Books that you may find helpful in your recovery
Reclaiming Your Life
Jean Jenson's book is a real gem. It covers some of the ways that the effects of childhood trauma sneak into everyday life and so helps to make these unconscious patterns far more conscious, thus enabling both clarity and change. Also has a great exersise on getting to grips with the emotions hidden within the everyday background of your childhood - which is really useful if you were emotionally or psychologically abused and are struggling to really 'get' what happened to you as there are no broken bones as evidence.
Sadly out of print, but recently available through Amazon's sellers. Suitable for all levels of recovery recovery.
Free From Lies
Alice Miller's latest and clearest demonstration of how world violence is actually caused by the destructiveness of so called 'normal' child rearing practices. Alice breaks the spell of the delusion that what happens in childhood can be ignored. Not to be missed, especially is you are surrounded by people who are attempting to make your recovery journey 'wrong'.
Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing your Inner Child
John Bradshaw's acclaimed introduction to recovering from growing up in a dysfunctional family - Contains a wealth of information and practical exercises to support early and middle stage recovery.
Toxic Parents
Susan
Forward's book is an easy to read introduction for early and middle
stage recovery. Susan lists some of the signs of Toxic Parents; What
they are, what do they do, and ways to recover.
Adult Children of Abusive Parents
Steven Farmer, himself a survivor of childhood emotional abuse,
and now a recovery therapist, describes what it is really like to grow up
in an abusive family and gives a wide range of very practical exercises to
help survivors get free of the toxic legacy of their past.
A General Theory Of Love
MUST
READ : Well researched book by three prominent psychiatrists, Lewis,
Amini and Lannon. The authors' research shows how a child's brain is
actually physically sculpted by their upbringing - the physical,
emotional and psychological ramifications of this, and the specific
role therapy has in making healing finally possible. A wake up call to
the planet.
Healing The Child Within: Discover and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families
Written
by a Doctor who became a Psychiatrist before he realised that in order
to help people get well they needed to get to the roots of their
underlying issues and neither his GP or Psychiatric training was useful for that.
Dr Charles Whitfield subsequently researched what was
really working to aid recovery and this, and his other books, is the result of his exploration. Suitable for early and middle stage recovery.
The Verbally Abusive relationship: How To Recognise It And How To Respond
Patricia Evans has written the clearest book I've found on identifying and responding to verbal/emotional/psychological abuse.
Although
written with the focus on adults dealing with verbal abusers in their life now, this book
can be used to help clarify the verbal/psychological/emotional abuse in your
upbringing and also to identify and deal with the ongoing internalized
abusive self talk routinely experienced by survivors of childhood trauma.
The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment
Babette
Rothschild's informative book on some of
what actually happens in the body in both during a traumatic experience
and also during recovery. She examines safe ways of working to recover.