Recommended Books
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All books
All books
- Books for Clients, Consumers & Loved Ones
- Books Co-Authored by Dr. Joseph Spinazzola
- Books About Children, Adolescents & Families
- Books on Working with Adults
- Books on Mind, Body & Complex Trauma
- Books on the Intersections of Trauma with Race, Culture & Gender
- Classics

This illustrated children’s book explores the effects of chronic emotional abuse and pathways to resilience. Help for parents and caregivers on how to support children impacted by bullying and other maltreatment

This illustrated book is a wonderful resource for parents and other caregivers to support children impacted by complex trauma and other frightening life events to understand the influence of these experiences on problem behaviors and physical ailments, find words to express their feelings, and improve coping.




This is the first book that focuses on treating adult survivors of the most subtle and insidious forms of complex childhood trauma: emotional abuse and neglect. This book creatively introduces CBP, a new treatment model for complex trauma. It follows the lives, relationships and internal worlds of four characters-- two clients and their therapists—over the course of extended therapy. Uniquely, this book devotes as much attention to the perceptions, choices, mistakes and growth of the therapists as the clients themselves. It also carefully examines assumptions and implicit biases about gender, race, sexuality, culture and social privilege. Dr. Spinazzola and his colleagues distill three decades of wisdom gained from work with hundreds of adults enduring legacies of complex childhood trauma. While written primarily for therapists, this book may also be of value to adult clients, their loved ones, and others seeking an authentic view into the trauma therapy process.









This clinically-focused guide instructs therapists in how to best understand high risk behavior through the lens of complex trauma and survival-based coping. Briere explains often misunderstood and maligned symptoms – such as self-injury, compulsive sexual behaviors, binge eating, reactive aggression – as distress reduction behaviors. Illuminating the process through which trauma survivors learn to numb, block, or sooth otherwise intolerable pain, Briere identifies early childhood relational trauma (especially involving child neglect or caregiver disengagement) as a leading area of vulnerability for the development of high-risk behaviors. Trauma impacted youth find themselves in the midst of chronic, high levels of stress without the supportive care of adults to aid in developing skills to self-regulate. Meanwhile, disrupted neurobiology from this persistent arousal leaves the nervous system more vulnerable to being easily overwhelmed. When the distress persists throughout critical years of child development, such individuals often do not develop sufficient skills to reduce distress or tolerate painful memories later in adulthood. Further, those who have painful interpersonal experiences throughout youth often carry these experiences into adulthood, leaving them more sensitive in their adult relationships to the perception of criticism and rejection. This dynamic can lead to reactions that often appear out of proportion to the outside observer, perpetuating a cycle of negative relational patterns and behaviors. This insightful book is a highly useful addition to the complex trauma treatment literature, with a focus on the safety and stabilization. The author provides both a conceptual frame for formulation and a wealth of tools for clinicians working with high risk clients. He advocates for a curious clinical stance, and gives practical suggestions and resources for using functional analysis of triggered responses to craft effective treatment plans.











