Reading List

Essential Books for Healing: A Therapist's Reading List

I will update this list periodically so check back often for additions!

The following collection represents books I frequently recommend to clients on their healing journeys. These works offer profound insights, practical tools, and transformative perspectives across various dimensions of human experience. Each book has been selected for its ability to foster understanding, promote healing, and support personal growth. Many titles appear in multiple categories, reflecting the interconnected nature of healing work.

Jump to Sections:

Trauma Healing 🌿 Somatic Psychotherapy 🌿 Psychedelics 🌿 Buddhism and Mindfulness 🌿 Neurodivergence 🌿 Consciousness and Mysticism 🌿 Sacred Fiction 🌿 Mental Health Memoirs 🌿 Indigenous Wisdom 🌿 Personal Development 🌿 Spiritual Growth

Trauma Healing

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

This groundbreaking work revolutionizes our understanding of trauma's impact on the body and mind. Van der Kolk presents decades of research showing how trauma literally reshapes the brain and body, while offering hope through innovative treatment approaches including EMDR, yoga, and neurofeedback.

Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine

Levine introduces Somatic Experiencing, a body-based approach to healing trauma. Drawing from observations of animals in the wild, he demonstrates how trauma can be resolved by releasing the frozen survival energy trapped in the nervous system.

Healing the Fragmented Parts of Trauma Survivors by Janina Fisher

Fisher presents a compassionate, neuroscience-informed approach to working with dissociation and fragmentation in trauma survivors. This book is essential for understanding how trauma creates internal divisions and how healing can restore wholeness.

The Body Remembers by Babette Rothschild

Rothschild bridges the gap between mind and body in trauma treatment, offering practical techniques for therapists and survivors. She emphasizes the importance of integrating somatic awareness into traditional talk therapy approaches.

Eight Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery by Babette Rothschild

A practical guide that outlines essential principles for safe trauma recovery. Rothschild provides clear, actionable strategies for managing triggers, building resilience, and progressing through healing at a sustainable pace.

Complex PTSD by Pete Walker

Walker offers a comprehensive guide to understanding and recovering from complex trauma. His work is particularly valuable for those who experienced childhood emotional neglect or abuse, providing practical tools for emotional regulation and self-compassion.

Trauma and the Body by Pat Ogden

Ogden presents a comprehensive approach to trauma treatment that prioritizes the body's wisdom. This foundational text in somatic psychotherapy demonstrates how working with the body can access and heal trauma that talk therapy alone cannot reach.

Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox by Manuela Mischke-Reeds

A practical resource filled with body-based techniques for healing trauma and promoting wellbeing. This toolbox provides accessible exercises that can be used by both therapists and individuals seeking to reconnect with their body's wisdom.

Trauma and the Body by Pat Ogden

Somatic Psychotherapy and Body Wisdom

When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté

Maté explores the profound connection between emotional stress and physical illness. This book reveals how suppressed emotions and chronic stress contribute to autoimmune diseases, cancer, and other serious health conditions, emphasizing the importance of emotional authenticity for physical health.

Trauma and the Body by Pat Ogden

My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem

Menakem explores how racial trauma is stored in the body and passed down through generations. This powerful book offers somatic practices for healing both individual and collective trauma, particularly addressing the impact of white supremacy on all bodies.

Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox by Manuela Mischke-Reeds

Psychedelics and Healing

The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin

Lattin chronicles the influential work of Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil, exploring how their psychedelic research transformed psychology, spirituality, and consciousness studies. Essential reading for understanding the historical context of psychedelic therapy.

The Ketamine Papers by Phil Wolfson

Wolfson provides clinical insights into ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, exploring its potential for treating depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. This book offers both scientific understanding and practical applications of ketamine in therapeutic settings.

Psychedelic Psychotherapy by R. Coleman

Coleman presents a comprehensive guide to integrating psychedelic experiences into therapeutic practice. This work bridges ancient wisdom traditions with modern clinical applications, offering frameworks for safe and effective psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Swimming in the Sacred by Rachel Harris

This book reveals the hidden world of women who have been quietly guiding psychedelic healing journeys for decades, long before the current renaissance brought these medicines into mainstream research. Harris interviews fifteen women elders to capture their nuanced, relational wisdom about creating sacred space and facilitating transformation that goes far beyond what can be learned in clinical settings.

LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher Bache

Bache shares his decades-long exploration of consciousness through high-dose LSD sessions, offering profound insights into the nature of reality, death, and cosmic consciousness. This book bridges personal experience with transpersonal psychology.

Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Expanded States by Various Authors

A comprehensive collection exploring the therapeutic applications of psychedelics. This anthology provides scientific research, clinical insights, and practical guidance for understanding how altered states of consciousness can facilitate profound healing.

Buddhism and Mindfulness

Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright

Wright combines evolutionary psychology with Buddhist philosophy to demonstrate how Buddhist insights align with modern scientific understanding of the mind. This book offers a rational, accessible approach to Buddhist concepts of suffering, impermanence, and enlightenment.

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön

Chödrön offers gentle wisdom for navigating life's inevitable challenges and uncertainties. Her compassionate approach to Buddhist teachings provides practical tools for finding peace and strength during difficult times.

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield

Kornfield addresses the challenges of integrating spiritual insights into daily life. This honest exploration of the spiritual path acknowledges both the transformative potential of awakening and the ongoing work of living with wisdom and compassion.

Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen

Hagen presents Buddhist teachings in clear, accessible language, stripping away cultural and religious complexity to reveal the essential insights about consciousness, reality, and liberation from suffering.

Buddhism: It's Not What You Think by Steve Hagen

Hagen challenges common misconceptions about Buddhism, presenting it as a practical investigation into the nature of reality rather than a belief system. This book offers a fresh perspective on Buddhist practice and philosophy.

Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh demonstrates how mindfulness can transform ordinary moments into opportunities for peace and awakening. His gentle approach makes Buddhist practice accessible for daily life, offering simple yet profound techniques for cultivating presence.

The Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche

Roche presents a contemporary translation of the ancient Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, offering 112 meditation techniques for awakening. This beautiful work bridges ancient wisdom with modern understanding, making profound spiritual practices accessible to contemporary seekers.

Buddha and the Borderline by Kiera Van Gelder

Van Gelder's memoir chronicles her journey from borderline personality disorder to recovery through Buddhist practice and dialectical behavior therapy. This courageous account demonstrates how spiritual practice can support mental health healing.

Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

This groundbreaking book introduces Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program that has helped millions of people manage chronic pain, illness, anxiety, and stress through the practice of mindfulness meditation. Kabat-Zinn bridges Eastern contemplative practices with Western medicine, offering practical tools for finding peace and healing within life's inevitable challenges and difficulties.

Understanding Neurodivergence

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

Price challenges traditional understanding of autism, revealing how masking behaviors harm autistic individuals and advocating for acceptance and accommodation. This book is essential for understanding the authentic autistic experience and promoting neurodiversity.

Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg

Nerenberg explores how neurodivergent conditions like ADHD, autism, and sensory processing differences are often misunderstood or missed in women and girls. This book advocates for a more inclusive understanding of neurological diversity.

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

Price dismantles the myth of laziness, revealing how productivity culture harms individuals, particularly those with ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent conditions. This book promotes self-compassion and challenges toxic productivity expectations.

The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller

Miller explores how gifted children often sacrifice their authentic selves to meet parental expectations. This classic work reveals the psychological costs of early achievement pressure and offers a path toward authentic self-expression.

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Workbook by McKay and Wood

This practical workbook provides essential DBT skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. Particularly valuable for individuals with borderline personality disorder, ADHD, or other conditions involving emotional dysregulation.

Consciousness and Mysticism

The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot

Talbot presents a revolutionary model of reality based on holographic principles, suggesting that consciousness and the universe are fundamentally interconnected. This book bridges quantum physics with mystical experience, offering new perspectives on healing and perception.

Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer

Mayer, a psychoanalyst, investigates psychic phenomena and extraordinary human capacities. Her scientific approach to mystical experiences challenges conventional understanding of consciousness and opens new possibilities for human potential.

The Field by Lynne McTaggart

McTaggart explores the zero-point field that connects all matter and consciousness. This book presents scientific evidence for the interconnectedness of all life, offering a new understanding of how intention and consciousness can influence reality.

Living in a Mindful Universe by Eben Alexander

Alexander, a neurosurgeon, shares his near-death experience and subsequent exploration of consciousness. This book bridges medical science with spiritual insight, offering evidence for the primacy of consciousness in the universe.

Exploring Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber

Gerber presents a comprehensive overview of energy medicine, exploring how vibrational frequencies can promote healing. This book bridges ancient healing traditions with modern scientific understanding of energy and consciousness.

Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung

Jung's accessible introduction to his psychological theories explores the unconscious mind through symbols and dreams. This foundational work reveals how archetypal patterns influence human behavior and offer pathways to individuation and healing.

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Singer presents a clear, accessible guide to spiritual freedom by exploring the nature of consciousness and the voice in our heads that creates so much suffering. Through practical wisdom and relatable examples, he shows readers how to step back from their thoughts and emotions to discover the boundless awareness that is our true nature, leading to profound inner peace and liberation

The Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche

Sacred Fiction

The King of Ata Are Waiting for You by Dorothy Bryant

Bryant's visionary novel explores a society where dreams and waking life are equally valued. This profound work challenges Western assumptions about reality and consciousness, offering insights into alternative ways of being and knowing.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Lowry's dystopian novel explores themes of conformity, emotion, and the price of a pain-free society. This powerful story reveals the essential role of feeling and memory in human experience, making it valuable for understanding emotional suppression and healing.

The Archer by Paulo Coelho

Coelho's allegorical tale explores the spiritual discipline of archery as a metaphor for life mastery. This brief but profound work offers insights into focus, intention, and the integration of skill with spiritual awareness.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This beloved fable follows Santiago, a young shepherd who embarks on a journey to find treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, only to discover that the real treasure lies in following his personal legend and listening to his heart. Coelho weaves a timeless story about pursuing dreams, recognizing omens, and understanding that the universe conspires to help those who dare to follow their deepest calling.

Mental Health Memoirs

The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks

Saks, a legal scholar, shares her journey with schizophrenia, challenging stigma and demonstrating that mental illness need not define one's potential. Her memoir offers hope and understanding for those navigating serious mental health conditions.

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

Taylor, a brain scientist, describes her stroke experience and recovery, offering unique insights into brain function and consciousness. Her story demonstrates neuroplasticity and the brain's capacity for healing and transformation.

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

Jamison's memoir of living with bipolar disorder as a psychologist offers profound insights into the experience of mental illness from both personal and professional perspectives. Her work reduces stigma and promotes understanding of mood disorders.

Buddha and the Borderline by Kiera Van Gelder

Indigenous Wisdom

Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

Yunkaporta shares Aboriginal knowledge systems and their relevance to contemporary global challenges. This profound work offers indigenous perspectives on sustainability, community, and ways of knowing that can inform healing and social transformation.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Kimmerer weaves together indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge to explore our relationship with the natural world. This beautiful work offers healing through reconnection with nature and indigenous ways of understanding reciprocity and gratitude.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Kimmerer continues her exploration of indigenous wisdom and ecological consciousness through the lens of abundance and gratitude. This work deepens our understanding of how traditional knowledge can inform contemporary healing and sustainability.

Personal Development

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Brown explores the power of vulnerability in creating authentic connections and meaningful lives. Her research-based approach to shame resilience and courage offers practical tools for personal growth and emotional healing.

Women Who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Estés uses myths and stories to explore the wild feminine psyche, offering healing wisdom for women who have lost connection to their authentic nature. This archetypal work provides a pathway to reclaiming feminine power and wisdom.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Ruiz presents four simple but profound principles for personal freedom and happiness based on ancient Toltec wisdom. These agreements offer practical guidance for breaking free from limiting beliefs and creating authentic relationships.

Mindsight by Daniel Siegel

Siegel introduces the concept of mindsight - the ability to see the internal world of self and others. This neuroscience-based approach to mental health offers tools for emotional regulation, empathy, and psychological integration.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Scott presents a framework for honest, caring communication that challenges and supports simultaneously. While focused on workplace relationships, these principles apply to all relationships and promote authentic connection.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski

The Nagoski sisters explore the science of stress and burnout, offering practical strategies for completing the stress cycle and preventing chronic exhaustion. This work is particularly valuable for understanding how modern life impacts women's wellbeing.

Spiritual Growth and Initiation

Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin

Plotkin presents a nature-based approach to spiritual development and psychological wholeness. His work explores how connection with the natural world facilitates soul initiation and the development of authentic adulthood.

Soul Initiation by Bill Plotkin

Plotkin continues his exploration of psychological and spiritual development, offering guidance for navigating the challenges of spiritual growth. This work provides a map for the soul's journey toward wholeness and authentic expression.

Swimming in the Sacred by Rachel Harris

You Were Never Broken by Jeff Foster

This collection of raw, vulnerable poetry serves as spiritual medicine for anyone struggling with self-hatred, depression, or feelings of being fundamentally flawed. Foster's verses embrace the full spectrum of human experience while offering his signature teachings on self-acceptance, presence, and the radical idea that there was never anything wrong with you to begin with.

The Way of Rest by Jeff Foster

Foster offers a gentle approach to spiritual awakening that emphasizes acceptance and rest rather than striving. This compassionate work provides guidance for those seeking spiritual growth without the pressure of constant self-improvement.

Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner

Turner explores how modern life has disconnected us from our sense of belonging and offers wisdom for returning home to ourselves and our communities. This poetic work weaves together psychology, spirituality, and cultural critique.