Recommended reading

Some survivors of childhood trauma and child abuse who we have supported have found the following books helpful.

  • 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 

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

A Survivor Story (Marilyn Van Derbur)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALEfE3rNCqI
https://people.com/archive/cover-story-the-darkest-secret-vol-35-no-22/

It’s Time to Talk about Psychological and Verbal Abuse (Lizzy Glazer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqi9whHeKM

The Courage to Leave (Norah Casey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0hij-L5c-A

Being an Abandoned Child (Brendan Maguire)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5esbGTh67M

Educated: A Memoir (Tara Westover, Random House, 2018)
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/20/587244230/memoirist-retraces-her-journey-from-survivalist-childhood-to-cambridge-ph-d

`The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma’ (Junot Diaz, 2018)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/the-silence-the-legacy-of-childhood-trauma

Trauma is irreversible. How it shapes us is our choice (Sasha Joseph Neulinger)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_WL5iqvPlY

Breaking the Silence about Childhood Trauma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NkZO3_h7vI

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).

`Why many people don’t talk about traumatic events until long after they occur’
https://theconversation.com/why-many-people-dont-talk-about-traumatic-events-until-long-after-they-occur-63248

Can Abuse Feel Good? (on the traps which maintain abusive relationships)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vhOAk5T3qA

`Attacks on the credibility of abuse survivors are not justified by research’, Michael Salter 2017
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/02/attacks-on-the-credibility-of-abuse-survivors-are-not-justified-by-research

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal,
Donna Jackson Nakazawa (Atria, New York, 2016)

CPTSD: Four Discoveries That Are Revolutionizing Treatment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N6tbUS5EYU

`Why Therapy Works’ Louis Cozolino
https://www.thescienceofpsychotherapy.com/why-therapy-works/

Why Therapy Works: a talk by Robin Shapiro (focuses on complex interpersonal trauma) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C5s3z48_Qw

The Crappy Childhood Fairy
https://crappychildhoodfairy.com/

Childhood PTSD and Loneliness — How to Begin Healing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rahZm8zDz_c

Ambivalent Goddesses: Recovering from Sexual Trauma
https://ambivalentgoddesses.com/

http://www.missamericabyday.com/
`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)
https://www.acesconnection.com/blog/more-resilience-discussion

`Four Myths We Used To Believe About the Effects of Childhood Trauma’
https://crappychildhoodfairy.com/2018/10/19/four-myths-we-used-to-believe-about-the-effects-of-childhood-trauma/?fbclid=IwAR0ZjzniYNp0_wj7sip-QcPfU5ITqFNpHwn3Gkt3qsF8J1Ioqvpfm04l-zM

`Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Developmental Trauma’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cjrOA0DNhY
(Janina Fisher on how childhood stress sculpts the brain and the need for repair)

`An Online Educational Program for Individuals with Dissociative Disorders and Their Clinicians: 1-Year and 2-Year Follow-Up’, Bethany Brand. et al Journal of

Traumatic Stress (January 2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jts.22370

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)

Helpful links - Supporters

The Significant Other’s Guild to Dissociative Identity Disorder
http://www.toddlertime.com/dx/did/did-guild.htm (US based)

Supporting Plurals by Jim Bunkelman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhdrzdj7aeE

Our Daughter Has DID
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLSYPc_k8c

Friends With Someone With DID
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1_W59yZlRc

Supporting Someone Who Has Been Raped or Sexually Assaulted
http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/articles/supporting-someone-who-has-been-raped-or-sexually-assaulted/

When Your Partner was Sexually Abused as a Child: A Guide for Partners
http://www.ksacc.ca/docs/when_your_partner_was_sexually_abused_as_a_child.pdf?LanguageID=EN-US

The risk of rescuing: pitfalls and promises in supporting dissociative
survivors (PODS):
https://information.pods-online.org.uk/the-risk-of-rescuing-pitfalls-and-promises-in-supporting-dissociative-survivors/