Aurea offers mental health tips for students after 5-star reviews

A University College Birmingham graduate has urged students and young people to talk about mental health and make their voices heard after writing a book about her journey overcoming challenging life experiences.

Aurea Reis penned and published her book, Healing Letters, following conversations with a therapist to help her confront and recover from a number of painful trials in her past.

Initially developed as a series of letters addressing people in her life, Aurea's book explores a range of difficult and deeply personal themes based on her own experiences, from being abused as a child to narcissistic relationships and post-partum depression.

For Aurea, who completed a Tourism Business Management BA (Hons) degree at University College Birmingham eight years ago, the book was not only the realisation of a personal ambition to become an author, but also the opportunity to help both herself and others deal with the weight of past trauma.

"I had always wanted to write a book from a young age," she said. "One day, I woke up and I knew those letters would be my book.

"When I decided to write the book, I stripped myself of all the shame, judgement and fear, and I just wrote everything down.

"I wrote it for myself in the beginning, but then I thought: 'I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gone through these things'. If my book could help people going through the same trials who want to achieve healing, it was going to be worth it."

Published one year ago this week, the book has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews in its first 12 months with Aurea receiving praise and support from dozens of readers, many of whom revealed they had struggled with similar past experiences – including a friend from her childhood.

"Most of the things I wrote in the book, this person had gone through as well," said Aurea. "They asked if I could call them as they would love to have a conversation, so I did.

"In that moment for me, I thought it was all worth it – all the pain writing the book, going back through that thought process, publishing it... Even if no-one else came to me or gave me a review, the fact this one person reached out to me and opened their heart made me feel honoured. That was one of my proudest moments."