trauma studies syllabus
from nonfiction to poetry, fiction, and self-help
Dear Reader,
Long before I started trauma therapy, I began to understand myself and my experiences through reading stories about people living with trauma. During my undergraduate degree, I found myself in the world of trauma studies and psychoanalytic theory. It wasn’t until my PhD that I began to read books by trauma therapists and mental health practitioners.
I offer this syllabus for those looking for a way into learning about trauma. I’m an interdisciplinary learner, and so I offer texts across a variety of genres, including nonfiction, memoir, self-help, fiction, and poetry. I’ve also organized books based on topics of interest, so you may find some overlap across reading lists. This is in no way a comprehensive list. Rather, one curated based on my understanding that when we heal ourselves, we heal the world we live in. I’d love to know what you’d add to the list(s)!
A bit about me: I’m a human living with complex trauma and chronic illness. I hold a PhD in English Literature and Sexual Diversity Studies. My dissertation focused on the intersections between trauma and chronic illness and how we can create forms of intimacy and care that enable us to flourish, trauma and all. And that dissertation became my first book: Touch Me, I’m Sick – A Memoir in Essays (which I’m not shy to recommend in many of the reading lists below), published in 2025.
Over the span of my PhD and after its completion in 2021, I have studied with some of the leading experts in the world of trauma healing and been invited to speak at international conferences with them. These teachers include Staci K. Haines, Peter Levine, Arielle Schwartz, Nkem Ndefo, Kai Cheng Thom, and Resmaa Menakem. I’ve completed the Integrated Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate through The Embody Lab, as well as a certificate in Embodied Social Justice Certificate through Transformative Change.
To learn more about me and the work I do in the world, you can visit my website www.margeauxfeldman.com, where you can also check out my shop page for webinars, writing, and art. You can also find me on Instagram, making memes @softcore_trauma.
If after reading through this post, or downloading the PDF linked below, you’d like to send a tip, you can do so through my website, through Venmo at Margeaux-Feldman or PayPal at paypal.me/MargeauxFeldman. Your support truly does make this work possible for me, and enables me to continue to create free resources as a chronically ill human.
Nonfiction
Trauma 101
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation by Janina Fisher.
In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness by Peter A. Levine.
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn.
Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma — An Integrative Somatic Approach by Kathy L. Kain and Stephen J. Terrell.
The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez.
Trauma & Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence — from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine.
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress by Gabor Maté.
Trauma & the Body
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom by Johanna Hedva.
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel.
Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jen Soriano.
Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour.
Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz.
The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice by Staci K. Haines.
Touch Me, I’m Sick: A Memoir in Essays by Margeaux Feldman.
Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy by Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, and Clare Pain.
What My Bones Know. A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo.
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress by Gabor Maté.
Trauma & Intimacy
Attuned and Attached: Heal Your Relationship with Yourself and Others to Create Lasting Connections by Yolanda Renteria
Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection by Mimi Zhu.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown.
Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy by Jessica Fern.
Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief. Ed by Cindy Milstein
The Power of Attachment. How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships by Diane Poole Heller.
Touch Me, I’m Sick: A Memoir in Essays by Margeaux Feldman.
Unfuck Your Boundaries: Build Better Relationships Through Consent, Communication, and Expressing Your Needs by Faith G. Harper.
Unfuck Your Intimacy: Using Science for Better Relationships, Sex, and Dating by Faith G. Harper.
Trauma & Politics
Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies by Renee Linklater.
Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds by Thomas Hübl and Julie Jordan Avritt.
Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety by Cara Page and Erica Woodland.
Healing the Oppressed Body: A Therapeutic Guide for Radical Self-Liberation by Andrea Gutiérrez-Glik
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom by Johanna Hedva.
In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty — Essays on Grief, Change, and Sacred Transitions by Francis Weller
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel.
Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens.
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem.
Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jen Soriano.
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown.
Touch Me, I’m Sick: A Memoir in Essays by Margeaux Feldman.
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté.
The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez.
The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice by Staci K. Haines.
Trauma & Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence — from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman.
What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill.
Self-Help
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay Gibson
Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory by Deb Dana.
Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole by Arielle Schwartz.
Coping Skills: Tools & Techniques for Every Stressful Situation by Faith G. Harper.
Healing the Oppressed Body: A Therapeutic Guide for Radical Self-Liberation by Andrea Gutiérrez-Glik.
Hello Higher Self: An Outsider’s Guide to Loving Yourself in a Tough World by Bunny Michael.
In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness by Peter A. Levine.
In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty — Essays on Grief, Change, and Sacred Transitions by Francis Weller
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn.
Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens.
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem.
Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy by Jessica Fern.
Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices by Deb Dana.
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
The Pain We Carry Workbook: Heal Racial Trauma, Reclaim Ancestral Wisdom, and Ignite Your Soul’s Liberation by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez
Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma by Janina Fisher.
Unfuck Your Boundaries: Build Better Relationships Through Consent, Communication, and Expressing Your Needs by Faith G. Harper.
Unfuck Your Intimacy: Using Science for Better Relationships, Sex, and Dating by Faith G. Harper.
What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill.
When the Ache Remains: Lessons on Tending to the Unfixable and Finding Beauty Anyways by Lisa Olivera
Memoir
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott.
Abandon Me by Melissa Febos.
Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self by Susan Brison.
Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda
Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir by Marsha M. Linehan
Cactus Country by Zoë Bossiere.
Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
Disquieting: Essays on Silence by Cynthia Cruz.
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller.
Everything/Nothing/Someone by Alice Carrière.
Excavation by Wendy C. Ortiz.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
Girlhood by Melissa Febos.
Heaven by Emerson Whitney.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden.
Mean by Myriam Gurba.
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward.
My Body is a Book of Rules by Elissa Washuta.
Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger.
Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jen Soriano.
Pretty Baby by Chris Belcher.
Rough Magic: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder by Miranda Newman
Rust Belt Femme by Raechel Anne Jolie.
Sanatorium by Abi Palmer.
Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour.
Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz.
Trans Girl Suicide Museum by Hannah Baer.
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch.
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case.
The Story Game by Shze-Hui Tjoa.
Touch Me, I’m Sick: A Memoir in Essays by Margeaux Feldman.
What My Bones Know. A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo.
White Magic: Essays by Elissa Washuta.
Fiction
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad.
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt.
A Little Life by Hanya Yangihara.
Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada.
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin.
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins.
Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead.
Lakewood by Megan Giddings.
Like a Bird by Fariha Róisín.
Little F— by Michelle Tea.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
Old Enough by Haley Jakobson.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.
Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson.
Severance by Ling Ma.
Soft Core by Brittany Newell.
The Break by Katherena Vermette.
The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang.
The Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway.
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi.
Poetry
A Bestiary by Lily Hoang.
A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom.
Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
Bone Confetti by Muriel Leung.
Citizen by Claudia Rankine.
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine.
Impact Statement by Jody Chan.
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker.
No Credit River by Zoe Whittall.
Obits by Tess Liem.
Psych Murders by Stephanie Heit.
Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil.
Survival Takes a Wild Imagination by Fariha Róisín.
The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us From the Void by Jackie Wang.
This Wound Is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt.
Thresholes by Lara Mimosa Montes.
Fiction gives me a way to explore inherited trauma without standing directly inside the original room. Even now, at sixty, after years of therapy, I still need that distance. The work may have given me language, but language does not always make the body feel safe.
The body often understands before the mind does. That has been one of the hardest and most clarifying things for me to learn. A reaction can arrive before memory, before explanation, before the story makes sense. Fiction lets me follow that reaction through a character’s hands, silence, appetite, fear, or need for control.
I do not write trauma into fiction to disguise it. I write fiction because sometimes distance is the only way I can get close enough to tell the truth.
Thank you for this! Just added all of these books and resources to my Notion TBR page!