Know Your Trauma Combo Pack

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

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The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Like many trauma survivors, for many years I had no idea how profoundly every aspect of my life and character was affected by unaddressed trauma. Facing trauma is nobody’s favorite, but these two books make plain the gifts that await us when we do the hard work of healing. 

The Body Keeps the Score offers a comprehensive overview of how trauma is experienced and held in the body—and the varied, research-based embodied practices that can bring shifts from surviving to thriving. Read it for yourself; read it to care for your loved ones; read it to understand the need for systemic change to support whole lives.

Complex PTSD shatters the myth that only “big” trauma shapes our lives and shows instead the importance of recognizing and recovering from the effects of chronic harm (which most of us have experienced to some degree). Of all the books that I have read about trauma and recovery, this is the most resonant and immediately useful. It will help you recognize when trauma is shaping your responses and limiting your life experience, and from there it offers practical approaches to disrupting the often subtle patterns of thought and behavior that hold us captive. This book is anchored in a clear message: every person deserves to experience the world with their whole, feeling self.
—Ashley, friend of Bookspace