Why I recommend reading alongside therapy
In session, people often reach for language that isn’t there yet. A good book can lend a sentence, an image, or a practice that helps the body and mind settle. I suggest reading slowly and checking in with your breath and posture as you go. Pick the title that calls to you and matches what you’d like to explore in therapy. Reading doesn’t replace the work; it gives us shared reference points we can ground in together.

How to read in a trauma-sensitive way

• Take small bites; one section or even one page.

• Notice sensations: temples, jaw, chest, belly. If you feel tense, pause and take some deep breaths.

• Mark lines that move you and bring them to sessions; we’ll sit with them.

• Keep a short notebook for after-chapter reflections.

My core recommendations (with brief notes)

• The Drama of the Gifted Child — Alice Miller
  For those who grew up pleasing. Names the cost of performing for love and points toward grief and authenticity.

• Attached — Amir Levine & Rachel Heller
  A practical map of anxious, avoidant, and secure styles. Useful for dating, arguments, and repair.

• My Grandmother’s Hands — Resmaa Menakem
  Body-based practices for racialised and intergenerational trauma; strong, steady, and community-minded.

• Complex PTSD — Pete Walker
  Clear guidance on emotional flashbacks, inner critics, and re-parenting day-to-day.

• Radical Acceptance — Tara Brach
  Mindfulness and compassion tools for shame and self-judgment; simple meditations you can try.

• No Bad Parts — Richard Schwartz
  An inviting entry to Internal Family Systems: meeting protective parts with curiosity so exiled pain can heal.

• Atlas of the Heart — Brené Brown
  Gives language for emotions. Helpful for couples and anyone wanting more precise self-expression.

• The Wild Edge of Sorrow — Francis Weller
  Ritual and community practices for metabolising grief, including climate and ancestral grief.

• Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor E. Frankl
  Anchoring reflections on purpose, agency, and choice when life narrows.

• No More Mr. Nice Guy — Robert Glover
  For people-pleasing patterns: boundaries, assertiveness, and mature masculinity without bravado.

• Women Who Run With the Wolves — Clarissa Pinkola Estés
  Myths and stories that kindle feminine reconnection with instinct, creativity, and voice.

• The Eden Project — James Hollis
  Why we idealise partners and how to love with maturity rather than projection.

• The Art of Loving — Erich Fromm
  Love as an active practice, with care, respect, responsibility, and knowledge.

• Going Sane — Adam Phillips
  An exploration of money, sex, childhood, and irrationality through the lens of psychoanalysis.

• Memories, Dreams, Reflections — C. G. Jung
  Dreams, symbols, and individuation for readers curious about depth psychology.

• Sacred Knowledge — William Richards
  Responsible frameworks for psychedelic-assisted therapy, ethics, and meaning.

• The Adventure of Self-Discovery — Stanislav Grof
  Transpersonal maps for non-ordinary states; useful for integration work.

Bringing books into sessions
Underline what lands with you. Anything that engenders warmth, anger, relief, and anything else that moves you. We’ll work with it in the room. We can track sensations, practice boundaries, or design small experiments so insight turns into something embodied.