Education on Trauma and Woman’S Power
Literature on Healing From Harm
Recommended reading and resources. I have either written or been liberated by these books.
Essay – The Unwanted Woman
“From birth until death, women have held the patriarchal world on their shoulders while suffering under it. This essay informs how it is done through our customs, institutions, and teachings. We cannot undo a system without acknowledging all the insidious ways it afflicts us. Behind all norms in patriarchy lie the depths of deception placed on women that leave them unwanted. Only returning to matriarchy will restore women’s innate power and divinity as creators of life. Female-centred societies release us from the pain and return us to leaders as we are supposed to be.” – Laura Rose
I wrote this as a plea to other women to see the chains put upon us as women so we can remove them as a sisterhood and reclaim our divine right as matriarchs. Healing layers of misogynistic trauma on my body and psyche uncovered the truth about the power of women. We would live extraordinary lives if we used that suppressed energy to build ourselves instead of staying small, which goes against our nature. This work fueled my creativity, sense of belonging, and strength.
Literature on Healing From Harm
The Divine Female
I consider this one of my bibles. When I felt so powerless from being an abused woman and struggling to heal my self-worth, this book showed my innate power as a female sex. If I am as powerful as Mother Earth, I can heal my wounds that feel as deep as craters. This is both a scientific and spiritual education of our herstory.
Becoming a wild woman
Another one of my bibles. I grew to understand it was ok to feel those deep emotions and wounds that we “should” suppress. My rage, my fear, and my grief all resonated with her stories of other women who experienced the same. I recommend all of her works. Start with this one.
We are Mother Nature
When we realize that we are Mother Nature in human form, we realize that we are as rooted and strong as she is. This book brings many stories and examples of triumph to life, inspiring readers to become nature’s gatekeepers, both in the world and within themselves.
Books on Trauma
I have these in my library, ready to use when I need advice. I have found these books most helpful with CPTSD, Structural Dissociation, OCD, and Attachment Trauma. My trauma was severe.I recommend the books below if you find yourself fragmented, lost, alone, and terrified.
Fragmentation
I saw myself in her book. Janina understands deep trauma resulting in the fragmentation of the psyche and the severity of dysregulation in the nervous system. This is a more challenging read but a great one for CPTSD.
OCD and Perfectionism
While not a trauma book per se, I learned so much from this. She brilliantly writes about the suffering women have from the wound of perfectionism, stemming from OCD, people-pleasing, rejection, shame, and abandonment. She uses religious analogy but isn’t promoting it.
Childhood Trauma
An easy book to read and understand childhood trauma. It describes the necessary steps of development that did not occur for health. I recommend anything Aline LaPierre does. Her work on Neuroaffective Touch is fantastic for childhood neglect.
Books on Abuse
I first started my healing journey by devouring books on abuse. They helped me in ways trauma books could not – I lost so much shame and self-loathing because I understood that the problem was never me. I was being abused and reacting normally. It appeared as a mental illness, but it was far from it. He was the problem. These books were the beginning of the end of my trauma bond.
Abusive men
Lundy is a good man who understands terrible men. His work with abusers never enables or seeks to treat them. He understands that the work is in helping women, not focusing on men who will not change their ways. He gets it.
Control and Coercion
The chapter on the Teddy Bear effect resonated so profoundly that I got chills. This book discusses the emotional and manipulative ways of abuse. Often, it is the more subtle behaviours that become insidious and require trauma work to undo.
Childhood abuse
A short but necessary read for people with childhood abuse and neglect. I read this in one sitting, seeing myself as the smart child who saw through the masking of the abuse and the pressure put on us to perform and please. The gifted child is often sensitive and told to achieve while their core needs are denied.
Literature on Healing From Harm