REcommended Books

For Clients and Therapists

Check back often as we add books that we find meaningful and helpful as we find them.

We hope you will support your local library and bookstores!

Check out LibroFM to purchase audio books from independent bookstores.

And, of course, you can always use and support your local library for books of all kinds.

CPTSD

For Couples

This memoir tells the experience of the author discovering that she has CPTSD, the events that led to developing CPTSD, and her journey of finding support and care for her efforts of being well and enjoying her relationships. It is a challenging read with moments of humor. Also very informative on CPTSD and how it shows up in someone's life.

This nonfiction book on trauma, resilience and healing makes an important shift from asking "What is wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?" Healing from trauma involves identifying and telling the story of what happened to you...not what is wrong with you. Your story and how you tell is matters.

Unbroken: The Trauma Response is Never Wrong explores trauma responses themselves as not wrong, but survival "skills" used when trauma occurs and then to protect an individual from future trauma. Once shame is removed from the narrative, how can healing move forward?

Neurodivergence

In The Autistic Survival Guide To Therapy, Steph Jones uses her professional and lived experience alongside of her witty insights to explore how therapy can be harmful to people who are autistic when not informed. This book is an invaluable resource for autistic individuals and their therapists.

A memoir about an adult autistic woman navigating being a mother and wife. The author shares memories of her childhood before she knew she was autistic.

EMDR

Fiction/Memoirs

This is the story of ghost writer Lara Love Hardin and her journey of being a mother, how she lost everything to drug addiction, served a prison sentence and then rebuilt a life to become a writer for Desmond Tutu. A story of forgiveness and restoration.

Hold Me Tight is written by the late Sue Johnson, the developer of the couples therapy model, Emotionally Focused Therapy. This book is for partners to read on their own or together if they want to build closer and safer connection in their couple relationship.

You are the One You've Been Waiting For is written by Dr. Richard Schwartz, the founder and developer of the widely used model, Internal Family Systems (IFS). This book uses concepts from IFS to explore how internal wounded parts show up in intimate relationships. A deep dive for

couples wanting to explore how individual experiences affects relationships

From the founders of the couples therapy model, Imago Therapy, Dr. Harville Hendricks explores how individuals are often seeking love from their partner to heal old wounds without realizing it.

On Religious Hurt/Religious questioning

Psychologist Dr. Marlene Winnell explores the trauma experienced by those who leave authoritarian religious groups congregations. It is an in depth guide to the feelings and thoughts that often accompany leaving a high control religious group.

Family Relationships

A book with practical ideas on how to set boundaries with loved one in difficult situations that most people experience throughout life.

No parents are perfect, but this book helps those who grew up with the challenges and pain of having emotionally unskilled parents. Dr. Lindsay Gibson identifies four types of emotionally immature parents. Be prepared to learn some things that you might want to change in yourself, too!

Internal FAmily Studies (IFS)

No Bad Parts explores the concepts of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a well

known approach to working with trauma. It also a model that facilitates self leadership and growth. The author, Dr. Richard Schwartz, offers parts work exercises throughout the book.