Books like In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

01

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk · Psychology

The Body Keeps the Score is Bessel van der Kolk's account of four decades spent studying and treating trauma, from Vietnam veterans at the VA in the 1970s to survivors of childhood abuse, accidents, and domestic violence.

Shares trauma and healing with In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness.

02

When the Body Says No

Gabor Maté · Health

When the Body Says No is Gabor Maté's investigation into how chronic stress and emotional suppression contribute to serious illness.

Both dig into trauma.

03

Daring Greatly

Brené Brown · Health

Daring Greatly is Brené Brown's argument, drawn from twelve years of qualitative research on shame and vulnerability, that the willingness to show up without guarantees — to be seen, to risk failure, to remain open in the presence of uncertainty — is not weakness but the foundation of courage, connection, and meaningful achievement.

A kindred psychology read.

04

Lost Connections

Johann Hari · Health

Lost Connections is Johann Hari's argument that depression and anxiety are not primarily chemical imbalances in the brain but responses to social and environmental conditions — disconnection from meaningful work, close relationships, the natural world, a secure future, and status that feels deserved.

A kindred psychology read.

05

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

Peter A. Levine · Psychology

Peter Levine's argument begins with animals.

Shares trauma and nervous system with In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness.

06

The Myth of Normal

Gabor Maté · Health

The Myth of Normal is Gabor Maté's most ambitious book, co-written with his son Daniel Maté.

Shares trauma and healing with In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness.

07

Adult Children of Alcoholics

Janet G. Woititz · Psychology

Adult Children of Alcoholics is Janet Woititz's clinical guide to the lasting psychological patterns that develop in children raised in alcoholic families.

Both dig into trauma.

08

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah · Memoir

Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when the Sierra Leone civil war reached his village and he was separated from his family.

Both dig into trauma.

09

Anatomy of the Spirit

Caroline Myss · Health

Anatomy of the Spirit is Caroline Myss's attempt to synthesize three major spiritual traditions — the Hindu chakra system, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life — into a unified model of human energy anatomy.

Both dig into healing.

10

Can't Hurt Me

David Goggins · Memoir

Can't Hurt Me is David Goggins's memoir of escaping an abusive childhood, failing military entrance requirements, becoming a Navy SEAL, and then becoming one of the most accomplished endurance athletes in the world — not through talent or privilege but through a deliberate, painful process of forcing himself past every limit he had.

Both dig into trauma.

11

Hunger

Roxane Gay · Memoir

Hunger is Roxane Gay's memoir about her body, the trauma that shaped it, and the world's persistent refusal to accommodate it.

Both dig into trauma.

12

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Roxane Gay · Memoir

Hunger is Roxane Gay's memoir of her body — how it came to be the way it is, what she has thought about it, and what it means to live in a body that the world reads as a problem to be solved.

Both dig into trauma.