The following is a list of those books on trauma, with some on trauma-and-journalism, which I’ve found most useful over the past 10 years or so. An eclectic mix, with a few observations to help guide you through, whether you’re a therapist, a journalist, or just you. I hope it’s helpful.

The Secret Life of War by Peter Beaumont. Harvill Secker. Powerful autobiography of one of Britain’s best war correspondents who came to understand the psychology of what he was doing. Note the appearance of mystery therapist around page 10….

Journalists Under Fire by Anthony Feinstein. Johns Hopkins Press. The definitive and first serious analysis of trauma as experienced by frontline journalists. Very readable.

Why Love Matters, How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain by Sue Gerhardt. Routledge. An excellent, readable and comprehensive overview of how the brain works and develops, and the impact of trauma and attachment experience, especially in early childhood.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman. Bloomsbury. Easy to digest, and compelling argument about the primacy of emotions.

Trauma and Recovery by Judith Lewis Herman. Pandora. Short, readable, riveting. A history of trauma and hugely influential in the field.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, by Peter Levine. North Atlantic Books. Often cited as influential, though less connected with the trauma research mainstream. Can go down well with clients.

Transforming Trauma EMDR by Laurel Parnell.  Norton. Comprehensive and simple, narrative introduction to EMDR.

The Body Remembers by Babette Rothschild. Norton. One of the very best books on the physiology and treatment of trauma with ordinary therapy approaches.

Healing without Freud or Prozac by David Servan-Schreiber. Pan. Background to emotional distress and chapters of practical advice on how to feel better emotionally – ranging from acupuncture to waking up gently, exercise, pet-keeping and, yes, EMDR. Demystifies mental health.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols and Procedures by Francine Shapiro. The Guildford Press. THE handbook on EMDR by its founder Francine Shapiro. Everything you never even knew you wanted to know about what is in my view by far the most effective and enduring treatment for trauma.

Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. by Jonathan Shay. Touchstone. Highly influential and readable comparison of classical Greek portrayals of trauma and America’s Vietnam experience. From a military psychiatry perspective.

Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming by Jonathan Shay. Scribner. Follow-up to Shay’s ground-breaking historical analysis of psychology and meaning of war-fighting from the soldier’s perspective.

A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists 1914-1994 by Ben Shepherd. Jonathan Cape. A substantial and very readable tome looking at how armies and psychiatrists have understood and responded to war trauma since Shell Shock in WWI.

Workplace Trauma by Noreen Tehrani. Brunner-Routledge. Book-length version of Tehrani’s PhD on trauma as experienced and dealt with in particular in the Royal Mail. Very practical.

Traumatic Stress by Bessel Van der Kolk (ed.) The Guildford Press. The definitive and earliest major academic analysis of trauma and its treatment.

Attachment in Psychotherapy by David Wallin. The Guildford Press. First half particularly sets out the neurophysiology of brain development better than anything I’ve read. Also explains why working with attachment (as in, also, transference and counter-t) is so critical to successful therapy. Unputdownable.

A VERY SMALL SELECTION OF TRAUMA WEBSITES:

International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies ISTSS (www.istss.org).

European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies www.estss.org

United Kingdom Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS). Brand new. www.ukpts.co.uk

National Institute for Clinical Excellence, on PTSD treatment guidelines http://www.nice.org.uk

UK Trauma Group http://www.uktrauma.org.uk/ukservcs.html

David Baldwin’s Trauma Information Pages http://www.trauma-pages.com/

EMDR Institute http://www.emdr.com/

Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma www.dartcentre.org

For training in the use of EMDR as a qualified therapist, I can particularly recommend:

EMDR Workshops (for Training as EMDR therapist, six days done over nine months or so.) www.emdrworkshops.com.

Or with Sandi Richman at www.emdr-training.com