Aces High A Memoir of Trauma Recovery & Emotional Resilience

Trauma leaves marks — on the body, the mind, and the story a person tells about themselves. Penny Hodgson knows this intimately. But she also knows something the trauma field rarely says out loud: healing requires letting go of the identity trauma tries to assign.

In Aces High, Penny shares the parts of her life she has never spoken aloud — the childhood surgeries that reshaped her body, the sexual abuse that fractured her sense of safety, the family dysfunction that shaped her beliefs, and the medical dismissal that nearly cost her her life. Her ACE score is six, but her story is far more complex than a number.

Through research, reflection, and unflinching honesty, Penny traces how trauma shaped her physiology, her relationships, and her worldview — and how she slowly learned to interrupt the cycle. She challenges the cultural drift toward safetyism and the growing pressure to claim a victim identity, offering instead a grounded, compassionate path toward personal responsibility and emotional freedom.

This memoir doesn't promise easy answers. It offers something more valuable: a clear‑eyed look at what healing actually requires.

For anyone navigating their own trauma history, Aces High is a companion, a mirror, and a reminder that resilience is not a trait — it's a choice made again and again.