
Enough About the Unexpected Gift of Trauma Dr. Edith Shiro
Dr. Edith Shiro’s connection with trauma began in her childhood and is deeply personal. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and Syrian refugees, she grew up as a Jewish woman in Venezuela and lived as a Latina immigrant studying and working in the United States. These life experiences along with her deep research and practice with survivors of torture, school shootings, domestic violence, and discrimination, with a particular focus on work with immigrants, has led to her understanding of trauma in many ways: individual, intergenerational, cultural, and systemic. It’s from these experiences that another foundational question arose: How is it possible that in the face of adversity, some people stay stuck while others thrive and grow?
The Unexpected Gift of Trauma