Our Trauma Reading List
We always get asked about recommendations for books on trauma, so we are sharing a few of our go-to favourites on the topics of trauma and mental health.
Conversations with a Rattlesnake by Theo Fleury and Kim Barthel: “Theo Fleury joins world-renowned therapist Kim Barthel in his new book Conversations with a Rattlesnake. With raw and honest conversations, Fleury inspires his readers with his personal insights, triumphs, mistakes, and journey in healing. Kim Barthel’s in-depth explanation of how early childhood attachment and addiction plays a significant role in our behaviours sheds light on the power of relationships and self-awareness. Barthel’s scientific and psychological research combined with Fleury’s personal experiences provides a unique dialogue that is both entertaining and transformational.”
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk: “In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.”
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate: “In The Myth of Normal, co-written with his son Daniel, Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society, and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing.”
No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz: “Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment—and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives.”
When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate: “When the Body Says No is an impressive contribution to research on the physiological connection between life's stresses and emotions and the body systems governing nerves, immune apparatus and hormones. With great compassion and erudition, Gabor Maté demystifies medical science and, as he did in Scattered Minds, invites us all to be our own health advocates.”
It Didn’t Start with You by Mark Wolynn: “As a pioneer in the field of inherited family trauma, Mark Wolynn has worked with individuals and groups on a therapeutic level for over twenty years. It Didn’t Start with You offers a pragmatic and prescriptive guide to his method, the Core Language Approach. Diagnostic self-inventories provide a way to uncover the fears and anxieties conveyed through everyday words, behaviors, and physical symptoms.”
What Happened To You? By Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey: “When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?””
Getting Past Your Past by Francine Shapiro: “Shapiro, the creator of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), explains how our personalities develop and why we become trapped into feeling, believing and acting in ways that don't serve us. Through detailed examples and exercises readers will learn to understand themselves, and why the people in their lives act the way they do.”