Helpful Trauma Healing Books
The following are non-fiction books recommended by professionals as well as personal suggestions from people who have walked through the healing process. There are many excellent books, these are just some of them. The keywords connected to these books can lead you to more great resources.
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It’s possible to live the victorious life in Christ no matter how severe your trauma or how devastating your losses. The promises in God’s Word are for you, for today, for right now. By taking a holistic look at our design, Victim to Victorious addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual impact of trauma and how to practically walk in victory as a child of God. If you’re still breathing, God still has a plan for your life; and it’s for the abundant life.
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Samantha Means takes the reader on her most personal journey yet: discovering what it means to be victorious in Christ regardless of your circumstances. Including practical steps, scriptures, scientific research and more, Victim to Victorious provides a foundation to begin living from victory, rather than toward it.
Learning to live victoriously happens one choice at a time. This devotional will guide you through seventy days of step-by-step victorious living, regardless of your circumstances. With personal stories that will take you around the world, from poverty to wealth, trauma to blessed connection, Samantha Means will guide you in living from victory rather than toward victory.
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One day at a time, one question, one application and Bible verse at a time, Samantha Means will assist you on your journey while sharing her own testimonies to bring you encouragement, inspiration and hope. You are not alone, and victory is here.
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Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.
Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
The American Association of Christian Counselors and Tyndale House Publishers are committed to ministering to the spiritual needs of people. This book is part of the professional series that offers counselors the latest techniques, theory, and general information that is vital to their work. While many books have tried to integrate theology and psychology, this book takes another step and explores the importance of the spiritual disciplines in psychotherapy, helping counselors to integrate the biblical principles of forgiveness, redemption, restitution, prayer, and worship into their counseling techniques.
Since its first publication in 1996, this book has quickly become a contemporary classic―a go-to handbook for integrating what we know is true from the disciplines of theology and psychology and how that impacts your daily walk with God. This book will help you integrate spiritual disciplines―such as prayer, Scripture reading, confession―into your own life and into counseling others.
First published in 1989, Dan Allender's The Wounded Heart has helped hundreds of thousands of people come to terms with sexual abuse in their past. Now, more than twenty-five years later, Allender has written a brand-new book on the subject that takes into account recent discoveries about the lasting physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual ramifications of sexual abuse.
With great compassion Allender offers hope for victims of rape, date rape, incest, molestation, sexting, sexual bullying, unwanted advances, pornography, and more, exposing the raw wounds that are left behind and clearing the path toward wholeness and healing. Never minimizing victims' pain or offering pat spiritual answers that don't truly address the problem, he instead calls evil evil and lights the way to renewed joy.
Counselors, pastors, and friends of those who have suffered sexual harm will find in this book the deep spiritual guidance they need to effectively minister to the sexually broken around them. Victims themselves will find here a sympathetic friend to walk alongside them on the road to healing.
We're all infected with a spiritual disease. Its name is shame.
Whether we realize it or not, shame affects every aspect of our personal lives and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ, replacing it with a damaged version of ourselves that results in unhealed pain and brokenness. But God is telling a different story for your life.
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Psychiatrist Curt Thompson unpacks the soul of shame, revealing its ubiquitous nature and neurobiological roots. He also provides the theological and practical tools necessary to dismantle shame, based on years of researching its damaging effects and counseling people to overcome those wounds.
Thompson's expertise and compassion will help you identify your own pains and struggles and find freedom from the lifelong negative messages that bind you. Rewrite the story of your life and embrace healing and wholeness as you discover and defeat shame's insidious agenda.
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles―counterintuitive tactics and strategies―you too can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life.
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Life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.
When someone suffers through trauma, can healing happen? And, if yes, how does it happen? Dr. Diane Langberg tackles these complex and difficult questions with the insights she has gained through more than forty years of counseling those whose lives have been destroyed by trauma and abuse. Her answer carefully explained in Suffering and the Heart of God is Yes, what trauma destroys, Jesus can and does restore.
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But it's not a fast process, instead much patience is required from family, friends, and counselors as they wisely and respectfully help victims unpack their traumatic suffering through talking, tears, and time. And it's not a process that can be separated from the work of God in both a counselor and counselee. Dr. Langberg calls all of those who wish to help sufferers to model Jesus's sacrificial love and care in how they listen, love, and guide.
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The heart of God is revealed to sufferers as they grow to understand the cross of Jesus Christ and how their God came to this earth and experienced such severe suffering that he too is well-acquainted with grief. The cross of Jesus Christ is the lens that transforms and redeems traumatic suffering and its aftermath, not only for the sufferer, but it also transforms those who walk with the suffering.
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This Christian book will be a great help to anyone who loves, listens to, and seeks to help someone impacted by trauma and abuse. There is no quick fix, but there is the hope for healing through the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Traumatic experiences are distressingly common, and the risks of developing posttraumatic stress disorder are high. But in recent years the field of traumatology has grown strong, giving survivors and their counselors firmer footing than ever before to seek healing. This book is a combined effort to introduce counseling approaches, trauma information, and Christian reflections to respond to the intense suffering people face. With extensive experience treating complex trauma, Heather Gingrich and Fred Gingrich have brought together key essays representing the latest psychological research on trauma from a Christian integration perspective. Students, instructors, clinicians, and researchers alike will find the following:
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An overview of the kinds of traumatic experiences.
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Coverage of treatment methods, especially those that incorporate spirituality.
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Material to critically analyze as well as emotionally engage trauma.
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Theoretical bases for trauma treatment and interventions.
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References for further consideration and empirical research.
Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.
The international bestseller is a groundbreaking exploration of the effects of the mind-body connection on stress and disease ― and how we can heal.
Through the lens of moving personal stories, medical doctor and best-selling author Dr. Gabor Maté shows how emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, cancer, and many other serious illnesses.
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Drawing on scientific research and the author's decades of experience as a practicing physician, this book provides answers to important questions about the effect of the mind-body link on illness and health and the role that chronic stress and one's individual emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases.
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Explore the role of the mind-body link in conditions and diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, IBS, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune conditions, and more
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The book draws on years of medical research and the author's own clinical experience as a family physician
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Complete with The Seven A's of Healing – Once you’re ready to acknowledge underlying stress, Dr. Mate guides you forward with principles of healing, management, and the prevention of illness from hidden stress
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Discover dozens of enlightening case studies and personal stories, including familiar names such as Lou Gehrig (ALS), Betty Ford (breast cancer), Ronald Reagan (Alzheimer's), Gilda Radner (ovarian cancer), and Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer)
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An impressive contribution to research on the physiological connection between life's chronic stress cycles, anxiety, and emotions and the body systems governing nerves, immune apparatus, and hormones
Our desire to grow runs deep. Yet the issues in our lives and relationships that we wish would change often stay the same, even with our best efforts at spiritual growth. What does it take to experience increasing strength and depth in our spiritual walk, our marriages and family lives and friendships, our personal development--in everything life is about? And how can we help others move into growth that is profound and lasting?
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Unpacking the practical and passionate theology that forms the backbone of their counseling, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend shatter popular misconceptions about how God operates to reveal how growth really happens.
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What the essential processes are that make people grow.
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How those processes fit into a biblical understanding of spiritual growth and theology.
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How spiritual growth and real-life issues are one and the same.
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What the responsibilities are of pastors, counselors, and others who assist people in growing
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What your own responsibilities are in your personal growth.
Shining focused light on the great doctrines and themes of Christianity, How People Grow helps you understand the Bible in a way that will help you head with confidence down the high road of growth in Christ.
Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.
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Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on bodily sensations. Through heightened awareness of these sensations trauma can be healed.
The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma introduces a cutting-edge therapeutic model for addressing attachment, relational, and developmental trauma in a clinical setting. NARM is an integrated mind-body framework that identifies and treats the complex ways childhood trauma can manifest in interpersonal difficulties, maladaptive patterns, identity issues, and disrupted affect regulation.
Integrating the latest research on adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, it arms psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and trauma-informed therapists with the skills and tools they need to help clients break free from the lasting effects of childhood trauma.
The Guide is a go-to tool that explains:
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The four pillars of the NARM therapeutic model
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Cultural and Intergenerational trauma
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Shock vs. Complex trauma
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Adverse Childhood Experiences and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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How to differentiate NARM from other therapeutic modalities
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NARM's organizing principles
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How to integrate NARM into your therapeutic practice