Understanding how past experiences shape present reactions.

The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk An essential foundational text. It explains why trauma is not a failure of will, but a physiological adaptation. This book helps you understand how your nervous system holds onto the past and why healing requires engaging the body, not just the mind.

Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past — Peter Levine A specific exploration of "implicit memory"—the kind of memory that lives in sensation and reaction rather than stories. Read this if you want to understand why your body sometimes reacts automatically or out of proportion to the present moment.

The Wisdom of Your Body — Hillary L. McBride A compassionate guide to rebuilding trust in your body after trauma,shame, or self-disconnection. This book encourages you to stop treating your body as a problem to solve and start listening to it as a source of deep intelligence.

When the Body Says No — Gabor Maté Explores the link between hidden stress, emotional suppression, and physical health. It is a powerful read if you tend to prioritize others’ needs over your own or struggle to set boundaries, showing the physical cost of ignoring your emotional truth.

Our Polyvagal World — Stephen Porges & Seth Porges A slightly more accessible entry point into Polyvagal Theory. It helps explain the "why" behind your nervous system states—safety, fight/flight, and shutdown—and how to navigate them in a world that often feels unsafe.

Trauma and Recovery — Judith Herman A classic text that contextualizes trauma not just as a personal issue, but a political and relational one. While older, it provides a powerful framework for the stages of safety, remembrance, and reconnection.

The Myth of Normal — Gabor Maté A broad look at how our culture generates stress and trauma. Helpful if you feel like your struggles are "personal failures," offering a perspective that contextualizes your symptoms within a wider societal framework.

Making sense of inner conflict and the "parts" of us that protect us.

No Bad Parts — Richard Schwartz The best starting point for the general reader. It reframes your symptoms, anxieties, and inner conflicts as "parts" of you trying to help or protect you. Read this to reduce shame around your most difficult internal experiences.

Introduction to Internal Family Systems — Richard Schwartz A clear, concise overview of the model. While No Bad Parts is written for a broad audience, this book provides a slightly more structured explanation of how protective patterns develop, how the system organizes, and the technical "how-to" of the healing process.

Self-Therapy (3rd Edition) — Jay Earley If you want to apply IFS concepts practically, this is the manual. It offers a step-by-step guide to working with your own parts. It is best used as a companion to our therapy sessions to deepen the work between appointments.

Freedom from Your Inner Critic — Jay Earley & Bonnie Weiss A specific deep dive into the "Inner Critic." Instead of trying to silence or fight your self-criticism, this book teaches you how to understand its protective function so it can relax and transform.

You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For — Richard Schwartz Applies IFS specifically to intimate relationships. If you find yourself constantly triggered by a partner or looking to them to "fix" your pain, this book offers a path toward courageous self-leadership in love.

Understanding the dynamics between self and other.

It Didn’t Start With You — Mark Wolynn Introduces the concept of inherited family trauma. If you feel stuck in a pattern that doesn't seem to belong to your own life history, this offers a framework for understanding and releasing generational burdens.

Daring Greatly — Brené Brown A core text on vulnerability. It explains why we cannot numb difficult emotions without also numbing joy, and why opening ourselves to being seen is the prerequisite for connection.

It’s Not You — Ramani Durvasula A validating resource for recovering from narcissistic or emotionally abusive relationships. It helps restore trust in your own perception of reality after experiencing gaslighting or manipulation.

Sexual Healing — Peter Levine Applies somatic experiencing principles to sexuality. It is a guide to healing the "sacred wound" of sexual trauma and reconnecting with vitality and pleasure through the body.

Cultivating a steadier, more spacious relationship with experience.

The Miracle of Mindfulness — Thich Nhat Hanh A gentle, poetic, and practical introduction to mindfulness. It moves meditation off the cushion and into everyday life (washing dishes, walking), teaching you how to relate to the present moment with kindness.

Already Free — Bruce Tift An excellent integration of Western psychotherapy and Eastern meditative practice. It addresses the tension between "working on yourself" (therapy) and "accepting what is" (spirituality), offering a rigorous path to embodied liberation.

Radical Compassion — Tara Brach Introduces the practice of RAIN (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture). This is a highly practical tool for moments of high emotion, helping you pause and offer yourself care rather than judgment.

Waking Up — Sam Harris A secular, rational exploration of mindfulness. It is particularly helpful if you are skeptical of religious language but want to understand the nature of the "self" and the benefits of awareness practice.

Wherever You Go, There You Are — Jon Kabat-Zinn Short, accessible chapters on bringing mindfulness into daily life. A great bedside book for small reminders to return to the present.

Four Thousand Weeks — Oliver Burkeman A refreshing take on time management and mortality. It helps confront the anxiety of "never having enough time" and invites you to fully inhabit the limited life you actually have.

A Path with Heart — Jack Kornfield A classic guide to the spiritual path that acknowledges the psychological work required along the way. It emphasizes that we cannot bypass our emotional baggage on the way to enlightenment.

Navigating the terrain of sorrow and change.

It's OK That You're Not OK — Megan Devine A validating reality check for grief in a culture that tries to rush it. If you are grieving, this book gives you permission to stop trying to "fix" your pain and simply survive it.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow — Francis Weller Approaches grief not as a problem, but as a sacred work of the soul. It explores how to honor our losses through ritual and community, moving from isolation to connection.

When Things Fall Apart — Pema Chödrön Essential reading for times of crisis. It teaches how to lean into groundlessness and uncertainty rather than scrambling for false security, transforming pain into compassion.

Bittersweet — Susan Cain Explores the value of melancholy and longing. If you have always felt deeper or more sensitive than those around you, this book validates that sorrow and beauty are inextricably linked.

Honoring unique nervous systems and moving beyond the pathology paradigm.

Unmasking Autism — Devon Price A vital resource for understanding neurodiversity not as a deficit, but as a difference in processing. It explores the high physical and emotional cost of "masking"—suppressing your true self to survive—and offers a path to heal from the trauma of conformity and reclaim a life that honors your unique sensory needs.

Divergent Mind — Jenara Nerenberg A groundbreaking look at neurodivergence in women and "high-masking" individuals. Nerenberg explores how ADHD, autism, and sensory processing differences often go undiagnosed in those who are conditioned to be "sensitive" or "compliant," offering a framework to stop hiding your differences and start designing a life that fits your physiology.

Scattered Minds — Gabor Maté A compassionate look at ADD/ADHD. Maté moves beyond the strict medical model to explore how attention difficulties often arise as a coping mechanism for early emotional stress. It is a hopeful read that focuses on healing the root causes of distractibility and impulsivity rather than just managing symptoms.

Is This Autism? A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else — Donna Henderson & Sarah Wayland If you have ever wondered, "Do I fit this profile?" but felt you didn't look like the stereotypes, this book is for you. It validates the subtle, internal presentation of autism—the deep empathy, the sensory overwhelm, and the exhaustion of trying to fit in—offering clarity for those exploring their identity later in life.

The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy — Steph Jones Therapy can be challenging for neurodivergent minds—navigating open-ended questions, identifying emotions, or dealing with the intensity of being "seen." This book offers practical tools to help you advocate for your needs in the therapy room, ensuring our work together supports your nervous system rather than overwhelming it.

NeuroTribes — Steve Silberman The definitive history of autism and neurodiversity. This book is essential for reframing how we think about human difference—shifting the narrative from "disease" to "diversity." It provides deep context for why the world is built the way it is, and how we can create a future that honors all kinds of minds.

Resources for those exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness.

How to Change Your Mind — Michael Pollan The definitive overview of the "Psychedelic Renaissance." It covers the history, science, and clinical potential of psychedelics. A great starting point if you are curious about the legitimacy and mechanics of this work.

Trauma and Ecstasy: How Psychedelics Made My Life Worth Living — Alex Abraham Trigger Warning: Contains descriptions of severe trauma and abuse. A raw and personal memoir. Unlike the clinical books on this list, this is a first-hand account of one man's journey from severe childhood trauma to healing using psychedelics. It offers a vivid, honest look at what the process actually feels like from the inside.

I Feel Love — Rachel Nuwer A comprehensive look at MDMA. It explores the history and therapeutic potential of this medicine, specifically regarding its ability to facilitate connection and heal PTSD.

How the brain constructs experience and how we can change it.

How Emotions Are Made — Lisa Feldman Barrett A neuroscience-based perspective that challenges the idea that emotions are hard-wired. It explains how your brain constructs emotions based on past learning—which means that with new experiences, those emotional predictions can change.

It’s Not Always Depression — Hilary Jacobs Hendel Explains how anxiety, depression, and shame often function as defenses (inhibitory emotions) that block us from feeling core emotions like anger, sadness, or joy. It provides a practical map (The Change Triangle) to help you move through defenses toward relief.

The Experience Machine — Andy Clark Explores how the brain functions as a "prediction machine," constantly shaping your reality rather than passively receiving it. This provides a scientific foundation for understanding why the experiential work we do in therapy is so effective at updating deep patterns.

The Developing Mind (3rd Edition) — Daniel Siegel Note: Dense and academic. A comprehensive look at Interpersonal Neurobiology—how relationships shape the brain. Recommended if you want a deep scientific dive into how attachment impacts neural development.

The Strange Order of Things — Antonio Damasio Note: Philosophical and complex. Damasio argues that feelings are the foundation of consciousness and culture. A fascinating read if you are interested in the evolutionary biology of why we feel.

Reconnecting with the wilder parts of ourselves.

Amphibious Soul — Craig Foster From the creator of My Octopus Teacher, this book explores how to rewild our lives and tap into the "wild" intelligence of our biology and the natural world.

Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer A profound exploration of our reciprocal relationship with the living world. Kimmerer, a botanist and Indigenous elder, weaves science and spirit together, offering a healing perspective on what it means to be a human being in relationship with the earth.

Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche — Bill Plotkin A nature-based map of the human psyche. Instead of focusing on pathology or what is "broken," Plotkin offers a framework of four innate facets of human wholeness. It is a powerful guide for cultivating the resources of your "wild" self—resilience, imagination, and deep feeling.

The Spell of the Sensuous — David Abram A classic text for anyone interested in somatic work. It explores how our senses—and our very language—are rooted in the landscape. It challenges the idea that the human mind is separate from the physical world, arguing instead that perception is a participation with the earth.

Wintering — Katherine May A beautiful meditation on the cyclical nature of life. May looks to the natural world to understand why human beings also need fallow periods—times of sadness, withdrawal, and rest—not as failures, but as essential seasons for renewal.

Awe — Dacher Keltner While grounded in psychology, this book fits here because nature is our primary source of awe. It explores how moments of wonder quiet the self-critical brain and open us to connection, making a strong scientific case for the healing power of the outdoors.

Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and the Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words — David Whyte A poetic exploration of the deeper meanings of words like "Heartbreak," "Courage," and "Vulnerability." Whyte reframes difficult human experiences not as problems to fix, but as inevitable, necessary, and beautiful parts of a full life.