You can name where it started. Your body still reacts first.
The flinch before you've had a thought. The guilt when you say no. Keyed up for no reason, or shut down when you should feel something. For a lot of people that traces back to childhood, and to a nervous system that learned its settings early.
Most resources cover one half of this: what happened, or what the body does now. This library covers both. Twenty-six books, from the family patterns and childhood adversity behind the reaction, to the parts of you that carry it, to the nervous system work that gives the body something different to practice.
What's inside
Where it started: childhood, family and inheritance
- It Didn't Start with You — Mark Wolynn on inherited family trauma and how to end the cycle
- The Deepest Well — Nadine Burke Harris on the long-term effects of childhood adversity
- Childhood Disrupted — Donna Jackson Nakazawa on how biography becomes biology
- What Happened to You? — Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
- The Myth of Normal — Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté on trauma, illness and healing
- Running on Empty No More — Jonice Webb on childhood emotional neglect
- Disentangling from Emotionally Immature People — Lindsay C. Gibson
- Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson
- The Power of Attachment — Diane Poole Heller
- Break the Cycle — Dr. Mariel Buqué on intergenerational trauma
- Reparenting the Inner Child — Dr. Nicole LePera
- The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Recovery Workbook
The parts of you that carry it
- Transcending Trauma — Frank G. Anderson on complex PTSD and Internal Family Systems
- Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual — Anderson, Sweezy and Schwartz
- Internal Family Systems Therapy, 2nd Edition — Richard C. Schwartz and Martha Sweezy
- No Bad Parts — Richard C. Schwartz
- Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors — Janina Fisher
- What My Bones Know — Stephanie Foo's memoir of healing from complex trauma
- Complex PTSD Workbook — exercises for regaining emotional control
The body and the nervous system
- The Body Keeps the Score — the foundational text on how trauma lives in the body
- Our Polyvagal World — Stephen W. Porges on safety and trauma
- The Polyvagal Theory Workbook for Trauma — body-based activities to regulate and rebalance
- Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve — Stanley Rosenberg's self-help exercises
- Burnout — Emily and Amelia Nagoski on completing the stress cycle
- The Biology of Trauma — Dr. Aimie Apigian
- Heal Your Nervous System — Dr. Linnea Passaler's staged plan for chronic stress
This isn't a replacement for therapy, and nothing here diagnoses you. It's a set of tools for the work you do between sessions, or on your own.
26 books. One library. Instant download.
