Our specialized trauma therapy team often recommend books to clients as they heal and recover from trauma. Books can be powerful tools for healing trauma because they offer knowledge, validation, and new perspectives that help individuals make sense of their experiences. By providing insights into trauma’s effects and offering coping strategies, books empower readers to take an active role in their recovery, offering comfort and guidance even outside of therapy sessions.
How Bibliotherapy Supports Trauma Recovery
Bibliotherapy helps in several ways beyond offering education and coping strategies:
~ Validation and Connection: Books often provide a sense of being understood and validated, especially when the reader can relate to the stories or insights shared. This helps reduce feelings of isolation and promotes connection to a broader community of people with similar experiences.
~ Perspective Shift: Books can offer new perspectives or ways of understanding trauma, helping individuals reframe their experiences and move toward post-traumatic growth.
~ Empowerment: By learning from others’ stories or therapeutic techniques, individuals gain the tools to feel more empowered in their healing journey, fostering greater self-awareness and resilience.
~ Regulation: Books can also be grounding, offering a calming activity that promotes focus, emotional regulation, and mindfulness, particularly for those dealing with anxiety, PTSD, or overwhelming emotions.
Five Books We Recommend for Trauma Recovery
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores how trauma impacts the brain and body, revealing how past traumatic experiences can manifest in physical and emotional ways. Dr. van der Kolk combines research, clinical insights, and case studies to demonstrate the profound connection between trauma and physiological responses. The book highlights innovative treatments, such as EMDR, neurofeedback, mindfulness, and somatic therapies, that help individuals heal and move forward in their lives.
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey offers an insightful look into how early trauma shapes our lives, behaviors, and relationships. Through a series of conversations, the book emphasizes shifting the question from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”—encouraging empathy and understanding. With personal stories and scientific insights, it provides a compassionate guide to healing and building resilience.
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem delves into the deep-rooted impact of racial trauma on the body, focusing on how it is passed down through generations. Menakem explores how trauma affects not only individuals but also entire communities, offering somatic practices for healing racialized trauma at the personal, familial, and societal levels. The book is a powerful call to acknowledge and heal the embodied effects of racism for true collective change.
It Didn’t Start with You:How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn explores how inherited family trauma can shape our emotional and psychological well-being, even if we are unaware of its origins. Drawing on the science of epigenetics and case studies, Wolynn explains how trauma can be passed down through generations, affecting our relationships, mental health, and life choices. The book offers practical tools to break these generational cycles and begin healing by addressing the root causes of inherited trauma.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine is a groundbreaking approach to healing trauma by focusing on the body’s natural ability to recover. Levine explains how trauma can disrupt the body’s instinctual responses, leading to long-term suffering. Through somatic experiencing techniques, the book teaches how to release trapped energy from traumatic events, empowering individuals to restore their emotional and physical well-being.
About the Author
Sarah Long, PsyD, LCP, CEDS
Dr. Sarah Long is a gifted psychologist with 16+ years of experience helping people to heal from the impacts of traumatic events and recover from eating disorders. Dr. Long leads the Eating Disorder team at Catalyst, provides EMDR, Psychedelic Assisted Therapy. Dr. Long also uses her expertise in Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment to evaluate complex Eating Disorder cases and provide guidance for treatment.
Interested in Learning More?
If you are interested in learning more about trauma recovery and connecting with support, our specialized trauma team is here to help. You are not alone. Call 720-675-7123 or contact us below.
