Bookshelf Recommendations

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has written the foundational book for all psychotherapy approaches for working with trauma. He gives an account of what trauma is and the types of trauma that humans have and do experience. He interweaves his own research with the collaborative research of others as he depicts how different traumas impact the literal physiology of both brain and body. He also discusses different therapy approaches for treating trauma that remains unprocessed and potentially detrimental in the body. Nearly any trauma training, class, book, and podcast with reference The Body Keeps the Score. The title of his book is often used as a statement and reminder in moments where fight-flight-freeze-faint energy may be hindering functioning in present daily activities. 

Peter Levine is the founder of Somatic Experiencing (SE), a psychotherapeutic approach that works with the physiological fear response energy that remains in the body following shock trauma and complex trauma. He uses client accounts as he explores the application of principles and practices from SE.  He normalizes trauma symptoms that occur from responding to a range of ordinary to threatening events. Levine discusses the overwhelming body responses to trauma and names the steps necessary to move through the experience by observing how animals can be threatened and not traumatized in the wild. His work often sort-of mimicks how an impala naturally protects itself from a predator by collapsing after its' flight effort was not enough. He guides readers to learn practices with body sensation awareness to work through powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events.