The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma: Release Trauma from Your Body, Find Emotional Balance, and Connect with Your Inner Wisdom. Julie Brown Yau, $31.95

There is a piercing epidemic of trauma in the world today. Every few days there are reports of another tragedy, of more lives lost to gun violence, loved ones and family homes lost to floods, hurricanes, or fires. Women have come to speak openly about the trauma of sexual assault, and we are finally talking openly about the trauma inflicted on people of color, on transgender people, and immigrants. But now that this trauma is out in the open, how do we heal?

For years, we’ve understood the connection between trauma and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. But somatic psychology has recently shown that our bodies hold on to trauma, and trauma can manifest in physical symptoms, such as pain, hormone imbalance, sexual dysfunction, and addiction. In addition, we now know that developmental trauma — trauma that emerges when basic childhood needs are not met — can result in profound emotional stress and lead to serious diseases.

Building on this knowledge, this cutting-edge guide offers simple skills for connecting and calming your body, balancing your emotions, and rewiring old patterns of reactivity for better self-regulation. The mind-body approach in this book is designed to guide you away from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma and toward posttraumatic growth. Using these exercises, you’ll learn how to reconnect and relate to your body — and yourself as a whole — in a new and healthy way.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Bessel Van Der Kolk, $25.00

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. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children. 

Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring — specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy — and a way to reclaim lives.

The Body Never Lies: the Lingering Effects of Cruel Parenting. Alice Miller, $22.95

World-renowned psychoanalyst Alice Miller has devoted a lifetime to studying how the cruelties inflicted on us as children cripple us as adults. In this new work, Miller goes further, investigating the long-range consequences of childhood abuse on the body, be it cancer, stroke, or other debilitating illnesses. Using the experiences of her patients along with the biographical stories of literary giants such as Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and Marcel Proust, Miller shows how a child's humiliation, impotence, and bottled rage will manifest itself as adult illness. This is an empowering work that enables readers to come to terms with their repressed emotions and break the cycle of violence. Alice Miller, the Swiss psychoanalyst, is the author of The Drama of the Gifted Child and Prisoners of Childhood.

A Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain. Marilee Strong, $24.00

Mistakenly viewed as suicide attempts or senseless masochism — even by many health professionals — "cutting" is actually a complex means of coping with emotional pain. Marilee Strong explores this hidden epidemic through case studies, startling new research from psychologists, trauma experts, and neuroscientists, and the heartbreaking insights of cutters themselves who range from troubled teenagers to middle-age professionals to grandparents. Strong explains what factors lead to self-mutilation, why cutting helps people manage overwhelming fear and anxiety, and how cutters can heal both their internal and external wounds and break the self-destructive cycle. A Bright Red Scream is a groundbreaking, essential resource for victims of self-mutilation, their families, teachers, doctors, and therapists.

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal. Donna Jackson Nakazawa, $22.99

Your biography becomes your biology. The emotional trauma we suffer as children not only shapes our emotional lives as adults, it also affects our physical health, longevity, and overall wellbeing. Scientists now know on a bio-chemical level exactly how parents’ chronic fights, divorce, death in the family, being bullied or hazed, and growing up with a hypercritical, alcoholic, or mentally ill parent can leave permanent, physical “fingerprints” on our brains. When children encounter sudden or chronic adversity, excessive stress hormones cause powerful changes in the body, altering our body chemistry. The developing immune system and brain react to this chemical barrage by permanently resetting our stress response to “high,” which in turn can have a devastating impact on our mental and physical health.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa shares stories from people who have recognized and overcome their adverse experiences, shows why some children are more immune to stress than others, and explains why women are at particular risk. Groundbreaking in its research, inspiring in its clarity, Childhood Disrupted explains how you can reset your biology — and find ways to heal.

Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence, and Domestic Abuse. Christiane Sanderson, $45.95

Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma is a practical, introductory guide to counselling survivors of child abuse, neglect, rape, sexual violence, sexual trafficking, religious sexual abuse, and domestic abuse. Written in an accessible style, it provides a comprehensive introduction to complex trauma accompanied by advice on how to create a safe environment in which survivors can learn the skills to restore control over trauma symptoms, to aid healing and post traumatic growth. The book covers all of the key principles including: understanding the role of dissociation in complex trauma; the role of attachment; managing flashbacks, panic attacks, nightmares and dissociation; responding to shame and guilt; managing relationships; and the impact of working with complex trauma. It explores how practitioners can work more effectively with trauma, and offers techniques and skills which can easily be integrated into different therapeutic models.

The Courage to Heal: a Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 4th Edition. Laura Davis & Ellen Bass, $31.99

This 20th anniversary edition of The Courage to Heal brings contemporary research and tools to this compassionate classic. Completely revised, updated and expanded, this edition brings personal stories together with clear explanations, practical suggestions and support throughout the healing process.

Many new features include:

• Current research on trauma and the brain
• An overview of powerful new healing tools such as imagery, meditation, and body-centered practices
• Additional stories that reflect a greater diversity of survivor experiences
• A comprehensive, up-to-date resource guide
• Insights from the authors’ experience since the first edition was published

Free From Lies: Discovering Your True Needs. Alice Miller, $28.95

Since the landmark publication of The Drama of the Gifted Child, no one has been more influential than Alice Miller in empowering adults whose lives were maimed emotionally and physically as children. Now Dr. Miller goes even further, presenting groundbreaking theories that enhance communication between therapist and patient and enable the adult to express powerful emotions that have been trapped for years. Practical and perceptive, Miller’s work explains what we can expect from therapy, how we can identify the causes of our own pain, and why subconscious pain, unaddressed for decades, manifests itself later as depression, self-mutilation, primal inadequacy, and chronic loneliness. With its responses to readers’ letters and powerful stories, Free from Lies is the culmination of a life devoted to healing others.

Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale. Rachel Lloyd, $21.00

During her teens, Rachel Lloyd ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. With time, through incredible resilience, and with the help of a local church community, she finally broke free of her pimp and her past and devoted herself to helping other young girls escape "the life."

In Girls Like Us, Lloyd reveals the dark world of commercial sex trafficking in cinematic detail and tells the story of her groundbreaking nonprofit organization: GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. With great humanity, she shares the stories of the girls whose lives GEMS has helped — small victories that have healed her wounds and made her whole. Revelatory, authentic, and brave, Girls Like Us is an unforgettable memoir.

Healing the Trauma of Abuse: a Women's Workbook. Mary Ellen Copeland & Maxine Harris, $42.95

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. If left unaddressed, the resulting psychological trauma can lead you to a wide range of destructive symptoms like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, phobias, personality disorders, flashbacks, emotional numbing, and nightmares. This book offers proven-effective, step-by-step exercises you can use to work through and minimize the consequences of a traumatic event.

Heroes In My Head: a Memoir. Judy Rebick, $22.95

In this riveting memoir, renowned feminist Judy Rebick tells the story of the eleven personalities she developed in order to help her cope with, and survive, childhood sexual abuse. Rebick reveals her moment of discovery: meeting the eleven personalities; uncovering her repressed memories of abuse; and then communicating with each personality in therapy and through a journal — all while she was leading high-profile struggles against a Conservative government.

Heroes In My Head is a fascinating, heartbreaking, but ultimately empowering story. With courage and honesty, Rebick lays bare the public and private battles that have shaped her life.

Invisible Girls: the Truth About Sexual Abuse. Patti Feuereisen, $23.99

A book for teen girls, young women and everyone who cares about them.

It Wasn't Your Fault: Freeing Yourself from the Shame of Childhood Abuse with the Power of Self-Compassion. Beverly Engel, $25.95

Shame is one of the most destructive of human emotions. If you suffered childhood physical or sexual abuse, you may experience such intense feelings of shame that it almost seems to define you as a person. In order to begin healing, it's important for you to know that it wasn't your fault. In this gentle guide, therapist and childhood abuse expert Beverly Engel presents a mindfulness and compassion-based therapeutic approach to help you overcome the debilitating shame that keeps you tied to the past. By following the step-by-step exercises in this book, you'll gain a greater understanding of the root cause of your shame. And by cultivating compassion toward yourself, you will begin to heal and move past your painful experiences.

With this book, you will develop the skills needed to finally put a stop the crippling self-blame that keeps you from moving on and being happy. You'll learn to focus on your strengths, your courage, and your extraordinary ability to survive. Most of all, you'll learn to replace shame with its counter emotion — pride.

Mean Mothers: Overcoming the Legacy of Hurt. Peg Streep, $31.00

Drawn from research and the real-life experiences of adult daughters, Mean Mothers illuminates one of the last cultural taboos: what happens when a woman does not or cannot love her own daughter. This essential volume focuses on the subtle forms of psychological damage inflicted by mothers on their unappreciated daughters — and offers help and support to those women who were forced to suffer a parent’s cruelty and neglect.

Mindfulness Skills for Trauma and PTSD: Practices for Recovery and Resilience. Rachel Goldsmith Turow, $36.95

Trauma touches every life, but the way that we hold our pain makes a difference. Mindfulness Skills for Trauma and PTSD provides user-friendly descriptions of the many facets of traumatic stress alongside evidence-based strategies to manage trauma symptoms and build new strengths. This book is a valuable resource for trauma survivors, health professionals, researchers, mindfulness practitioners, and others seeking new pathways to recovery and resilience. It is normal to feel anxious or depressed after trauma, and to have upsetting thoughts and memories. Instead of fighting our feelings and blaming ourselves for what are actually common responses to trauma, mindfulness practices can help us tolerate and decrease distress, cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others, make wise choices, navigate attention, improve relationships, and relax — capacities that reduce trauma symptoms and advance our overall well-being.

Practicing the small stuff can help us with the big stuff. As we learn to notice our breathing, walking, minor frustrations or daily activities with curiosity and care, we build inner resources to skillfully handle past trauma, as well as current and future challenges. Mindfulness practices can transform self-blame into self-respect and self-compassion. We can also match specific mindfulness skills to particular trauma symptoms. For example, “grounding” with the five senses can help us when we feel overwhelmed or spaced out, and loving-kindness meditation can alleviate self-criticism. With this book, you will explore scientifically supported mindfulness practices, plus “In their own words” sections that illustrate the skills with personal stories demonstrating how mindfulness practices have helped others recover from trauma. “Research highlight” sections showcase fascinating scientific studies that form the basis for the book's approaches. As we practice effective strategies to handle a full range of experiences, we can each find new sources of hope, connection, and peace.

Morningstar: a Warrior's Spirit. Morningstar Mercredi, $19.95

A powerful and moving story of one woman's victory over abuse, poverty, and discrimination to recover her life, her self-esteem and the love of her son. Sexually abused from an early age, by family members and the boyfriends she turned to for consolation, she was promiscuous, alcoholic and a drug user by the time she was thirteen. She had a son when she was seventeen and then married at eighteen. Days and weeks of sobriety were followed by weeks and months of drinking and self-abuse.

Then, when her son was four, things began to change. Morningstar found support, from the community, from her son, and from within herself, to be a good mother, find employment, keep relationships and reconnect with her family. Today, she is a strong and creative member of her community, and eager to tell her story of defeat and ultimate triumph. Honest and self-critical in her descriptions of many attempts and repeated failures, she gives enormous credit to her son, for his constant love, his determination to be honest with her, and his unfailing confidence in her ability to succeed.

The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook: a Guide to Healing, Recovery and Growth, 2nd Edition. Glenn Schiraldi, $29.95

The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook  introduces survivors, loved ones, and helpers to the remarkable range of treatment alternatives and self-management techniques available today to break through the pain and realize recovery and growth.

This updated edition incorporates all-new diagnostics from the DSM-5 and covers the latest treatment techniques and research findings surrounding the optimization of brain health and function, sleep disturbance, new USDA dietary guidelines and the importance of antioxidants, early childhood trauma, treating PTSD and alcoholism, the relationship between PTSD and brain injury, suicide and PTSD, somatic complaints associated with PTSD, and more.

Psychological First Aid for People with Intellectual Disabilities Who Have Experienced Sexual Abuse: a Step-by-Step Programme. Asfke Scharloo, Simone Ebbers & Martine Spijker, $75.00

People with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse, and offering them psychological support at the earliest possible moment greatly increases their ability to cope with the event and return to daily life. This book provides a complete, structured, evidence-based programme for providing this help to survivors of sexual abuse with developmental disabilities, both adults and children.

Step-by-step session plans, as well as comprehensive background information and downloadable worksheets, provide the means by which to offer effective help to clients and recover their feelings of safety and trust. Sessions are also included for helping parents and caregivers to cope with their own reactions and emotions on the discovery of the abuse. Each session is adaptable for the needs of people with severe, moderate and mild intellectual disabilities in order to provide exceptional care to every individual who needs it.

Scared Sick: the Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease. Robin Karr-Morse, with Meredith Wiley, $31.50

The first years of human life are more important than we ever realized. In SCARED SICK, family therapist Robin Karr-Morse connects psychology, neurobiology, endocrinology, immunology, and genetics to demonstrate how chronic fear in infancy and early childhood — when we are most helpless — lies at the root of common diseases in adulthood. Highlighting case studies and cutting-edge scientific findings, Karr-Morse shows how our innate fight-or-flight system can injure us if overworked in the early stages of life. Persistent stress can set the stage for diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, and addiction later in life.

Stolen Tomorrows: Understanding and Treating Women’s Childhood Sexual Abuse. Steven Levenkron, $17.50

Stolen Tomorrows looks at the variety and consequences of women’s childhood sexual abuse. The book encourages women to recognize and seek care for their history of abuse. As well, the book offers therapists empathic insight into the work of helping survivors to heal.

SUPERNORMAL: the Untold Story of Adversity and Resilience. Meg Jay, $36.50

Whether it is the loss of a parent to death or divorce; bullying; alcoholism or drug abuse in the home; mental illness in a parent or a sibling; neglect; emotional, physical or sexual abuse; having a parent in jail; or growing up alongside domestic violence, nearly 75% of us experience adversity by the age of 20. But these experiences are often kept secret, as are our courageous battles to overcome them.

Drawing on nearly two decades of work with clients and students, Jay tells the tale of ordinary people made extraordinary by these all-too-common experiences, everyday superheroes who have made a life out of dodging bullets and leaping over obstacles, even as they hide in plain sight as doctors, artists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, parents, activists, teachers, students and readers. She gives a voice to the supernormals among us as they reveal not only “How do they do it?” but also “How does it feel?”

These powerful stories, and those of public figures from Andre Agassi to Jay Z, will show supernormals they are not alone but are, in fact, in good company. Marvelously researched and compassionately written, this exceptional book narrates the continuing saga that is resilience as it challenges us to consider whether — and how — the good wins out in the end.

Supporting Survivors of Sexual Abuse Through Pregnancy and Childbirth: a Guide for Midwives, Doulas and Other Healthcare Professionals. Kicki Hansard, $38.95

With statistics showing that 1 in 5 women have experienced some form of sexual abuse, it is likely that all birth professionals will support a survivor of such abuse at some point during their career. This book provides practical advice for those supporting these women throughout their pregnancy, labour, and postnatal periods. The impact of past sexual abuse on women during these periods is often underestimated, and this book shows the need for greater compassion and understanding in maternity services regarding this issue. Drawing on a vast range of research and expertise, this book includes details on the identifiable behaviours of survivors, how to respond when someone says they are a survivor, positive stories, and appropriate language to use.

This book is for any care provider who wants to help pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period become a healing experience for those carrying trauma, and to support these survivors with compassion, respect and kindness.

Survivor Moms: Women’s Stories of Birthing, Mothering and Healing after Sexual Abuse. Mickey Sperlich & Julia Seng, $55.95

Sexual abuse and the reactions to it affect mothers' whole lives — from thinking about having children all the way to being grandmothers. These effects are far-reaching and deeply felt. SURVIVOR MOMS shares narrative excerpts from interviews with women who have survived abuse; along with the clinical perspectives of midwives and contributions from other healthcare professionals. Whether you are a survivor, a midwife, a mental health provider, or you know a survivor who is on this path, you will learn from this book about mothering and the ongoing journey of healing and surviving.

Things We Haven't Said: Sexual Violence Survivors Speak Out. Erin Moulton, Editor, $24.99 (ages 14+)

Things We Haven’t Said is a powerful collection of poems, essays, letters, vignettes and interviews written by a diverse group of impressive adults who survived sexual violence as children and adolescents. Structured to incorporate creative writing to engage the reader and informative interviews to dig for context, this anthology is a valuable resource of hope, grit and honest conversation that will help teens tackle the topic of sexual violence, upend stigma and maintain hope for a better future.

Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse: Psychotherapy for the Interrupted Life. Marylene Cloitre, Lisa Cohen & Karestan Koenen, $71.50

Meeting a key need, this book presents a modular adult psychotherapy approach grounded in extensive clinical experience and research. Provided is a flexible, empirically supported framework for helping clients manage symptoms related to past physical or sexual abuse; build emotion regulation and interpersonal skills; and process traumatic memories and their associated feelings of fear, shame, and loss. Session-by-session guidelines include many suggestions for tailoring interventions to each person's needs in the context of a safe, supportive therapeutic environment. Designed in a large, easy-to-use format, the book includes over a dozen reproducible handouts, worksheets, and other tools for clinicians and clients.

The Unsayable: the Hidden Language of Trauma. Annie Rogers, $23.00

In her twenty years as a clinical psychologist, Annie Rogers has learned to understand the silent language of girls who will not—who cannot—speak about devastating sexual trauma. Abuse too painful to put into words does have a language though, a language of coded signs and symptoms that conventional therapy fails to understand. The Unsayable is a book with the power to change the way we think about suffering and self-expression. For those who have experienced psychological trauma, and for those who yearn to help, this brave, compelling book will be a touchstone of lucid understanding and true healing.

When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women. Penny Simkin & Phyllis Klaus, $49.95

When Survivors Give Birth provides survivors and their maternity caregivers with extensive information on the prevalence and short- and long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse, emphasizing its possible impact on childbearing women. Challenges in the client-caregiver relationship are thoroughly portrayed, with much practical advice for improving trust and communication as well as self-help techniques to handle abuse-related distress. Chapters on birth counseling, psychotherapy, and clinical care of survivors make this book a useful resource for survivors and all who work with them.

Women Who Hurt Themselves: a Book of Hope and Understanding. Dusty Miller, $22.99

Dusty Miller is widely recognized as the first expert to identify the roots of "cutting" and other self-injurious behavior in women. These women suffer from a pattern of behavior in which they reenact severe psychological or physical harm done to them as children. In the decade since her work was first published, new research has supported Miller's perspective. In her introduction to this tenth anniversary edition, Miller discusses what self-harming women and abuse survivors have known all along: that self-injury activates endorphins that actually calm the psychic pain of old wounds. She describes the latest treatments geared to this view and offers hope and understanding to the women themselves and to those who care for them.

Written On the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. Edited by Lexie Bean, $26.95

This collection of letters written to body parts weaves together narratives of gender, identity, and abuse. It is the coming together of those who have been fragmented and often met with disbelief. The book holds the concerns and truths that many trans people share while offering space for dialogue and reclamation. Written with intelligence and intimacy, this book is for those who have found power in re-shaping their bodies, families, and lives.