Suggested Reading
These books may be purchased via Amazon by clicking any of the images below, purchased elsewhere, or may be borrowed from your local library.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
Written by a clinical psychologist this book unveils the effects of being parented by parents that needed parenting. The book looks at what happened to the child, and how the adult child can heal from the pain, neglect, and confusion of this experience.
Daughter Detox
This author unpacks her research about daughters who have been harmed in their relationship with their mothers. The book is structured is a self-help format but has many useful information and strategies on ways to heal.
Discovering the Inner Mother
This powerful self-help book supports female empowerment and growth. Written in 2020 the author points out that everyone has a mother wound, and shares ideas of how to work with it.
I Don't Want to Talk About It
The author explores male depression using case vignettes and personal experiences. The book does not stop there and shows us ways to use our pain to heal, grow, and restore relationships.
Men's Work
This self-guided book for men (and women) works to reframe what many men can relate to and have been craving. Beaton walks you through a framework for facing the hidden and rejected aspects of yourself—factors that lead to self-sabotage, anxiety, and depression. He offers guidance in practical, accessible exercises.
Mother Hunger
The intention of this book is to help women break the cycle of negative patterns of behavior. While offering plenty of case vignettes, tools, and psychoeducation the author traces the cycle back to the earliest relationship, the mother. The book includes self-help exercises of support.
My Mother My Self
This classic, research-based book was first published in the 1970s. Nancy Friday focuses on the unique & important relationship between a mother and daughter and hints at the concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma.
Necessary Losses
This book addresses grief. According to the author we must grieve in order to gain a truer sense of who we are in the world. Grieving includes loss of our mother’s protection, our younger selves, and some of our dreams.
Real Boys
This book, steeped in groundbreaking research, challenges our assumed notions of boys and manhood. The author lets us know how easy it is for boys to slip through the cracks and encourages parents to reevaluate what real boys need and understand the Boy Code.
This book contains insightful research and real-world examples of the challenges young women face and ways to address them. This is an updated version of the original 1994 version reframing what the author calls “girl poisoning culture.” The revised edition is updated by the author, who was a teenager at the time of the original publication.
The Drama of the Gifted Child
This book, first published in 1997, looks at causes, types, and preventions of childhood trauma. The Gift, of course, is surviving the abuse.
The Velvet Rage
This book challenges what the most important issues is for a gay man. Not just coming out, but coming to terms with his experiences of invalidation, shame, rejection, and more. The author discusses what it is to live an authentic life as a gay man.
The Verbally Abusive Relationship
Verbal abuse is not always obvious, but it is felt. This book’s focus is on helping you notice when verbal abuse occurs, what it represents and how it shows up in your relationships.
What Happened To You?
This book is
non-blaming,
non-shaming, and packed with information on what we may have missed and what we need as human beings to heal.
What My Bones Know
This is a memoir written by a survivor of emotional and physical abuse, who also happens to be a journalist. The author brings her first hand experience and her research on trauma and recovery in this gripping, informative book.
Wild Game
Wild Game is a stunning memoir about how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them and the lies we tell to justify our choices. It’s a remarkable story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us.
Will I Ever Be Good Enough?
This engaging book focuses on the daughter’s experience of an abusive, absent, self-involved mother and how that plays out in their adult lives. The author includes helpful case vignettes from her own therapy practice, as well as guidance for the path to recovery.
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Disclosure: Mari Grande is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program as well as other affiliate programs, and may earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites at no extra cost to you.