Links & Resources

Useful Links

• http://www.psychologytoday.com/
• http://www.eckharttolle.com/
• http://www.jung-at-heart.com/jung_at_heart/
• http://happiness-beyond-thought.com/
• https://www.russellbrand.com/podcasts/
• https://jayshetty.me/
• https://www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/
• https://mooji.org/en
• https://emdrassociation.org.uk/
• https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/
• https://drgabormate.com/
• https://beyondtraumapodcast.com/episodes-2/

Books

Stephen Porges & Seth Porges
Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us
Our Polyvagal World definitively presents how Polyvagal Theory can be understandable to all and demonstrates how its practical principles are applicable to anyone looking to live their safest, best, healthiest and happiest life. What emerges is a worldview filled with optimism and hope and an understanding as to why our bodies sometimes act in ways our brains wish they didn’t.

Frankl, Viktor (1997 reprint)
Man’s Search for MeaningNew York: Simon & Schuster
Comment: A gripping and soul-searching account of Frankl’s survival in Auschwitz concentration camp, laying the ground for his approach to psychotherapy, “logotherapy”. The focus here is on how personal meaning and purpose allows human beings to endure even the most oppressive and traumatic circumstances.

Kahn, Michael (1991)
Between Therapist and Client: The New RelationshipNew York: W.H. Freeman
Comment: A comprehensive look at the work of Heinz Kohut and the application of “self psychology” theory to the practice of a client-centred psychotherapy.

Lewis-Herman, Judith (1992)
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political TerrorNew York: Harper-Collins
Comment: This text takes the reader through the horribly difficult and complex world of the trauma sufferer. Lewis-Herman offers a hopeful view of how trauma and post-traumatic stress can be effectively worked with in empathic psychotherapy.

Eckhart Tolle (2001)
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual EnlightenmentTo make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to guide us.

Alice Miller (1990)
For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of ViolenceFor Your Own Good, the contemporary classic exploring the serious if not gravely dangerous consequences parental cruelty can bring to bear on children everywhere, is one of the central works by Alice Miller, the celebrated Swiss psychoanalyst.

Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment–and Your LifeAn Invitation to the Practice of Mindfulness
We may long for wholeness, suggests Jon Kabat-Zinn, but the truth is that it is already here and already ours. The practice of mindfulness holds the possibility of not just a fleeting sense of contentment, but a true embracing of a deeper unity that envelops and permeates our lives. With Mindfulness for Beginners you are invited to learn how to transform your relationship to the way you think, feel, love, work, and play and thereby awaken to and embody more completely who you really are.

Esther Perel (2007)

Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic IntelligenceOne of the world’s most respected voices on erotic intelligence, Esther Perel offers a bold, provocative new take on intimacy and sex. Mating in Captivity invites us to explore the paradoxical union of domesticity and sexual desire, and explains what it takes to bring lust home.
Drawing on more than twenty years of experience as a couples therapist, Perel examines the complexities of sustaining desire. Through case studies and lively discussion, Perel demonstrates how more exciting, playful, and even poetic sex is possible in long-term relationships. Wise, witty, and as revelatory as it is straightforward, Mating in Captivity is a sensational book that will transform the way you live and love.

Daniel Siegel (2004)
Parenting From the Inside OutHow many parents have found themselves thinking: I can’t believe I just said to my child the very thing my parents used to say to me! Am I just destined to repeat the mistakes of my parents? In Parenting from the Inside Out, child psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., and early childhood expert Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., explore the extent to which our childhood experiences actually do shape the way we parent. Drawing upon stunning new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, they explain how interpersonal relationships directly impact the development of the brain, and offer parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories, which will help them raise compassionate and resilient children.
Born out of a series of parents’ workshops that combined Siegel’s cutting-edge research on how communication impacts brain development with Hartzell’s thirty years of experience as a child-development specialist and parent educator, Parenting from the Inside Out guides parents through creating the necessary foundations for loving and secure relationships with their children.

John E. Sarno (2007)
The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody DisordersDr Sarno traces the roots of mindbody disorders by exploring the interaction between the generally reasonable, rational, ethical and moral conscious mind and the repressed feelings of emotional pain, hurt, sadness, and anger characteristic of the unconscious mind. The failure of medicine’s practitioners to recognise and appropriately treat mindbody disorders has produced public health and economic problems of major proportions. “The Divided Mind” outlines the history of psychosomatic medicine, including Freud’s crucial role, and describes the psychology responsible for the broad range of psychosomatic illness. Arguing that knowledge and awareness of psychosomatic phenomena clearly have healing powers, “The Divided Mind” reveals how and why thousands of people have become pain-free simply by following Dr Sarno’s revolutionary advice.

Babette Rothchild (2000)
The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment (Norton Professional Book)This book illuminates that physiology, shining a bright light on the impact of trauma on the body and the phenomenon of somatic memory. It is now thought that people who have been traumatized hold an implicit memory of traumatic events in their brains and bodies. That memory is often expressed in the symptomatology of posttraumatic stress disorder-nightmares, flashbacks, startle responses, and dissociative behaviors. In essence, the body of the traumatized individual refuses to be ignored. While reducing the chasm between scientific theory and clinical practice and bridging the gap between talk therapy and body therapy, Rothschild presents principles and non-touch techniques for giving the body its due. With an eye to its relevance for clinicians, she consolidates current knowledge about the psychobiology of the stress response both in normally challenging situations and during extreme and prolonged trauma. This gives clinicians from all disciplines a foundation for speculating about the origins of their clients’ symptoms and incorporating regard for the body into their practice. The somatic techniques are chosen with an eye to making trauma therapy safer while increasing mind-body integration. Packed with engaging case studies, The Body Remembers integrates body and mind in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. It will appeal to clinicians, researchers, students, and general readers. 

Jon Allen
Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental DisordersMental, physical, or sexual abuse in close personal relationships commonly results in trauma that is very different from the trauma of accidents, illness, or war. Making creative use of attachment theory to explicate the multifaceted outcomes of trauma, this book provides a powerful conceptual framework and a concise, masterly review of a huge knowledge base. Encyclopedic in scope and scholarly in its up-to-the-minute survey of research findings.

Gabor Mate 
When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease ConnectionCan a person literally die of loneliness? Is there such a thing as a “”cancer personality””? Drawing on scientific research and the author’s decades of experience as a practicing physician, this book provides answers to these and other important questions about the effect of the mind-body link on illness and health and the role that stress and one’s individual emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases.

Bessel Van Der Kolk
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children.

Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring—specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy—and a way to reclaim lives.

Oliver James
Not In Your Genes: The real reasons children are like their parents

Professor Robert Plomin, the world’s leading geneticist, said in 2014 of his search for genes that explain differences in our psychology: ‘I have been looking for these genes for fifteen years. I don’t have any’.

Using a mixture of famous and ordinary people, Oliver James drills deep down into the childhood causes of our individuality, revealing why our upbringing, not our genes, plays such an important role in our wellbeing and success. The implications are huge: as adults we can change, we can clutch our fates from predetermined destiny, as parents we can radically alter the trajectory of our childrens’ lives, and as a society we could largely eradicate criminality and poverty.

Not in Your Genes will not only change the way you think about yourself and the people around you, but give you the fuel to change your personality and your life for the better.

Oliver James
They F*** You Up: How to Survive Family Life

Do your relationships tend to follow the same destructive pattern? Do you feel trapped by your family’s expectations of you? Does your life seem overwhelmingly governed by jealousy or competitiveness or lack of confidence? In this ground-breaking book, clinical psychologist Oliver James shows that it is the way we were cared for in the first six years of life that has a crucial effect on who we are and how we behave. Nurture, in effect, shapes our very nature. James combines the latest scientific research with fascinating interviews to show that understanding your past is the first step to controlling your present.

Couch Fiction: A Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy
Philippa Perry

Ever wanted an insight into counseling? Or wished you could be a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ in a psychotherapy session? Couch Fiction allows you to peep through the key-hole of the therapy room door and, more than that, read the minds of the protagonists…
Based on a case study of Pat (our sandal-wearing, cat-loving psychotherapist) and her new client, James (an ambitious barrister with a potentially harmful habit he can’t stop), this graphic novel follows the anxieties, frustrations, mind-wanderings and break-throughs of each, through a year of therapy sessions together. Beautifully illustrated and accompanied by succinct and illuminating footnotes, this book offers a witty and thought-provoking exploration of the therapeutic journey, considering a range of skills, insights and techniques along the way.

How to Stay Sane (The School of Life)
Philippa Perry

Everyone accepts the importance of physical health; isn’t it just as important to aim for the mental equivalent? Philippa Perry has come to the rescue with How to Stay Sane — a maintenance manual for the mind.Years of working as a psychotherapist showed Philippa Perry what approaches produced positive change in her clients and how best to maintain good mental health. In How to Stay Sane, she has taken these principles and applied them to self-help. Using ideas from neuroscience and sound psychological theory, she shows us how to better understand ourselves. Her idea is that if we know how our minds form and develop, we are less at the mercy of unknown unconscious processes. In this way, we can learn to be the master of our feelings and not their slave.

This is a smart, pithy, readable book that everyone with even a passing interest in their psychological health will find useful.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos  by Jordan B Peterson

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson’s answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.
Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.
What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world’s wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.

Ego States: Theory and Therapy by Helen H. Watkins, John G. Watkins

Ego states are the parts of our personality that cause us to act different ways in different situations.
Ego state theory links normal personality functioning with its extremes, such as found in dissociative identity disorder. The therapy integrates psychoanalytic practice and hypnoanalytic techniques to discover and explore covert ego states, thereby effecting behavior change. With clear language and case extracts, the recognized originators of ego state therapy explain this fascinating theory and how to put it into practice.

You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For (Internal Family Systems)
Richard C. Schwartz

Richard Schwartz, the developer of the Internal Family Systems Model, applies the IFS Model to the topic of intimate relationships in an engaging, understandable, and personal style. Therapists and lay people alike will find this book to be an insightful exploration of how cultivating a relationship with the Self—the wise center of clarity, calmness, and compassion in each of us—creates the foundation for courageous love and resilient intimacy: the capacity to sustain and nourish a healthy intimate relationship. Self-leadership also allows us to embrace our partner’s feedback and use it to discover aspects of ourselves that seek healing. Included are user-friendly exercises to facilitate learning.

The Little Book of Self Leadership: Daily Self Leadership Made Simple Paperback – 30 Jun 2018
by Dave B Williams (Author), Richard C Schwartz (Foreword)

For all the people who believe they are this ‘sort of person’, and wonder why, with some types of people, in certain situations, they become someone else? This pithy little book is for you.

For example, Part of you is reading this book right now, while another Part is probably thinking about all the other things you could be doing. Most of us live our lives unaware of which Part of us is taking the lead at any one particular time.

This book will give you the opportunity to connect with your inner Parts and (re)establish your Self as their leader. This shift in viewing your inner world as comprising ‘Self’ and ‘Parts’ is seismic and transformational.

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors
by Janina Fisher

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes “resolution”―a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its unique interventions have been adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and clinical hypnosis. Readers will close the pages of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors with a solid grasp of therapeutic approaches to traumatic attachment, working with undiagnosed dissociative symptoms and disorders, integrating “right brain-to-right brain” treatment methods, and much more. Most of all, they will come away with tools for helping clients create an internal sense of safety and compassionate connection to even their most dis-owned selves.