Welcome to my author website - camilleblock.cc! I recently wrote a book that is very close to my heart. It is my hope that through the backdrop of my life experiences with my severely disabled (but amazing) brother, that you will see the connection with your unique situation - one in which you also may be walking alongside someone with an illness, disability or a life-limiting condition that seems unfixable. And, as a result, you carry a heavy emotional weight because when they suffer, you suffer.
My name is Camille Block, and I’m a sister, conservator, and advocate for my brother Kevin who was born with cerebral palsy quadriplegia. I’m also the author of Hope for Secondhand Suffering™: Tools for the Heart When You Can’t Fix Your Loved One’s Pain, which was released August 17, 2024 and available worldwide, wherever books are sold.
Through personal anecdotes, practical tips, honest musings and spiritual reflections, I hope to encourage you on your own journey towards hope on this topic that goes often undiscussed.
I invite you to enter the conversation about the unique plight of "secondhand sufferers" by taking a look around my social media pages (link at the bottom of the website), signing up for a non-invasive email list (I have no plans to bug you with a lot of emails) and please consider purchasing a book for you and/or a friend. It means so much to me that you are here.
What is Secondhand Suffering™?
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Discover deeper sources of comfort, hope, and purpose while enduring hardship.
We have all felt the effects of emotional pain when seeing someone’s trauma first-hand. Whether on the news or in our day-to-day lives, witnessing pain takes its toll on our hearts. For those in the trenches with loved ones experiencing deep pain, Secondhand Suffering™ is the silent anguish, the heavy emotional burden that grips our hearts.
Characterized by an overwhelming sense of helplessness and hopelessness, this often invisible heartache is felt when someone we’re close to suffers an illness, disability, or a life-limiting condition we can’t fix. Being riddled with guilt for appearing “just fine” when a loved one is visibly not can wear us down, especially when our secondary pain goes unnoticed and undiscussed.
In this book, Camille Block shares heartfelt reflections on her life as the sister of a brother with cerebral palsy quadriplegia. Her relatable journey invites us to find our own purpose in the midst of enduring emotional pain. We can discover an empathy that transforms us, a hope that renews us, and a curiosity that frees us. Through the lens of experience, Camille takes us on her journey, offering practical tips and spiritual reflections on some of life's toughest questions.
About the Author
Camille Block was raised in a suburb outside of Los Angeles, over the mountain from beautiful Malibu, where her father worked as a college professor of business at Pepperdine University. At three and a half years old, Camille’s comfortable life took a dramatic turn with the birth of her brother—a healthy baby who lost oxygen at birth, causing a lifelong disability for him and a character-forming emotional imprint on her.
Camille progressed through her “normal” life with a dull, empathetic ache in her soul for her brother, who was living a very different life than she. Setting out to slay the religious pat answers of well-meaning people and challenge the vacuous worldly musings that left her unsatisfied, she has spent her life on a journey diving beneath the surface, seeking an antidote for her invisible suffering spurred on by her brother’s plight.
Finding a voice for her brother, Camille has also uncovered her voice for many other silent sufferers. Hope for Secondhand Suffering: Tools for the Heart When You Can’t Fix Your Loved One’s Pain is a memoir and spiritual journey of a sister who wrestles honestly with universal cries of the heart, such as the question of why, along with grief, justice, faith, God, and hope. She comes alongside readers, step by step, offering personal anecdotes, honest insights, practical tips, and her own spiritual reflections to help others facing similar struggles.
Through the publication of Hope for Secondhand Suffering, Camille seeks to help silent sufferers feel seen, heard, and known—equipping them to find their unique purpose, as she continues to find hers.
Previous publications include Camille’s debut article in Grown & Flown, My Daughter is Now a Wife and This Goodbye is the Hardest, and numerous articles on LinkedIn related to career transition tips, transformation, and using the Enneagram in a job search.
Holding a BA in social science with a business management minor from Pepperdine University, Camille has had a full career in business, marriage, and motherhood. As an empty nester with three adult children - Madeline, Abigail and Oliver - she is married to her husband of 34 years and works part time as an executive career transition coach in her own business. In addition to spending significant time advocating for her special needs brother, Kevin, she enjoys sipping lattes in a real mug, engaging in deep talks with friends, walking on Malibu beach on a sunny day and playing games when her kids come to visit. And she is beginning to explore new hobbies in gardening and beekeeping.
Endorsements
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Interviews & Podcasts
Some Snapshots of My Brother Kevin and Family
