How to Take Care

An A-Z Guide of Radical Remedies

By: Erin Williams, Kate Novotny

Narrated by: Kate Novotny, Erin Williams

A simple but radical guidebook for anyone learning to care for themselves and others.

Healing is not just for people who have their s&*t together. Healing is, most important, for people who are falling apart. How to Take Care will help you learn to trust your instincts, listen to your body, and practice small, easy steps to soothe anxiety, burnout, and symptoms of PTSD.

From A (adaptogenic herbs, ancestral healing) to Z (zoetic), How to Take Care is for anyone striving to live slowly, with self-compassion, one moment at a time. Learn tangible steps to dispel shame, tell the truth, and loosen the grip on whatever is holding you back. Sample guided meditations, cook nurturing recipes, and follow handy how-tos. Practice the grounding of a clean sink when you’d rather burn the house down, or connect with nature by growing flowers from seed. Keep this guide handy for easy-reference tools, techniques, and strategies to calm your nervous system and come back to your body. It is a gift for yourself or anyone else who is going through a big, messy, or trying season of life.

©2022 Erin Williams, Kate Novotny (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A healing book for the world weary and traumatized, the over-burdened & under-mothered. This elegantly illustrated and inspired collaboration has a cure on every page. Hilarious and brave, tender and wise. Buy this book for yourself, and anybody else who needs a dang break.”—Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of The Liars’ Club, Cherry, Lit, and Art of Memoir

"Entering the world of this book—and it truly feels like a world, lushly illustrated, radiating tenderness and honesty—feels like sitting by a window and talking with a bighearted friend who also happens to be funny as f--k, and eating hot fudge sundaes while a rainstorm rages outside. The sky is dark, and the flood might be coming, but the air is bristling with candor and compassion, just like these pages, which are full of hard-won insights attuned to the body, alive to the soul, and always aware of their entwinement. Something in this book will crack open a window in your life, I promise you—to let in the smell of the rain, the cold moonlight, the snow under streetlamps, the dawn."—Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams

"With warmth and compassion, Williams and Novotny have created a reassuring, loving, and essential guide to taking care. If, like me, you are sure you were absent the day they handed out the life manuals, it’s here now. You will love this book, but even better, this book will love you back."—Elizabeth Crane, author of This Story Will Change

Three hour therapy session

A book I will continue to read over and over again as life changes for me as I get older. It’s a book of reference to help you remember that you are human and it’s ok to be vulnerable. How to Take Care can be represented for all ages and stages of life.