A Reading List From My Practice: Books That Have Shaped the Way I Work
One of my favorite aspects of being a therapist is that I am always challenged to keep exploring, studying and growing (both personally and professionally). After more than two decades of practice in yoga, mindfulness, and mental health, certain books have genuinely changed the way I understand people, trauma, healing, and the remarkable capacity we have for resiliency, change and growth.
This is not an exhaustive list — these are just a handful of the books that have influenced my thinking, and that I often return to, recommend, or draw from in my work with clients. These include clinical texts, personal memoirs, and philosophical explorations. If you love to learn (as I do) I hope you’ll find some of the books on this list helpful — or even life-changing.
Trauma and PTSD
The field of trauma therapy has been transformed in the last thirty years, and these are the books at the center of that shift.
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving — Pete Walker
This is the book I recommend the most in my work with clients who have experienced complex trauma. It’s practical, accessible, and real world applicable. Walker's work on the “Four F’s” (fight, flight, freeze, and fawn), the inner critic, and emotional flashbacks has been genuinely illuminating for many.
Trauma and Recovery — Judith Herman
Herman’s landmark clinical text gave language and legitimacy to the experiences of trauma survivors. Her framework for understanding trauma continues to shape how the field thinks and works.
Waking the Tiger — Peter Levine
The foundational text for Somatic Experiencing. Levine's exploration of how animals naturally discharge trauma and what that means for human healing remains one of the most important (and accessible) books in the field.
The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk
The book that brought trauma into mainstream conversation and continues to influence the way we understand how trauma impacts the brain and the body.
Attachment Theory
Attachment theory explores how our early bonds with caregivers shape how we move through relationships and the world around us.
Becoming Attached — Robert Karen
A beautifully written exploration of attachment research and how our earliest relationships shape our capacity for love throughout life.
Attached — Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
A clear and accessible introduction to adult attachment styles. Very useful for anyone trying to make sense of their patterns in their romantic relationships.
Mindfulness and Neuroscience
I find the intersection of contemplative practice, neuroscience, and psychology to be one of the most exciting areas in modern psychology, and is directly applicable to everyday healing.
The Mindful Therapist — Daniel J. Siegel
Siegel's concept of interpersonal neurobiology has profoundly shaped integrative therapeutic practice.
The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy — Lou Cozolino
A rigorous and readable exploration of what actually happens in the brain during therapeutic change.
My Stroke of Insight — Jill Bolte Taylor
A brain scientist's remarkable and fascinating account of her own stroke and recovery.
The Untethered Soul — Michael A. Singer
A philosophical and deeply practical guide to working with the voice in your head.
Full Catastrophe Living — Jon Kabat-Zinn
A definitive text on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. This is foundational reading for anyone serious about mindfulness as a healing practice rather than a wellness trend.
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness — David A. Treleaven
An essential book that challenges the assumption that mindfulness is universally safe and accessible for everyone. Treleaven's work on adapting mindfulness for trauma survivors has directly influenced how I incorporate these practices in my work.
Rewire — Nicole Vignola
A fresh, neuroscience-grounded take on breaking habitual patterns and creating lasting behavioral change. Highly readable, practically applicable, and provides practices that you can implement right away.
Existential and Humanist Philosophy
Some of the most clinically useful ideas about what it means to be human come not from psychology textbooks but from philosophy and literature.
Existential Psychotherapy — Irvin Yalom
Yalom's exploration of the four ultimate concerns — death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness — remains one of the most profound frameworks for understanding human suffering and growth.
Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl
Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl's account of finding meaning in the midst of unavoidable suffering is profound.
Grief and Loss
Grief is perhaps the most universal and least well-supported human experience. These three books approach it from different angles, and all three are extraordinary.
It's OK That You're Not OK — Megan Devine
The most honest, non-prescriptive book about grief available. Devine doesn't try to fix grief or move people through it — she simply bears witness to it. Deeply validating for anyone who has been told they should be over something by now.
The Year of Magical Thinking — Joan Didion
Didion’s memoir of acute grief captures the disorientation that accompanies loss with amazing clarity.
When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi
A neurosurgeon's account of his own terminal diagnosis. This book is exquisitely written and serves as a beautiful meditation on mortality, meaning, and what makes a life worth living.
Adolescents and Family Therapy
Understanding the adolescent brain as well as family systems has shaped my work with adult clients.
The Adolescent Psyche — Richard Frankel
A depth psychology exploration of adolescence that goes into the genuine interior life of young people.
The Family Crucible — Augustus Napier and Carl Whitaker
A classic of family therapy literature told through the story of one family's treatment. This book reads like a novel and is quite fun reading that is essential for understanding how family systems shape individual psychology.
Brainstorm — Daniel Siegel
Siegel's compassionate and scientifically grounded reframe of the teenage brain is essential reading for parents, therapists, and anyone trying to make sense of their own adolescence in retrospect.
The Age of Opportunity — Laurence Steinberg
One of my favorites. A research-based exploration of adolescence as a critical window for development, and what that means for how we support young people through it.
Somatic Healing, Yoga, and Eastern Philosophy
The body, breath, and wisdom traditions have been central to my practice from the beginning. These are the a few of the texts that have shaped that dimension of my work.
The Breathing Book — Donna Farhi
A foundational text on breath as a healing practice. Farhi's work informs my use of breath work in somatic therapy in ways that continue to feel fresh and essential.
The Heart of Yoga — T.K.V. Desikachar
A seemingly simple yet incredibly deep guide about the classical yoga tradition from one of its most important modern teachers. This is a book I return to again and again.
An Open Heart — The Dalai Lama
A gentle guide to compassion as a daily practice.
Think on These Things — Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti is a thinker that can be quite radical and subversive in his own way. This book explores education, freedom, and the nature of the mind.
Living Your Yoga — Judith Lasater
A beautiful integration of yoga philosophy and everyday life.
Yoga for Depression — Amy Weintraub
A beautiful and practical exploration of yoga as a therapeutic intervention for depression.
Bringing Yoga to Life — Donna Farhi
A thoughtful exploration of what it means to live a yogic life beyond the mat.
Relationships and Couples Counseling
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work — John Gottman
Gottman's research-based framework for understanding what makes relationships succeed or fail is a great, practical guide for couples.
Passionate Marriage — David Schnarch
Schnarch's differentiation-based model of intimacy has been enormously influential in the field of couples therapy.
Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
This is one of the areas where clients are hungry for knowledge and where good books can be genuinely life-changing in naming what they've experienced.
"Don't You Know Who I Am?" — Ramani Durvasula
A comprehensive guide to navigating and understanding narcissism in all its forms - from intimate relationships to broader cultural dynamics.
Should I Stay or Should I Go? — Ramani Durvasula
This is a practical, compassionate, and direct work that is essential for anyone in or leaving a relationship with a narcissistic partner.
It's Not You — Ramani Durvasula
Durvasula's most recent and perhaps most accessible work that speaks directly to survivors of narcissistic abuse and antagonistic relational stress.
Healing the Adult Children of Narcissists — Shahida Arabi
A great resource for those unpacking the impact of narcissistic parenting on adult identity, relationships, and self-worth.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson
An exploration for individuals who grew up with parents who were emotionally unavailable, self-absorbed, or unable to attune.
Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery — Daniel Shaw
A clinically rigorous exploration of narcissistic dynamics and their traumatic impact — particularly useful for understanding the relational patterns that develop in response to narcissistic abuse.
Creativity, Giftedness, High Sensitivity, and Neurodiversity
For my clients who are artists, creatives, highly sensitive, gifted, or neurodivergent — this is the shelf I return to most often.
The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
An honest and often humorous book about creative resistance. If you've ever struggled to do the creative work that matters most to you, this is required reading.
Writing Down the Bones — Natalie Goldberg
A classic on writing as a mindfulness practice that explores creativity, presence, and learning to trust your own voice.
The Gifted Adult — Mary-Elaine Jacobsen
Gifted children grow up to be gifted adults... but there don’t seem to be a lot of resources directed toward this group. This book is a resource for adults who have always felt different — too intense, too curious, too much.
The Highly Sensitive Person — Elaine N. Aron
The influential book that named and legitimized high sensitivity as a trait rather than a flaw. Foundational for HSP clients who have spent a lifetime being told they feel too much.
Unmasking Autism — Devon Price
A compassionate, nuanced, and deeply affirming exploration of autism.
Self-Acceptance and Body Acceptance
The Body Is Not an Apology — Sonya Renee Taylor
A joyful approach for radical self-love that challenges the systems and internalized beliefs that keep people in conflict with their own bodies.
Women's Health and Menopause
Two books that bring clarity, science, and advocacy to a life stage that has been chronically underserved by both medicine and culture.
The Menopause Manifesto — Dr. Jen Gunter
Evidence-based, myth-busting, and fiercely feminist and patient-centered.
Menopause Bootcamp — Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz
A warm, practical, and empowering companion for midlife that is integrative and deeply affirming of the whole person navigating this transition.
Ecopsychology
Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind — Edited by Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner
A collection of essays exploring the relationship between human psychological health and our connection to the natural world.
I look forward to updating this list over time — Happy reading!
Lauren Maher is a licensed therapist, author, and trauma specialist in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. She specializes in trauma, anxiety, narcissistic abuse recovery, and integrative approaches to healing for creative professionals, artists, performers, and high-achieving individuals. She is the author of Mindfulness Workbook for Panic Attacks(Rockridge Press) and the forthcomingThe Chair Yoga Deck(Adams Media/Simon & Schuster).