Books to help you heal trauma

Before I become a Confidence Coach a psychologist gave me a list of 35 books to read to help me heal post trauma. Those books didn’t help. In fact many of them were explicit retells of someone else’s trauma which wasn’t helpful for me. Over the years I have dedicated time to learning how to continually become better at dealing with things and keeping myself on the path of constantly healing, especially because with trauma little moments can elicit a trauma response and not the response you know is best at the time.

So here is a list of books I DO recommend. Have a read and tell me what you think!

1. "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk

2. "Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving" by Pete Walker

3. "Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror" by Judith Herman

4. "Walking the Tiger: Healing Trauma" by Peter Levine

5. "Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful" by Katie Davis Majors

6. "The Power of Trauma: Integrative Approaches to Theory, Research, and Practice" edited by Ruth A. Lanius, Eric Vermetten and Clare Pain

7. "In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness" by Peter Levine

8. "The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships" by Bonnie Badenoch

9. "The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD from the Inside Out" by Susan Pease Banitt

10. "The Trauma Recovery Group: A Guide for Practitioners" by MaryJoan Gornick and LindaJ. Turkus.

You may find that you like some of these books and hate others and that is perfectly acceptable. Literature is something that you need to connect with to learn from, don’t spend time focussing on why it didn’t help, put your energy into what sort of read you need to heal. If you know of any books that have helped you please do share below, I’d love to add to my list!