6 Book Recommendations from A Trauma Therapist - for both Clinicians and Clients

As a trauma therapist, these are the 6 books that changed the way I view trauma recovery, and the way in which I navigate care for my clients as a therapist. I deeply respect each of the voices that crafted these books, and often weave the way they have impacted me through my work with trauma, the body, and relationship.

I also think these books can be wonderful support for if you are a client wanting to further explore and understand your healing trajectory in-between your therapy sessions and your own trauma work. In all 6 of these books, while reading them, there's often that moment where you find yourself exhaling, as you see an aspect of yourself or your experience on the page.

Here are my 6 book recommendations for clients and therapists alike:

1. Both Know My Name by Chanel Miller and What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo are the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read. The prose is gorgeous, and each author’s personal account of healing from trauma is poignantly visceral. Their voices are important and invaluable in the collective effort to understand the impacts of traumatic experiences, post traumatic stress, recovery, and post traumatic resilience. Chanel writes a moving personal account of sexual assault and subsequently navigating the (in)justice system as a survivor, and Stephanie writes a profound personal account of complex trauma and intergenerational trauma, that weaves in her experience as an immigrant and woman of color.

2. My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem is my recommendation for any therapist, healthcare provider or those working in activism and advocacy. I especially recommend this book for those living in white bodies, to support further exploration and awareness of intentionally navigating privilege in these spaces. Resmaa's book centers the body, which I think is a crucial and inextricable lens when it comes to social justice work, and trauma healing. Resmaa introduces the concept of somatic abolitionism, an embodied anti-racist practice, and offers tangible practices in the book.

3. Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski isn’t just my recommendation for survivors of sexual trauma or purity culture, but for anyone who experiences apprehension around sex or discomfort/confusion in the body that is the vessel for these experiences. I recommend it for cis women who want to understand their bodies better in terms of sex, but also for men in heteronormative relationship who want to understand their partner’s experience, as well as the common dynamics between partners when it comes to desire and arousal. Emily normalizes all of it, while supporting a nuanced understanding.

4. Polysecure by Jessica Fern is the book I recommend to all clients exploring alternative relationship structures and non-monogamy, but also to any clients with attachment trauma. I don’t think this is a book just for Poly people; I think monogamous folks benefit profoundly from understanding attachment through the lens Jessica offers. Exploring and understanding attachment is an endeavor I think all of us benefit from embarking on, regardless of our relationship structure. It has changed my approach to navigating couples therapy across the board, with both my monogamous and non-monogamous couples.

5. Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson may be the book that I’ve recommended most to clients, especially when ACEs don’t feel clear cut. It often clarifies the experience of growing up with an emotionally inaccessible parent, or the experience of a parentified child. It helps us understand the impacts of being raised by an emotionally immature, inattentive or inaccessible parent, and how those impacts might manifest in adulthood. It also gives us examples of ways to navigate this in adulthood, in terms of developing autonomy, discernment and boundaries you may have not had the chance to develop in childhood.

Happy Reading,

Candice Craft, LMFT