hands, the first place I read Nadine write about the grounding, heart bursting climate lessons from Māori communities that can help us all restabilize and give back.

She says, Hope is a shovel and will give you blisters. Now her book is out. It is beautiful.

Thanks for reading Dr Kerry's Love Letters: words for the weary! This post is public so feel free to share it.

4 day meditation course

Sharon Salzburg, one of my top 3 meditation teachers, is offering a four day fundamentals course for meditation. Sliding scale pricing offered!

Smiling Mind app

I always *intend* to do mindfulness exercises with my clients but rarely do. I’ve started recommending that everyone download the Smiling Mind app:

• it’s free
• has multiple very brief meditation options each day.
• Plus it’s science-based.
• I highly recommend.

Reading about burnout:

The smart and down to earth ’s book “ACT For Burnout” is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award! Highly recommend. Don’t trust me, listen to what readers say (excerpted from Good Reads reviews; I added bold emphasis):

• ACT FOR BURNOUT by Debbie Sorensen is that smart, intelligent, and compassionate friend who sits you down, explains where you are and how you got here and then shows you a way to resolve and move on past burnout and the cycles of misery gripping you.
• It is also a great guide for what to do if you are already burned out and how to prevent it in the future.
• Before reading this book I thought that the only way to recover from burnout would be to quit my job and escape to an island for three months. This book not only defines burnout but gives daily tips to move through and prevent burnout. It’s the small daily steps we take. Thanks for an easy read with lots of tactical advice.

Thanks for reading Dr Kerry's Love Letters: words for the weary! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Fun downloads

Most self help is written to men and by men but most self-help readers are women. Part of my pitch for START HERE was that women were yearning for concrete, compassionate advice that extends far beyond time blocking and bullet journals.

Along those lines, I loved discovering these free worksheets from EM Austen, author of SMARTER, with concrete tips for healthier days.

Grounded hope for political resistance

Content warning - some people ARE NOT interested in reading about political things right now. Just skip to the next divider line if this is you.

I really appreciated this recent article by Nicholas Kristof, titled Three Well-Tested Ways to Undermine an Autocrat. (I added a free gift link here, I have nine more if it doesn’t work for you - just email me.)

KEY POINTS FOR UNDERMINING A TYRANT

“The first is mockery and humor — preferably salacious…

A second approach that has often succeeded is emphasizing not democracy as such but rather highlighting the leaders’ corruption, hypocrisy and economic mismanagement…

The third approach that has often succeeded is focusing on the power of one — an individual tragedy rather than a sea of oppression.”

That’s it for this week darlings. I’ll leave you with a pile of brown rice shaped like a cat.

Love, Kerry