Trauma Books to Read as a Therapist-in-Training

An updated list of trauma resources that your program may not have on their syllabi:

(This is not an exhaustive list, these are only books that I’ve read personally to supplement my own training and found useful / helpful / thought provoking)

Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stores and Strategies by Renee Linklater

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

Collective Trauma, Collective Healing: Promoting Community Resilience in the Aftermath of Disaster by Jack Saul, PhD

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman, MD

Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice by Jennifer Mullan, PhD

Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process by Cathy Malchiodi, PhD

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma by Dr. Mariel Buqué

The Unsayable: The Hidden Language of Trauma by Annie G. Rogers, PhD

The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice by Staci Haines

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others by Connie Burt and Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook by Bruce Perry, MD, PhD, and Maia Szalavitz