As I drove and completed my errand, I felt a surge of enlivenment from feeling the change of the seasons.

I’ve always loved Fall. 

I loved (and still love) school and anything related to learning. 

And don’t even get me started on my obsession with great office supplies!

Fall to me is a time of fresh starts and a time of the mind – losing myself in new books, and new subjects, and feeling the pleasant fatigue in my brain after learning hard things.

When the weather changes and Labor Day is in the rearview mirror, some people want pumpkin spice lattes and to break out their Ugg boots.

I want a package of Audible credits and a brand new Moleskine for my journaling…

So in honor of Fall and this season of learning and expanding our intellectual horizons, I wanted to make today’s post less an essay than a list.

A list of curated books that I dearly love.

These books have helped me enormously over the last 20 years on my own relational trauma recovery journey.

I’ve arranged this list by topic area, much like aisles in a bookstore, so that you can browse and see what interests you based on your own personal history. 

If you can find even one pen and paper friend from this list, one work that makes you feel less alone and imbues you with a little more hope, more knowledge, and helpful tools, that will make me so happy.

So please, peruse the reading list for trauma recovery. And, if you don’t mind, in the comments of today’s post, please let me know what books you might add to this list that have been so helpful in your own relational trauma recovery journey.

This little website gets about 25,000 visitors per month so your contribution and comment might point someone in the right direction to a resource that helps them enormously. 

So thank you in advance for generously sharing.

Happy Fall and please take such good care of yourself. 

You’re so worth it. 

Warmly, Annie

 

A Reading List To Support Your Relational Trauma Recovery Journey

Top trauma books to explain the biological impact of childhood trauma:

• The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, And Body In The Healing Of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, MD. This book is a classic for clinicians interested in helping our clients heal from traumatic experiences. Like other books mentioned on the list, this may be denser reading. But it’s excellent if you want a comprehensive view of what trauma can look like.