Recommended Reading
Understanding what happened to you or someone you love and the effects it can have can be incredibly powerful and validating in making sense of your experience. Hearing the stories of others can offer connection and lessen the feelings of isolation and insirpation. We have gathered some reading of extrordinary survivor stories, essential reading in understanding trauma, and some suggestions for children and parents to understand how to educate, safeguard and respond to Child Sexual Abuse. It will continue to grow.
The Body Keeps Score
Bessel van der Kolk Drawing on more than thirty years at the forefront of research and clinical practice, Bessel van der Kolk shows that the terror and isolation at the core of trauma literally reshape both brain and body.
Complex PTSD: From Survivng to Thriving
Pete Walker A comprehensive, user-friendly, self-help guide to recovering from all the the lingering effects of childhood trauma.
The Courage To Heal
Ellen Bass Laura Davies A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Based on the experiences of hundreds of child abuse survivors, The Courage to Heal profiles victims who share the challenges and triumphs of their personal healing processes. Inspiring and comprehensive, it offers mental, emotional and physical support to all people who are in the process of rebuilding their lives. The Courage to Heal offers hope, encouragement and practical advice to every woman who was sexually abused as a child and answers some vital questions
It Wasn't Your Fault
Beverly Engel Shame is one of the most destructive of human emotions. If you suffered childhood physical or sexual abuse, you may experience such intense feelings of shame that it almost seems to define you as a person. In order to begin healing, itâs important for you to know that it wasnât your fault. In this gentle guide, therapist and childhood abuse expert Beverly Engel presents a mindfulness and compassion-based therapeutic approach to help you overcome the debilitating shame that keeps you tied to the past.
The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: A memoir
Grace Tame The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner is Grace's story, in Grace's words, on Grace's terms. Here she returns, again and again, to the things that have driven and saved her: love, connection and radical, unwavering honesty. Like Grace, this book is sharply intelligent, deeply felt, wildly unexpected and often blisteringly funny. And, as with all her work, it offers a constructive and optimistic vision for a better future for all of us.
System Failure The Silencing of Rape Survivors
Michael Bradley One in five Australian women has been the victim of a sexual assault. For these women, there is less than a 1 per cent chance that their rapist has been arrested, prosecuted and convicted of the crime. These are the bare numerical facts of system failure. We offer rape survivors a stark choice: go to the police, or remain silent. In recent times, the public pressure on survivors to report has increased, alongside a growing focus on two other options: civil action against the perpetrator, or going public. These evolving social responses are intended to offer an alternative to the tradition of silencing. However, each of these choices, for survivors, involves a further sacrifice of what they have already lost. The legal system’s responses to rape were designed without survivors in mind, and they do not address, in any way, the questions that survivors ask or the needs they express. Simply put, on the systemic response to rape, we are having the wrong conversation.
The Girl In The Green Dress
Jeni Haynes , George Blair-West an unforgettable memoir from a woman who refused to be silenced. Jeni Haynes is an inspiration and her bravery and determination to live is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. This is a unique and profoundly important book as it is not only a story of survival, it also includes incredible insight from Dr George Blair-West, Jeni's psychiatrist and an expert in DID.
The Flying Child: A Cautionary Fairytale for Adults
Sophie Olsen, Patricia Walsh The Flying Child – A Cautionary Fairy Tale for Adults documents the therapeutic journey undertaken by Sophie and her therapist, Patricia. It includes all chapters of the fairy tale and the drawings Sophie created to help her make sense of her experiences and to reconnect with herself. It contains many between-session conversations, with important insights into how to work intuitively with trauma. Essential reading for those interested in understanding or working with survivors of child sexual abuse, for those who are survivors of sexual abuse, and all people in ‘The World’.
Groomed
Laurie Matthew In 1950s and '60s Dundee, the only ray of light in little Laurie's life came from the man who would return home with pockets full of sweets and bags of toys. Uncle Andrew would shower Laurie with attention and love, capture the hearts of everyone around him - and carefully groom her for years of abuse by not only himself, but also by a network of paedophiles. Laurie tells a harrowing story of isolation, as her abusers went to extraordinary lengths to carry out their sick acts, wearing masks to confuse and torment her and keeping her away from other children. But these evil men had no idea that the girl they systematically violated would turn into one of the country's leading child protection experts, and that their legacy would give her the impetus to change the lives of so many innocent victims.