Top 16 Books About Shame Updated 04 /2024

A lot of the time, shame isn't talked about, but the damage it does to both our mental and physical health is very bad. Brilliantly written, this book looks at the negative effects of shame and gives women powerful ways to deal with them. It can help them break down barriers to love and parenting, and it can help them build better relationships.

You might find these books interesting because they deal with shame in different ways, but they could also help you look at life in a new way. A bibliotherapy session or a course on literature and mental health might also help you work through your feelings of shame and learn more about how to deal with them.

It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle (Non-fiction) by Mark Wolynn 

MarkWolynn has a very specific way of dealing with trauma, especially trauma that has been passed down through the generations. He thinks about trauma in a different way. Trauma isn't always the result of a painful event or a chemical imbalance, but it can be passed down through generations.

Not at All: While the person who was first traumatized may have died or their story has been forgotten, the memories and feelings they left behind could be passed down to future generations and play a bigger role than previously thought. MarkWolynn recommends the Core Language Approach, which is about connecting words and language to emotions, behaviors, and physical symptoms in order to understand where the trauma comes from and then free it. It's a new idea that has been proven to be very effective, especially when other treatments and therapies haven't worked.

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity  (Non-fiction) by Nadine Burke Harris 

After he was sexually assaulted, a young boy didn't grow. This was the beginning of Dr. Harris's work on how to help children who have been traumatized. He linked the effects of toxic stress and long-term illness. Childhood adversity (neglect, abuse, parental shame, divorce) can change our bodies for the rest of our lives.

There are scientific tools in this book that can help us heal from the trauma that has already happened and is keeping us from moving on with our lives.

Another great resource for people who have been hurt.

The Body Keeps the Score (Non-fiction) by Bessel Van Der Kolk  

This is one of the most recent books on trauma healing, and it's one of mine.

Van Der Kolk, one of the world's best experts on trauma, says that trauma is a fact of life and that everyone has to deal with some kind of trauma at some point in their lives.

After three decades of working with survivors, this book shows how trauma affects the brain and the body, and how it can harm every part of cognitive functioning, from self-control to trust to allowing pleasure.

If you like this book, the best part is when he talks about alternative treatments like yoga, meditation, and sports and drama. These can actually change the brain's neuroplasticity, so that recovery can be achieved and survivors can fully reclaim their lives.

I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame (Non-fiction) by Brené Brown

Brené Brown is very good at cataloging women's experiences of shame, and she explains how modern culture makes us all vulnerable to shame – the stories that society tells us about how women should act, live, and work. It is shame that stops us from truly connecting with other people and ourselves. The only way to lessen its power over us is to be aware of it and know that it has an effect on us. We can then start to accept ourselves completely, which opens the door to being true to ourselves. To be positive, Brené Brown's book shows us how to get over our shame and open up a world of personal possibilities.

Healing the Shame that Binds You (Non-fiction) by John Bradshaw

In a weird way, the things we do to lessen our shame are the things that make us feel ashamed in the first place. In order to get away from his shame, John Bradshaw drank a lot. The more he drunk, the closer he came to his shame.

He talks about personal shame, the reasons for it, and how addressing them helps free the shame that ties you down.

This book is especially good for people who work with unresolved family problems. It includes affirmations, visualizations, and inner voice exercises that are good ways to deal with stress. It is very popular with counselors and people who work with mental health issues.

Man’s Search for Meaning (Non-fiction) by Viktor E. Frankl

This book is very interesting because it shows how humans can make sense of difficult situations and find their purpose in life.

Auschwitz Nazi death camp survivor The author shows that through pain, we find meaning and the drive to keep going. This is why we keep going even when we don't want to. Our goal in life isn't to get pleasure or power, but to "find meaning," and it's the search for this meaning that gives us the meaning of life.

Through making ourselves useful to others, unconditionally loving others, and suffering, the book says that we can find meaning in three different ways:

An important book that shines its wisdom no matter what we're going through.

What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break The Silence (Non-fiction) by Michele Filgate 

This book is very interesting because it talks about things we don't talk about in the most important relationship in our lives: the relationship with our mother.

Michele Filgate started writing an essay about her stepfather's abuse when she was still an undergraduate at university. She didn't finish it until a decade later because she needed time to figure out what she wanted to talk about. She wanted to talk about how the abuse had an effect on her relationship with her mother. Immediately after it was published, it went viral and was shared by well-known authors, like Rebecca Solnit. Writers had a lot of desire to share their stories, and there was a lot of need for this type of conversation to be had, as well. a collection of essays and stories that looked at our relationships with our mothers in a very honest way were put together to make an anthology.

André Aciman talks about having a deaf mother, and Cathi Hanauer talks about trying to have a conversation with her mother in front of her controlling and domineering father, both of whom are in the room. When it comes to moms, there are some who need to share everything with their daughters, and there are others who seem like they have everything together.

The text is very well-written. Our mothers are our first homes, and that's why we always try to get back to them. Our relationships with our mothers are often the relationships we have with other people, especially those who are close to us. In working out this relationship, we work out the other relationships, which brings hope, relief, and healing.

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