While there are many courses and tutorials online, learning from a book is still one of the best ways to greatly improve your skills. Below I have selected top Trauma books.
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2015)
- Trauma Treatment Toolbox: 165 Brain-Changing Tips, Tools & Handouts to Move Therapy Forward (2019)
- Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship (2012)
- Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom (2016)
- Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others (2009)
- Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (2011)
- Attachment: 60 Trauma-Informed Assessment and Treatment Interventions Across the Lifespan (2018)
- Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (2015)
- Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors (2017)
- 101 Trauma-Informed Interventions: Activities, Exercises and Assignments to Move the Client and Therapy Forward (2013)
- Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma (2013)
- Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body (2011)
- Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Women’s Workbook (2000)
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2015)
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors.
Trauma Treatment Toolbox: 165 Brain-Changing Tips, Tools & Handouts to Move Therapy Forward (2019)
The latest research from neuroscience and psychotherapy has shown we can rewire the brain to facilitate trauma recovery.Trauma Treatment Toolbox teaches clinicians how to take that brain-based approach to trauma therapy, showing how to effectively heal clients’ brain with straightforward, easy-to-implement treatment techniques. Each tool includes a short list of post trauma symptoms, relevant research, application, and clinician tips on how to complete the exercise.
Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship (2012)
Written for those working to heal developmental trauma and seeking new tools for self-awareness and growth, this book focuses on conflicts surrounding the capacity for connection.
Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom (2016)
Winner of the 2017 Association of American Publishers Golden Lamp Judges award.In this galvanizing book for all educators, Kristin Souers and Pete Hall explore an urgent and growing issue—childhood trauma—and its profound effect on learning and teaching.Grounded in research and the authors’ experience working with trauma-affected students and their teachers, Fostering Resilient Learners will help you cultivate a trauma-sensitive learning environment for students across all content ar…
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others (2009)
A longtime trauma worker, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky offers a deep and empathetic survey of the often-unrecognized toll taken on those working to make the world a better place. We may feel tired, cynical, or numb or like we can never do enough. These, and other symptoms, affect us individually and collectively, sapping the energy and effectiveness we so desperately need if we are to benefit humankind, other living things, and the planet itself.
Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (2011)
Winner of the 2011 International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) Pierre Janet Writing Award.A patient-oriented manual for complex trauma survivors.
Attachment: 60 Trauma-Informed Assessment and Treatment Interventions Across the Lifespan (2018)
In a society that values independence, self-preservation and individualistic thinking, we are missing the key to fulfillment: Simple, is the way that we connect to each other. Without attachment, people feel alone to deal with challenges they face, which leads to distress, dysfunction and mental health disorders.
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (2015)
Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war.
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors (2017)
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes “resolution”―a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance.
101 Trauma-Informed Interventions: Activities, Exercises and Assignments to Move the Client and Therapy Forward (2013)
This is the workbook that all mental health professionals wish they had at the beginning of their careers. Containing to effectively deal with trauma, this workbook pulls together a wide array of treatments into one concise resource.
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma (2013)
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A GUIDE AND MAP FOR RECOVERING FROM CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body (2011)
Survivors of trauma—whether abuse, accidents, or war—can end up profoundly wounded, betrayed by their bodies that failed to get them to safety and that are a source of pain. In order to fully heal from trauma, a connection must be made with oneself, including one’s body.
Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Women’s Workbook (2000)
Trauma can turn your world upside down; afterward, nothing may look safe or familiar. And, if you are a woman, studies show that you are twice as likely than your male counterparts to suffer from the effects of a traumatic event sometime during your life. Whether the trauma is physical, sexual, or emotional, these events can overwhelm you, destroying your sense of being in control and altering your attachments to others.
Best Trauma Books Reviewed & Ranked
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some trauma books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Chakra Empowerment for Women: Self-Guided Techniques for Healing Trauma, Owning Your Power & Finding Overall Wellness
Author(s): Lisa Erickson
ID: 2449999, Publisher: Llewellyn Publications, Year: 8 Dec 2019, Size: 4 Mb, Format: epub
My Cat Has Died: What Do I Do?: Making Decisions and Healing The Trauma of Pet Loss
Author(s): Wendy Van de Poll
ID: 2380771, Publisher: Center For Pet Loss Grief, LLC, Year: 27 Aug 2016, Size: 296 Kb, Format: epub
Traumatic Imprints: Performance, Art, Literature and Theoretical Practice
Author(s): Catherine Barrette, Bridget Haylock, and Danielle Mortimer
ID: 2887172, Publisher: Brill, Year: 25 Sep 2020, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are absolutely record-breakers according to Los Angeles Times, others are drafted by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.