Past the Pain: How to Emerge from Trauma with Purpose

Forty minutes on February 21, 2019, changed Anjanette Young’s life forever. Her story made national news for months after it broke: A forty-eight-year-old social worker was winding down at home after a long day of work when police broke into her apartment with a faulty warrant and incorrect information. With guns drawn and flashlights shining, twelve cops converged in her home, demanding that Anjanette put her hands up, despite the fact that she was in the middle of changing her clothes. Naked and terrified, she watched as men in tactical gear ransacked her home.

The trauma from that night was devastating, but somehow Anjanette emerged a different person with a new purpose—to serve as voice for the voiceless, particularly those facing injustices by the very people meant to protect them.

In Past the Pain, Anjanette tells her story—of what happened that night, what came next, and most important, how others who experience trauma can draw on these lessons to move forward in their own stories. She shares advice from her beloved and respected therapist, Alicia Troff-Meade, designed to bridge the gap between simply reading about healing and actively engaging in it. And Anjanette details how, through the support of her church and her community, and by reconnecting with her legacy as the granddaughter of a civil rights activist who marched with Dr. King, she realized that God was truly with her, and she began to forge a future that is not dictated by trauma but empowered by resilience.

As a social worker and advocate, Anjanette shares practical insights for others to push past their trauma to find purpose and avoid burnout, engage in self-care, and protect their emotional and physical energy when working in social justice and advocacy support.