hey everyone i love to read and learn more about how to treat trauma and ptsd
so i thought i'd share my favorite books about recovering from trauma and ptsd
before we jump into my favorite books about ptsd i'd like to thank our sponsor
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off your first month of professional counseling with better help okay so here is my favorite ptsd
book it's healing trauma by peter levine now i often don't have a copy of this to show i'm
i just bought this new one because i'm constantly giving this book to people and then buying another
anyway it's an awesome book it explains how trauma gets trapped in the body and how you can process
through it and heal it's also a really short read it's got gentle examples and some easy exercises
it's my number one because it's very accessible it's very easy to read it's not very triggering
and it comes with a cd uh with exercises to help you start healing your relationship with your body
okay oh and then there's another book by peter levine that i also love
um number two is the body keeps the score by bessel vander coke so dr vanderkok has done just
tons of research on effective treatments for ptsd and trauma and in this dense book he outlines how
trauma impacts the brain the mind and body bessel explains what effective treatments are available
and it gives some clear insights into actions that both individuals and society as a whole can do
to prevent and treat trauma his book includes a lot of detailed stories that
could be quite triggering this book has spent 74 weeks on amazon's top 20 non-fiction books
i'm just happy that there's a trauma book in the top 20 and there's a good reason
why it has been it's just a really good really comprehensive approach to understanding trauma
okay number three the transformation by dr james gordon um he's a compassionate doctor
who understands the biological and medical aspect of trauma treatment but he also understands the
importance of dancing and laughing and pets as part of healing so this book is a really
holistic approach to treating the body and mind and heart after trauma
okay number four moving beyond trauma by eileen smith i like the combination
of clinical experience treating trauma using somatic experiencing approach and the personal
story of how the author personally used somatic experiencing therapy to heal from trauma and
become more resilient i would say this book is not very triggering and includes some really
practical exercises that you can use so it's another it's another good book that i recommend
okay uh number five uh getting past your past by francine shapiro um she is the founder of emdr
and this book walks you through the fundamentals of how trauma changes you
and how you can get your life back it includes a lot of personal stories and
also a lot of practical exercises and i would say this book is probably moderately triggering
um yeah so getting past your past it's a little bit more of a dense book so i don't recommend it
as often to my clients but it's got like if you like really diving in it's a great book
okay so now i'm going to share some memoirs that i found inspiring um because personal stories
of working through trauma i think are really powerful so number six is i know why the caged
bird sings by maya angelou my clinical director my clinical director gave me this book and i loved it
it really beautifully describes the pain and joy and also healing by the amazing author and poet
maya angelou she faces the really painful moments in her childhood head-on but also with grace is
definitely triggering if you have a history of sexual abuse um but it's a wonderful read
number seven man search for meaning uh this copy has been around hiking in the desert with me for
a long time i've shared it with a lot of a lot of kids a lot of teenagers and this is a classic
right victor frankel he says when we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to
change ourselves and this book tells the story of viktor frankl's experience in auschwitz during the
holocaust uh he survived the concentration camps and came out believing in man's ability to choose
their attitude and man's ability to overcome horrific experiences through a purposeful life
okay number eight i don't have it i think i gave it away is my story by elizabeth smart
so elizabeth smart was kidnapped and sexually abused for months at the age of 13. and in this
uh book i mean it's definitely triggering but it's also uplifting she shares the powerful account
of her trauma and healing so i really like that because um he's very vulnerable but very real okay
i've got a couple honorable mentions these are on my reading list but i haven't gotten to them yet
so i've heard nothing but good about this book by pete walker's cptsd from surviving to thriving
everyone tells me that this book explains cptsd better than any other so cptsd is when
you've been chronically abused as a child or experienced ongoing abuse that really
affected your development i just haven't gotten to it yet it's it's next up on my reading list
but i've heard great things about it number 10 is another book that's on my reading list uh
what happened to you by oprah it's a bestseller i haven't read it yet but it's another one that
comes highly recommended so oprah winfrey and dr bruce perry they share personal stories
interviews and scientific insight into how trauma impacts you and the healing
process okay i hope this is helpful thank you for watching and take care
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