Nida Read 2 Rocky Books at the MyndReaders Book Club!

I was invited to the MyndReaders Book Club, hosted by MyndStories, last month to do a reading of our books!

As book creators we believe in the awesome power of books to foster healing and connection. We know that stories can help children and adults feel less alone, and they may even give you a tip or two on how to feel better or move forward from a difficult situation. 

Image credit to Smitha Murthy via LinkedIn

What is the MyndReaders Book Club?

The wonderful Smitha Murthy of MyndStories invited me into their weekly meet-up to read one of our Rocky Books to their regular book club attendees. The MyndReaders book club meets online every Friday at 7pm. Although Rocky Books are primarily written for children affected by trauma, Smitha agreed that their adult book clubbers would find healing for their “inner children”. 

The Rocky Books I Chose to Read

I decided to read “Ginny Bravely Identifies and tackles Gaslighting” - one of our lesser known titles. This book follows Ginny, a 12 year old bookworm, who experiences gaslighting by a family member. The emotions that follow are confusing but Ginny learns how to trust herself and communicate her needs. The book also includes an interactive roleplay exercise to encourage families to practice communication as well as long term advice for anyone who is experiencing gaslighting and needs support. 

The MyndReaders loved Ginny’s story! They found it very relatable to their own experiences of being gaslighted, and especially liked how gaslighting and the connected emotions were explained in a simple and easily understandable way.

Some appreciated our section on What To Do If You Have Gaslighted Someone Unintentionally, as this subject is often not talked about very much or even acknowledged. 

There was enough time for me to read one more book (Rocky Books are only between 10-14 pages) so I chose “How Rahul Keeps Calm When He Feels Anxious”. This book follows a 6 year old boy who feels painful sensations in his tummy when his daddy shouts in anger. Rahul learns how to calm and ground himself using our therapist-approved coping exercise - Tummy Rub. Rahul also learns that the parental conflict is not his fault and how to ask for help if he needs to. 

Feedback, ideas, calming exercises, and constructive criticism

After both readings we had a lively discussion about both books’ themes, exercises and advice. I spoke a little more about our trauma-informed approach to creating Rocky Books which includes trauma-informed writing and upskilling our illustrators in trauma-informed illustrating (in a workshop designed by my co-founder Sheena). 

Here’s some valuable feedback we received that will help us create better resources for children and families: 

1. What is a “trusted adult"?
   How do we define who a trusted adult is to a child? Someone who we may think is a trusted adult could be the person who is harming us, or this person may betray our trust to our abuser. 

2. The onus is on the child to ask for help.
   Several of our books include guidance designed to support the child’s journey to seek help for themselves. Some MyndReaders felt that there was too much responsibility placed on the child to seek help. We aim to empower children to recognise that certain behaviours are not okay and certain situations require help, and offer them tools to support this. Our short and long-term guidance are designed by our co-founder and qualified family therapist Sheena Vassiliades. 

3. Self-soothing techniques.
   The MyndReaders had a fab discussion on different grounding and calming exercises with lots of suggestions from counsellors. There was also real-life feedback from attendees on why some coping exercises worked really well for them, and why some didn’t. Another valuable point was that many children (and adults!) may have their own grounding exercise that they naturally do when feeling anxious, overwhelmed or stressed. 

I came away from the reading feeling supported, held, understood and in tune with my own emotions. This was a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening and I want to thank Smitha and the MyndReaders community for welcoming me with such warmth, honesty and grace. 

A few weeks later I attended the in-person MyStories Conversations and Community meet-up in Bangalore where I finally met Smitha and others and spent a lovely, slow Sunday afternoon talking feelings in a cosy Church Street bookshop. I think Rocky Books and I have found our community :). 

- Nida, Founder of Rocky Books