Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

Brené Brown’s book Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone was published in 2017 and is a continuation of Brown’s 20 years of research on perfectionism, shame, vulnerability, empathy, belonging, and leadership. Her work has received national recognition, and she is the author of seven books, five of which have gone on to become New York Times bestsellers. Brown is also known for her 2010 TED talk “The Power of Vulnerability,” which, with over 46 million views, has become one of the platform’s five most-viewed talks. In 2019, her filmed lecture The Call to Courage was released on Netflix.

Born Cassandra Brené Brown (November 18, 1965) to Charles Arthur Brown and Cassandra Deanne Rogers, Brown is the eldest of four children. In 1969, her family moved from San Antonio, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana. After brief stints in Houston and Washington, DC, the family eventually moved back to Houston when Brown was in middle school. She is married with two children, and her family is active in the Catholic Church.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Social Work (1995) and a Master of Social Work (1996) from the University of Texas at Austin, and she received her PhD in Social Work from the University of Houston (2002). While at the University of Houston, Brown conducted faculty research focused on organizational leadership, and this research eventually led her to investigate the interconnected relationships between perfection/imperfection and shame/compassion. In 2004, after being unable to find an agent or publisher, Brown raised the capital to self-publish her first book on shame, which was later purchased and republished by Penguin Books as I Thought It Was Just Me (2007).

In 2012, Brown founded The Daring Way, a training and certificate program for social workers interested in facilitating work on vulnerability, courage, shame, and empathy. Four years later, the Huffington Foundation awarded $2 million to fund an Endowed Chair at the University of Houston to support the work of students interested in expanding Brown’s research. Brown is currently a research professor at the University of Houston and also serves as a visiting professor at the Business School of Management at the University of Texas at Austin.