All books listed on this page are relevant to healing from child abuse and come recommended either by me or by someone who reads my blog. They are sorted in alphabetical order. If you click on a book cover, a new window will open at Amazon.com.
If you choose to purchase the book, a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to Isurvive, which is a message board for child abuse survivors. That site was my lifeline during my “flashback years,” so I have set it up so that all proceeds are direct deposited into Isurvive’s bank account.
The following books are for child abuse survivors and do not have religious triggers:
The following books are for child abuse survivors and have religious triggers. They are helpful to those who have a Christian faith:
The following books are written for those who have a relationship with a child abuse survivor and want to understand how to help:
The followings books are helpful for alternative (spiritual) healing methods:
The followings books are helpful for BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Sadism and Masochism):
If you have a book to add to the list, please post it in the comments below or email me the name and author. I only want to include books that someone has actually read and found to be helpful.
Blooming Lotus 
[…] Recommended Reading […]
I walk closely with two friends who are multiples as they journey toward healing. In my quest to understand better, I found a few books to be helpful.
The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook by Deborah B. Haddock
I particularly appreciated the overall description of DID, the listing of various stages of therapy, and the self-help ideas.
*Religious Triggers*
For those who turn to their faith in Jesus for healing, I loved a chapter in Death By Love by Mark Driscoll that details how Christ’s death on the cross covers the shame and feeling of filth that results from sins committed against us. It is a chapter written specifically as a letter to a girl who had been sexually assaulted and abused.
*End Religious Triggers*
Thank you for your openness and honesty in your blog. It really does help me to better understand DID, so I can be a better support to the hurting ones in my life.
Hi, J.
Thank you for your recommendations. I have added both books to the list. I have decided to set apart the books with religious triggers so those who are vulnerable to religious triggers don’t order a religious book.
– Faith
[…] Recommended Reading […]
I was repeatedly molested as a child by several men and one woman who were either family friends or aquantences.
As an adult looking back I felt as if there was a “come molest me” sign somewhere on my body. Typically I am also a recovering addict and alcoholic and my story is not unique. Healing began for me when I admited that I was aroused, and I liked it. From that point on I was able to stay sober and help other women like myself. I am now about to enter graduate school and be able to help more women like myself in a professional way. Where would I find journal articles addressing this topic? So far searching for Psych articles isn’t very fruitful.
Thankyou for this site, I’m not alone and that is a huge comfort.
Hi, Sharon.
I am not familiar with any journal articles on the subject. I have found the most healing through reading books (such as those listed on this page) and through talking with other child abuse survivors. To publish a journal article, a person much have a certain level of education and then pass a peer-review by other educated people. I find that the best source of information comes from those of us who have lived the abuse, not from those who have earned their education by studying us.
Don’t get me wrong — I find an enormous amount of value in working with a qualified therapist. My point is that a good therapist gets that way by learning from child abuse survivors. I learn some of the best healing methods through talking with other child abuse survivors and what has worked for them personally. :0)
– Faith
Dear Sir or Madam,
I recently authored, “Slave, Slave, Freedom,” about how I survived 7 years (ages 6-13) as my fathers sexual slave and his brutality only to stumble through life until in my mid fifties I found help. It was an horrific life but I lived unlike many others. I only found rest when I entered therapy and painstakingly followed a program with my therapist detailed in my book. Please read it as I know how painful my life was until I completed this exercise. It worked for me and I believe it will work for others.
I couldn’t talk to anyone and never could I look a person in the face when I spoke of the abuse. I hated what I thought they saw. I’m still very isolating but my father and his memories no longer have such a grip on me.
My name was Charles Mark and I have legally changed it to Musa Elsaidi.
“Slave, Slave Freedom,” is published by Whitmore Publishing. I have attached a short video on their YouTube page.
Thanking you in advance, I remain,
Respectfully,
Hi, Musa.
Thank you for your recommendation. I just added your book to the Recommended Reading list. :0)
– Faith
[…] Recommended Reading […]
I have highlighted just about all of Alice Miller’s The Drama of the Gifted Child and
Father daughter incest by Judith Herman
For those who have a loved one with depression,
William Styron’s concise but very helpful , Darkness Visible is great. It helps you to see what depression feels like and looks like when you re in it.
Virginia Woolf, a room of one’s own is also a lovely read with clear drawing in words of depression.
I was glad to see Trauma and Recovery listed Of all the resources I have soaked in, that is by far, the most easily understood and helpful to me.
Hi, Aggiemonday.
Thanks for the recommendations. I just added all of them. :0)
Trauma & Recovery was one of the most powerful books for me as well. By viewing PTSD as a disorder affecting soldiers and other trauma survivors as well as child abuse survivors, it helped me to see the disorder for what it is. While I might feel shame for the child abuse, I could see clearly that a soldier need not feel shame. It really helped to step outside of my head and see PTSD as a disorder and not just my f@#$ed up head. :0)
– Faith
Dear Sir/Madam
Please would you consider adding my book “Wake Up Mummy” by Anna Lowe to you list of recommended reads.
Book Description
A heartbreaking memoir of how a mother’s alcoholism destroyed her daughter’s childhood
Product Description
‘I squeezed through the narrow gap and out into the hallway and I stood for a moment, unable to decide where to go. Should I make a dash for the kitchen, where my mother would be swigging from a bottle? Or should I run upstairs and try to find somewhere to hide? It was a choice I didn’t really need to make, because there was no escape’
Anna Lowe grows up on the doorsteps of pubs, waiting for her mum to come out. Having to give up her bedroom to her mother’s drunken friends. And regularly calling out the ambulance, after finding her mother unconscious and covered in vomit.
But it is when they move in with her mother’s boyfriend Carl that things take the ugliest turn. Not only is he violent with her mother, but he also sexually abuses Anna from the age of six – destroying any semblance of normal childhood she had left.
Wake Up, Mummy is the heartbreaking true story of a little girl who eventually found the courage to break free from the past.
With kind regards
Anna Lowe
Hi, Anna.
Yes, I will be happy to add it to the list. :0)
– Faith
Hey Faith,
I found “Healing the Shame That Binds You” by John Bradshaw to be very helpful and insightful and also powerful in overcoming addictions/toxic shame and reclaiming my healthy shame.
i love the candor and honesty in the telling of your story. it reminds me repeatedly that i am NOT alone. i am newly diagnosed DID, but that is only a technicality since it only grants a name to something i thought was normal the majority of my life. i am just now starting to figure out cooperation, etc. thank you for continuing the fight.
I recommend:
Coping with trauma-related dissociation by Boon, Steele and Van der Hart.
I found it to be very helpful.
I would recommend When the Man You Love was Abused by Cecil Murphey. It is an excellent book for women partners, friends or mothers of men who were sexually abused.
Do you have any articles or documents or books that deal with rape victims that suppressed (as I did my second incident) or repressed or repressed the rapes. I repressed my first incident and suppressed my second one. Most of the articles I’ve come across relate to how victims feel right after the rape. But what about those who suppress it and have to deal with it all over again? Sorry.
Hi, Kris.
The “Survivor to Thriver” Manual and “The Courage to Heal” both deal with recovered memories. Most child abuse survivors whose abuse was ongoing starting before age 6 deal with repressed memories. Also, “The Myth of Sanity” is all about dissociation and repressing traumas.
– Faith
Thank you for the book recommendations. And mine was later than that. I was 12 (girl bully) and 15 (boyfriend). I repressed the first one, it actually came up dealing with the second one and my past with bullies. And I knew something happened with the second incident, (it was supposed to be sex, except I didn’t want it and I wasn’t ready) I just could never call it rape until 6 months ago and tried my hardest to forget it… Until I realized I was running from my past and blaming myself for something that I didn’t do. He did it. He was responsible for his actions. And now I’m tired of being silent. I know you deal with childhood sexual abuse on here, I just was curious if you came across something that could help. Thank you Faith. I appreciate your response.
Hi, Kris.
Both of those book recommendations would apply to your situation. :0)
– Faith
Thank you!
I have 2 suggestions. This could either be categorized under the current “Alternative (spiritual) Healing Methods” or perhaps a new category?: “Simple, Easy Reading.”
These are both small paperbacks. Approximately 4″ x 4″ and 6″ x 4″.
The first one is: “Be Good To Yourself Therapy” written by Cherry Hartman, illustrated by R.W. Alley
(The back copy of the one I have states, in part: “Insight-fully written by a clinical social worker with sixteen years of experience…)
The second is entitled: “Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me” by Cynthia L. Copeland
Sometimes I find that I need to take a break from all the heavy reading and I enjoy the simplicity and wisdom packed into these two little gems!
I should add that sometimes the book: “Be Good To Yourself Therapy” by Hartman is cross-referenced under “Christian” books.
I didn’t read anything along those lines in the 37 “tips” in my copy (which is an older version – cover is yellow with blue and red type.)
In fact, I couldn’t even tell that this WAS a christian-related book at all until I just went back and read the first page, 3-paragraphed “Forward”.
The second paragraph does allude to God in two sentences.
In respecting the separation of religious books on this page, I thought it important to mention that.
I’d recommend Unbound by Neal Lozano, particularly for those with a Christian belief system. Mighty powerful book.
Thanks, KT. I just added it. :0)
~ Faith