A quick note on how psychoeducational books can support (but sometimes distract us from) our healing

Psychoeducational books can provide us with a critical resource for learning about how our brains work and making sense of our experiences. They can validate us and make us feel more understood in a world that is constantly telling us that there is something “wrong” with us. Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of books that I recommend to many of my clients to assist in their healing and understanding of themselves. 

I offer this psychoeducational book recommendation list with an important caveat: though there is a time and place for educating yourself about how your trauma and other experiences have impacted you, it can be a way to continue to dissociate from your feelings and experiences and keep you stuck in the intellectualization of “why” you’re feeling so terrible.

If you’re finding that you’re obsessing on and immersing yourself in reading countless books about trauma, self-help, and the like – this is your permission slip to take a break. 

As an alternative, spend time getting out of your head, dropping into your body, and finding something that you enjoy because learning to find JOY in your day-to-day can literally help to rewire your sweet, little traumatized brain.

Without further ado, here are my favorite book recommendations: 

PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL BOOKS ON TRAUMA

• Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker
• What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
• Dissociation Made Simple by Jamie Marich, PhD
• What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel A. van der Kolk
• A Practical Guide to Complex PTSD: Compassionate Strategies to Begin Healing from Childhood Trauma by Arielle Schwartz, PhD
• Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson PsyD
• No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model by Richard Schwartz PhD
• Anchored by Deb Dana

PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL BOOKS ON ADHD AND/OR NEURODIVERSITY

• Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg
• Women with Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life by Sari Solden
• ADHD 2.0 by Edward M. Hallowell M.D., John J. Ratey M.D., et al.
• Allow Me to Interrupt: A Psychologist Reveals the Emotional Truth Behind Women’s ADHD by Gilly Kahn Ph.D.
• A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD: Embrace Neurodiversity, Live Boldly, and Break Through Barriers by Sari Solden MS, Michelle Frank PsyD
• Taking Charge of Adult ADHD, Second Edition: Proven Strategies to Succeed at Work, at Home, and in Relationships by Russell A. Barkley PhD, Christine M. Benton
• Unmasking Autism by Devon Price PhD

PARENTING/GENERAL SELF-HELP

• The Power of Showing Up by Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
• Raising Securely Attached Kids: Using Connection-Focused Parenting to Create Confidence, Empathy, and Resilience by Eli Harwood 
• Fair Play by Eve Rodsky 
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love by Sarah Blondin
• How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

What books do you recommend or are favorites? Share in the comments.

With love,

Avery