This evolving bibliography lists books that while not top rated/best-selling, survivors have found useful in understanding relational trauma/Complex PTSD and recovery.
Clayton, I. (2025). Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves—and How to Find Our Way Back. Penguin Books.
From a clinical psychologist and expert in complex trauma recovery comes a powerful guide introducing fawning, an often-overlooked piece of the fight-flight-freeze reaction to trauma—explaining what it is, why it happens, and how to help survivors regain their voice and sense of self.
Courtois, C. (2020). It’s Not You, It’s What Happened to You; Complex Trauma and Treatment. Dublin, Ohio: Telemachus Press.
With It's Not You, It's What Happened to You: Complex Trauma and Treatment, Dr. Christine Courtois has simplified her extensive and, until now, quite scholarly work geared toward understanding and developing the concept of "complex trauma," and the assessment and treatment thereof. A universally acknowledged leader in this emerging psychotherapeutic field, Dr. Courtois provides here an abbreviated and easy-to-read explanation of what complex trauma is, how it develops, the ways in which it manifests, and how it can effectively be dealt with.
DeYoung, P. (2021). Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame: A Relational/Neurobiological Approach. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chronic shame is painful, corrosive, and elusive. It resists self-help and undermines even intensive psychoanalysis. Patricia A. DeYoung’s cutting-edge book gives chronic shame the serious attention it deserves, integrating new brain science with an inclusive tradition of relational psychotherapy. She looks behind the myriad symptoms of shame to its relational essence.
Engel, B. (2015). It Wasn't Your Fault: Freeing Yourself from the Shame of Childhood Abuse with the Power of Self-Compassion. Oakland, California: New Harbinger Publications.
Shame is one of the most destructive of human emotions. If you suffered childhood physical or sexual abuse, you may experience such intense feelings of shame that it almost seems to define you as a person. In order to begin healing, it’s important for you to know that it wasn’t your fault. In this gentle guide, therapist and childhood abuse expert Beverly Engel presents a mindfulness and compassion-based therapeutic approach to help you overcome the debilitating shame that keeps you tied to the past.
Engel, B. (2020). Escaping Emotional Abuse: Healing from the Shame You Don't Deserve. Oakland, California: New Harbinger Publications.
Engel exposes the most destructive technique the abuser uses to break our spirit and gain control--and guides readers on how to free themselves from the shame that can keep them from the life (and the love) they deserve.
Lanius, R., Vermetten, E., & Pain, C. (Eds.) (2010). The impact of early life trauma on health and disease: The hidden epidemic. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
There is now ample evidence from the preclinical and clinical fields that early life trauma has both dramatic and long-lasting effects on neurobiological systems and functions that are involved in different forms of psychopathology as well as on health in general. To date, a comprehensive review of the recent research on the effects of early and later life trauma is lacking. This book fills an obvious gap in academic and clinical literature by providing reviews which summarize and synthesize these findings. Topics considered and discussed include the possible biological and neuropsychological effects of trauma at different epochs and their effect on health. This book will be essential reading for psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, social workers, pediatricians and specialists in child development.
McClintock Greenberg, T. (2022). The Complex PTSD Coping Skills Workbook: An Evidence-Based Approach to Manage Fear and Anger, Build Confidence, and Reclaim Your Identity. New Harbinger Publications: Oakland, CA.
This workbook offers an integrative approach for coping with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), mindfulness, mentalization, and relational therapy. You’ll learn the most effective strategies to manage symptoms, overcome painful memories, and build self-confidence. Most importantly, you’ll find validation that your feelings aren’t “crazy” or “outsized,” and discover the skills needed to help you reclaim your life.
Miller, M. (2018). The True Drama of the Gifted Child: Alice Miller the Real Person
The "True" Drama of the Gifted Child is a biography of my mother, the famous childhood researcher and psychologist, Alice Miller. Although internationally renowned for her books on parental child abuse, I suffered significant abuse during my childhood. This book describes how trauma is passed on intergenerationally and how my mother passed her unresolved war trauma on to me.
Neff, K. & Germer, C. (2018). The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.
This science-based workbook offers a step-by-step approach to breaking free of harsh self-judgments and impossible standards in order to cultivate emotional well-being.
Schwartz, A. (2020). A Practical Guide to Complex PTSD: Compassionate Strategies to Begin Healing from Childhood Trauma. Emeryville, California: Rockridge Press.
A Practical Guide to Complex PTSD contains research-based strategies, tools, and support for individuals working to heal from their childhood trauma. You don't have to be a prisoner of your past.
Schwartz, A. (2020). The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook: Practical Mind-Body Tools to Heal Trauma, Foster Resilience and Awaken Your Potential. Eau Claire, WI: PESI Publishing.
Written by Dr. Arielle Schwartz, bestselling author of The Complex PTSD Workbook, this healing guide provides a step-by-step approach to trauma recovery that integrates: Mindfulness & yoga, Somatic psychology, EMDR therapy, Parts work therapy, Relational therapy
