Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes, but the pain that comes along with looking back is piercing and makes it difficult to move on.
One of the great things to occur over the last 50 years is the rise of self-help books that have helped thousands of people to come to terms with their pain. Perhaps it’s not going to heal your wounds completely, but the stories of others do inspire and point us in the right direction. Keep looking, and you’ll find something that fits your story.
Table of Contents
#1 Don’t Trip Potato Chip by Amy L. Fulmer
 | Recommended by Amy Fulmer from AmyFulmer. Find out more about the book Don’t Trip Potato Chip by Amy L. Fulmer by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Around the world we have an epidemic of children and young adults that are dying; parents are suffering in large numbers with very little help to get thru the grieving process. Don’t Trip Potato Chip is my story of how I survived and thrived after the death of my son. This book will act as a road map to navigate one of life’s greatest hurts….the loss of a child. This book also contains the Parent Survival Checklist that has been downloaded by thousands of parents globally!
#2 Say It Now: Tips to Forgive, Heal & Grow Into Becoming Your Best Self
 | Recommended by Gwendolyn Young from Your Virtual Admin Expert. Find out more about the book Say It Now: Tips to Forgive, Heal & Grow Into Becoming Your Best Self by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
I’m recommending this book because it a power packed action guide that really challenges women to move past the superficial levels of pain and really dig deep through questioning and reflection, while taking them on a journey of another woman who has had to do the same.
#3 Do It Anyway! by Kaywanda D Lamb
 | Recommended by Kaywanda Lamb from KaywandaLamb. Find out more about the book Do It Anyway! by Kaywanda D Lamb by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Do It Anyway! The Single Mom’s Guide to living Life and Achieving Her Goals is a must read for new and experienced single moms.. I’m Kaywanda Lamb, The Winning Single Mom, author of this life-giving and transformational read that reads like a conversation with your bestie. I’m a single mom of 19 years and an educator who decided to share tips and actual how tos to help you get to your best life by sharing my story and coaching you through the 12 steps needed to live a fab life on your terms: healing, finding purpose, finding your tribe, getting organized, not settling, and more.
#4 Flourish in a World Full of People by Marnie Spencelayh
 | Recommended by Marnie Spencelayh from MarnieSpencelayh. Find out more about the book Flourish in a World Full of People by Marnie Spencelayh by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Author Marnie Spencelayh is a retired educator with over 40 years of experience. She wrote Flourish in a World Full of People to put into practice the lessons she learned as a principle and school founder. People struggle with unforgiveness, impatience, and unrealistic expectations of others. These hinder the joy, peace and fulfillment that should be a part of everyone’s life. So much time is spent in negative thoughts about families, friends, coworkers and even other drivers on the road, that there is no energy to live a full and expectant life. This book hands readers exercises and practical directions to creating better relationships with loved ones, let go of past resentments and heal in order to live the life they have always envisioned.
#5 Reasons to Live One More Day, Every Day by Jas Rawlinson
 | Recommended by Jasmine Rawlinson from Jas Rawlinson. Find out more about the book Reasons to Live One More Day, Every Day by Jas Rawlinson by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
If you love real-life, inspirational and relatable stories from people who’ve gone through tough times and made it out the other side, this is a must-read book. With 10 lived-experience stories covering a range of topics (including eating disorders/body image issues, chronic illness, domestic violence, disabilities, and sexual-orientation), Reasons to Live is full of hopeful stories from everyday people who have faced trauma or adversity, and found a way to heal their past hurts.
#6 Queen On Purpose: 5 Ways to Reclaim Your Crown
 | Recommended by Tiffany Young from TY Mental Health Consulting. Find out more about the book Queen On Purpose: 5 Ways to Reclaim Your Crown by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Queen on Purpose combines mental and spiritual wellness into one workbook to help women overcome their past hurt, pain, and trauma by providing 5 practical tips and tools to truly grasp healing.
#7 Project You: Forgiveness Words of Wisdom by Phronesis
 | Recommended by Steven Howard from Caliente Leadership. Find out more about the book Project You: Forgiveness Words of Wisdom by Phronesis by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
There’s a quote on the front cover of this book which goes Forgiveness is a prerequisite for inner peace. This quote sums up the approach of this book, which provides an array of tips, hints, and motivational quotes to help overcome the common obstacles to forgiveness. By practicing the guidance found in this book on forgiveness and the process of forgiving, I have found a higher level of inner peace and happiness.
#8 Searching for God in the Garbage
 | Recommended by Bracha Goetz from Bracha’s Books. Find out more about the book Searching for God in the Garbage by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Experience what goes on inside the mind of a Harvard grad who broke the habits that were imprisoning her in this raw, candid, and fascinating memoir about overcoming food addictions. Learn how to fill the inner emptiness by nourishing your uniquely beautiful soul.
#9 Will I Ever Be Good Enough? by Dr. Karyl McBride Ph.D.
 | Recommended by Jeanny Chai from BambooMyth. Find out more about the book Will I Ever Be Good Enough? by Dr. Karyl McBride Ph.D. by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
You don’t have to Asian American to have grown up with a Tiger Parent. Now that you’ve got a successful career, house, family, and respect, you still secretly struggle with feeling “not good enough”. This feeling of inadequacy is not often discussed in Asian American circles, as we look successful on the outside but are plagued with self-doubt, worry, and the need to find validation from our work. You can be freed from having to break through a lifetime of ceilings by learning self-validation. Karyl McBride’s book helped me tremendously in understanding how my Asian cultural norms could be reframed so that I could finally say “I am enough!”
#10 Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal
 | Recommended by Kate Ferguson from TheKateFerg. Find out more about the book Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
This book is a fascinating read on the mind-body connection. It explains what sort of experiences in childhood can continue to affect us in adulthood…and how to stop them from doing so! Some stories in this book paralleled my own experiences with anxiety, which not only helped me de-stigmatize what I was feeling, but it also expanded my perspective on the healing process. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
#11 Surviving the High School Years with Your Sanity Intact by Lisa Gay Nichols
 | Recommended by Lisa Nichols from Surviving Your Out of Control Teen. Find out more about the book Surviving the High School Years with Your Sanity Intact by Lisa Gay Nichols by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
There is plenty of advice on how to fix your out-of-control teen. But in the end, the only thing you have control over is you.
In Surviving the High School Years with Your Sanity Intact, Lisa Nichols walks you through how to gain a new perspective on who you are as a parent and as a person. This can completely change how you interact with your teen and give you a chance to rebuild your connection before it’s too late. Don’t lie awake all night worrying about whether the next call will be from the school, the ER or the police. Get rid of your emotional triggers, get a new view on your life, and open yourself to new solutions for getting your child back.
#12 Bible
 | Recommended by Arien Reeberg from Hyrax, Inc.. Find out more about the book Bible by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
We are mind, body and spirit and spiritual wounds such as past hurts can keep us from being happy. Anyone who chooses to study the Bible and puts into practice what they learn, will be able to be healed from many illnesses of the spirit, including past hurts. It is guaranteed.
#13 Think Like a Man by jD Shapiro
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Think Like a Man by jD Shapiro by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
From the Hollywood screen writer best known for Robin Hood Men in Tights comes this invaluable book for any women who needs empowering advice about dating and relationships. This book gives away the secret desires of men and how any woman can use what a man needs in order to get what she wants. Political correctness aside, this book is a MANual that will show you how to operate a man in a way he will LOVE and LOVE YOU for doing so. For the first time ever, you have the tools for relationship success. All you need to do is read it and act upon it. Think Like a Man: the only guide you will ever need outlines common mistakes that women make when trying to land and keep the right guy. Although the book is humorous, the advice is sound and surprisingly empowering.
#14 Scad Straight from the Heart by Pamela McKenzie
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Scad Straight from the Heart by Pamela McKenzie by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
This book contains true stories from real survivors in the hopes of raising awareness of an uncommon cause of heart attack in women and men. The emotional effect of SCAD can be quite traumatic for both the survivors and those around them. It is hoped that this book will help newly diagnosed SCAD survivors to understand that they are not alone in this journey. It is also hoped that this book will assist those close to the newly diagnosed survivors to understand SCAD and the emotional effect that it has.
#15 Comfortable With Being Groundless: A Guide For Beginners by Leni De Mik
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Comfortable With Being Groundless: A Guide For Beginners by Leni De Mik by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Have you ever questioned your assumptions about the world? Ever wondered if things are as you believe and know them to be? Ever wondered if how you know, is providing accurate information on how things really are? We all seek the assurance of certainty. We want to be confident that we are living in the real world, not in fantasy or illusion. And yet, paradoxically, this driving need is the origin of much despair and suffering, for we live in a world without ground, as Comfortable With Being Groundless will contend. Using the conclusions of recent scientific studies and principles of Buddhist thought, the authors explore our reliance on certainty, how we use stories to build that world of certainty, how our stories can unexpectedly bring upheaval and despair into our lives (for they are only stories), and how we can live comfortably in the groundless world we live in.
#16 Shielded By Faith: Rape And Persecution by M. A. Cameron
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Shielded By Faith: Rape And Persecution by M. A. Cameron by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
There seems to me no thing in the human experience which compares to rape. It is where the sublime meets the depraved, ecstasy meets agony, love collides with lust and dreams become nightmares. This book is the culmination of reflections I have had since being raped and an attempt to convey the journey from the horror of that night to incomprehensible joy. The reader, having read these words, may feel doubtful. Is such a miraculous healing possible? Can a woman be rescued from such a pit of despair? Is there life after rape?
#17 My Invisible World by Lucy Devine
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book My Invisible World by Lucy Devine by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
This book is about the advanced awareness of the healing journey. It is inspiring and insightful and provides an in depth detail of a journey that can easily inspire other people to begin their own self-healing journey. It reveals the invisible part of the human being, beginning with the aura, the chakra system, the senses, feelings, emotions, spirit and the mind itself. It reveals how the mind works and the invisible influences that rules it. It reveals how to heal and release these limitations that open the mind to a new enlightened mind perspective.
#18 You Just Hear That Word Cancer and You Just Can’t Take It by Lisa Primrose
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book You Just Hear That Word Cancer and You Just Can’t Take It by Lisa Primrose by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Written as a diary, Lisa Primrose goes through the lows and highs of her experiences after being diagnosed with Cancer. She takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster: always positive but not afraid to give the reader a ‘warts and all’ description of events. Her interactions with the Health Service are invariably good but she only gets the best out of the system by having a positive attitude to her condition no matter how physically disabling the symptoms are.
#19 Living For a Reason – A True Cancer Journey by J. A. Prescott
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Living For a Reason – A True Cancer Journey by J. A. Prescott by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
There can be up to 50,000 cases of breast cancer a year in the UK. Ann, in J.A. Prescott’s Living for a Reason, is just one. On receiving the news of her condition Ann greets it with the response – ‘You haven’t told me that I’m dying yet?’ and that is the spirit she carries throughout the book. It is a moving and powerful portrait of a woman who, faced with the vicissitudes of cancer, determines to live life to the full. The book shows Ann as she goes through the stages of cancer and the phases of treatment; the well-known mastectomy, the loss of hair, the cosmetic surgery, the chemotherapy and the less well-known side-effects of the drugs. With her condition compounded with the onset of arthritis Ann’s determination is inspirational and her story is one of great courage.
#20 Worth It! by Reet Mann
 | Recommended by Janine Hornsby from Austin Macauley Publishers. Find out more about the book Worth It! by Reet Mann by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Heer Shergill was relishing a dream life when she suddenly finds herself falling into abyss. Enduring disaster in every way possible, when no mortal comes to her aid, she has no choice but to look within. She can now trust no one but listens to and follows her inner voice. She tries to fix everyone and everything that devastated her, but grasps no success. With dismay only spreading further, submerging her life, she takes a decision to heal herself to comprehend everything around her. Sated with faith, she goes on a life-changing journey to rediscover herself and stumbles by – meeting God on the way. She experiences divine and surrenders to the infinite power and discovers it was within her all along! Heer learns to let go, breathe out and honour herself, she elects to set her soul free from the disgrace and pain caused by others. Rising from her own ashes, Heer reconstructs herself, exploring horizons of pinnacle unknown to her.
#21 Emotional Healing For Dummies by David Beales
 | Recommended by Adina Mahalli from EnlightenedReality. Find out more about the book Emotional Healing For Dummies by David Beales by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
It’s hard getting over past hurts, but this book can help. It explains that if you learn to open up about your feelings rather than keeping them all inside, you will start to feel better. The book gives readers tools to use in order to overcome hardships and move on from anger and hurt. It features sections on understanding emotional healing, the physiology of emotions, being aware of one’s emotions, and different coping mechanisms to handle stress and move on from being hurt.
#22 Connect: How to Love and Accept Yourself After Divorce
 | Recommended by Dawn Burnett from A New Dawn Natural Solutions, Inc. Find out more about the book Connect: How to Love and Accept Yourself After Divorce by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Connect How To Love And Accept Yourself After Divorce helps readers navigate through past trauma and pain. Readers will connect with the 11 authors and their journey as they supply tips on how they transformed and are thriving today. Connect is a step by step fool proof plan on how to gain control over your life helping you push past fears and struggles so you can build confidence and live the life you’ve been dreaming of. Connect focuses on thriving after divorce but the advice can really be applied to any situation in life.
#23 Emotions Of The Mind: Breaking The Cycle by Tamela Todd
 | Recommended by Tamela C. Todd from TamelaTodd. Find out more about the book Emotions Of The Mind: Breaking The Cycle by Tamela Todd by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
I am a Mental Health Advocate and Author of “Emotions of The Mind†serves as a guide on how to thrive despite the trauma. It will also empower readers and raise awareness about the impact of mental and emotional health issues. The transparency of my journey will inspire readers to evaluate their own mental and emotional health.
#24 Traveling Hopefully: How to Lose Your Family Baggage and Jumpstart Your Life
 | Recommended by Megan Close Zavala from Turn the Page Book Coaching. Find out more about the book Traveling Hopefully: How to Lose Your Family Baggage and Jumpstart Your Life by reading the description below or clicking on the button. |
Libby Gill has written several excellent business books, but this is one of her earlier titles, based on her personal experience. Traveling Hopefully is part memoir, part self-help book. As someone who doesn’t necessarily feel like I have a lot of family baggage, I was initially concerned that I would not get as much out of this book as others. However, many of the skills/new ways of thought that Libby presents in the book are applicable in a variety of situations – anyone that is being held back by low self-confidence or an event in their past or just general stuck-ness. She has a very accessible writing style and I highly recommend the audiobook version as well.
#25 Follow the Feeling: A Roadmap to Emotional Freedom
Follow the Feeling is a must-have for any self-help library. This book contains 33 easy-to-do techniques to help settle your nervous system and work through various emotional upsets. West is a physical therapist and yoga teacher with over 20 years of experience treating chronic pain and trauma and knows that stress gets held in the body. This book teaches you to be compassionate as you start working with unhealed pain and trauma, and asks you to love yourself through even the most difficult emotions. As your emotional dashboard starts to heal, you begin to see the wisdom your feelings carry and can learn to trust yourself. The techniques are simple but effective, and several have audio links available.
#26 Becoming Love by Nicola van Dyke
This book with its audio component of 11 meditations, guides the reader through a profound healing journey. Each chapter evokes a thought process and a call to action, using inspirational ideas, exercises to practice and absorbing information. By listening to the peaceful guided audio-meditations, the painful beliefs and feelings held on a deep subconscious level, will be healed and released. This book will bring the reader greater joy and ease in their day to day life. It will heal past hurts; it will change the way they feel about themselves, and change the way they interact with others. It leads them on a journey of Becoming Love.
