My Top 3 Books for Trauma Survivors from a Los Angeles Trauma Therapist for Women
TLDR: While evidence-based therapies with a therapist specializing in trauma are the most helpful way to heal from trauma, books can be an important part of a trauma survivor’s healing. Memoirs and personal stories offer deeply relatable content and perspective, and a scientific understanding of the impact of trauma and strategies to heal can be empowering and informative. But not all books are created equal. Here are my favorite books I recommend to clients as a therapist specializing in women’s trauma.
As a therapist specializing in women’s trauma (inclusive of trans women and femmes), clients often ask me for book recommendations to supplement their therapy. Women, nonbinary, and trans folks are much more likely to experience trauma and complex trauma (repeated, chronic traumas like child abuse or relationship abuse). Books can be a powerful way to gain perspective, knowledge, and validation through the sharing of information and the stories of other survivors.
Whether you check these out from the library, buy them (hopefully from an independent bookstore), or listen to them as audiobooks, here are my top 3 books I recommend for trauma survivors.
Top Recommended Books on Trauma and PTSD (including complex trauma and cPTSD)
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
This powerful book is by far the one that resonates with my clients the most. It blends compelling and personal memoir with research to tell the story of the author’s journey to survive and heal from complex and intergenerational trauma.
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry
This book combines personal stories from Oprah and scientific perspectives from Perry to explore how early childhood trauma affects our brains, and therefore, how we move through the world as adults. The title comes from the authors’ desire to shift the question from “what’s wrong with you/me” to a more compassionate and healing-forward “what happened?”
It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn
This book explores how intergenerational trauma (trauma that happens across generations in a family) can impact well-being across generations. It includes tools to break the cycle of trauma being passed down in families by helping the reader learn to identify harmful patterns and replace them with healthier and more effective ways of coping and moving through life.
What I Didn’t Include and Why…
You might notice I didn’t include the popular book, The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. This is for two reasons. One, it’s dense and not all that reader friendly. Two, and more importantly, it has been fairly criticized for perpetuating anti-fatness, specifically the idea that fatness is a response to trauma and is a way for survivors to protect themselves from further trauma by becoming less attractive. This is harmful and not supported by science and therefore I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to either trauma survivors or women, both of whom have already received way too many harmful messages about their bodies.
A Word on Fat Trauma…
Fat trauma is a term used to describe the overall traumatic experience of people in larger bodies surviving in a culture that is spending over a billion dollars trying to eradicate fat bodies. It includes being given subpar, delayed, and denied healthcare, harassment, harm from healthcare professionals (including therapists), being paid less, being denied access to traveling or any activity you want to do, and the constant message that your body is bad, wrong, and unsafe. If you have experienced trauma like this, which can feel like death by a thousand papercuts (microaggressions) or bigger traumas (like having medical trauma as a result of being denied healthcare), please check out my post “My Favorite Resources to Improve Body Image and Fight Weight Stigma.”
Start Therapy For Trauma in Los Angeles:
If you have experienced trauma and have been trying to move on, but still feel haunted by the past, you are not alone. Most women just try to tough it out and focus on other things, but find that they are surviving, rather than thriving. Trauma has a lasting impact on all areas of your life, but it doesn’t have to and treatment is available. Start by following these steps:
Reach out for a consultation at Well Woman Psychology.
Meet with a therapist specializing in trauma and PTSD
Learn to shift out of survival mode and start to thrive as your best self, healing old wounds for good.
About the Author:
Dr. Linda Baggett is the licensed psychologist behind Well Woman Psychology, a trauma-focused therapy practice focused on serving women in California,Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington. Dr. Baggett has specialized in treating women’s trauma and PTSD her entire career, including complex trauma and PTSD, sexual trauma, abusive relationships, and fat trauma. She is also certified in several evidence-based PTSD treatments including EMDR. She also helps clients with relationship issues,pregnancy loss and miscarriage, infertility, body image,perimenopause and menopause,perinatal andpostpartum struggles.
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational and informational purposes only, is not a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice, and does not constitute a client-therapist relationship.