- Babette Rothschild: 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery: Take-Charge Strategies to Empower Your Healing (8 Keys to Mental Health)
- Babette Rothschild: The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment, 2000
- Bessel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
- Beverley Engel: It Wasn’t Your Fault: Freeing Yourself from the Shame of Childhood Abuse with the Power of Self-Compassion
- Janina Fisher: Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors
- Alice Miller: The Body Never Lies
- Peter Levine: Waking the Tiger – Healing Trauma
- Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being Linda Graham (CA: New World Library, CA, 2013).
- Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster Linda Graham (CA: New World Library, CA, 2018).
- Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Alison Miller (Routledge, New York, 2018).
- Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists Boon, Steele & van der Hart (Norton, New York, 2011).
- The Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole Arielle Schwartz, Althea Press, CA, 2016.
- Schofield, L. (2021) Our House: Making Sense of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schofield, IL. (2021) Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Guidebook for Survivors and Practitioners
Recommended reading
Some survivors of childhood trauma and child abuse who we have supported have found the following books helpful.
Some sexual abuse survivors have found the following books helpful:
- Ellen Bass & Laura Davis: The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (20th Anniversary edition)
- Mike Lew: Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual Child Abuse
- Daniel Siegel & Marion Solomon: Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain
- Soaring Above the Ashes: Thriving Beyond Childhood Sexual Abuse Emily Samuelson, Otter Bay Books, 2018 (includes clinical information as well as interviews)
Helpful links for survivors
Videos
A Survivor Story (Marilyn Van Derbur)
It’s Time to Talk about Psychological and Verbal Abuse (Lizzy Glazer)
The Courage to Leave (Norah Casey)
Being an Abandoned Child (Brendan Maguire)
Trauma is irreversible. How it shapes us is our choice (Sasha Joseph Neulinger)
Can Abuse Feel Good? (on the traps which maintain abusive relationships)
`Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Developmental Trauma’ (Janina Fisher on how childhood stress sculpts the brain and the need for repair)
CPTSD: Four Discoveries That Are Revolutionizing Treatment
Childhood PTSD and Loneliness — How to Begin Healing
Why Therapy Works: a talk by Robin Shapiro (focuses on complex interpersonal trauma)
Articles and readings
Me: Breaking the Chains of Abuse (Nicole Patton, 2019)
Don’t Expect Me to Cry: Refusing to Let Childhood Sexual Abuse Steal My Life (Janet Bentley, Spotlight Publishing, 2018)
Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal, Donna Jackson Nakazawa (Atria, New York, 2016)
Educated: A Memoir (Tara Westover, Random House, 2018)
`The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma’ (Junot Diaz, 2018)
Breaking the Silence about Childhood Trauma
`Why many people don’t talk about traumatic events until long after they occur’
`Why Therapy Works’ Louis Cozolino
Ambivalent Goddesses: Recovering from Sexual Trauma
Ms America By Day
`The pain of childhood sexual abuse ends…I promise’ Video and resources from one of the first American survivors with celebrity status to speak publicly of her experience
`More Resilience Discussion’ (questions standard readings)
`Four Myths We Used To Believe About the Effects of Childhood Trauma’
Books for Supporters
- Babette Rothschild: 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery: Take-Charge Strategies to Empower Your Healing (8 Keys to Mental Health)
- Babette Rothschild: The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment, 2000
- Bessel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
- Peter Levine: In an Unspoken Voice: How the body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
- Peter Levine: Healing Trauma, A Pioneer Program for Restoring the Wisdom of your Body
- Judith Herman: Trauma and Recovery
When supporting sexual abuse survivors people have found the following books helpful:
- Ellen Bass & Laura Davis: The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (20th Anniversary edition)
- Mike Lew: Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual Child Abuse
Judith Herman: Trauma and Recovery
- If The Man You Love Was Abused: A Couple’s Guide to Healing Marie H. Browne (Adams Media, Mass, 2007).
- The Patchwork Quilt: A book for children about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) J.D. Clark Kindle Direct Publishing, 2019
- Trust After Trauma: A Guide to Relationships for Survivors and Those Who Love Them Aphrodite Matsakis (New Harbinger, Oakland CA, 1998)
- Jim Bunkelman Rhonda’s Story (Loving a Multiple) https://www.mixcloud.com/multiplicity101/2013-11-22-jim-bunkelman-rhondas-story-loving-a-multiple/
- The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship: How to Support Your Partner and Keep Your Relationship Healthy Diane England (Avon, MA, 2009)
- Healing Together: A Couple’s Guide to Coping with Trauma and
Post-Traumatic Stress Suzanne B. Phillips (New Harbinger, Oakland CA, 2008). - Ghosts in the Bedroom: A Guide for Partners of Incest Survivors, Ken Graber (1991)
- Allies in healing: When the person you love was sexually abused as a child, Laura Davis (1992)
