Vicarious Trauma, Historical Grief, & Trauma-informed Healing Practices
A curated collection of books, articles, and videos to support learning about vicarious trauma, historical grief, and trauma-informed healing practices.
Key Books / Texts
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The Biology of Trauma: How the Body Holds Fear, Pain, and Overwhelm, and How to Heal It
Aimie Apigian MD
Bridges cellular/biological mechanisms with accessible clinical tools for somatic healing. -
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk
Foundational text on the neuroscience of trauma, memory, and somatic healing. -
The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color
Natalie Y. Gutiérrez & Jennifer Mullan
Centers C-PTSD experiences in BIPOC communities and offers culturally relevant clinical/therapeutic approaches. -
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
Stephanie Foo
First-person account illuminating complex trauma and embodied recovery useful for clinicians to understand lived experience -
The Politics of Trauma
Staci Haines
Somatics intersecting with society and community-based trauma healing.
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The Deepest Well
Nadine Burke Harris, MD
ACE scores, long-term health impacts, and trauma-responsive care.
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All About Love
bell hooks
Love as an ethic, grief as an expression of connection, and communal care.
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My Grandmother’s Hands
Resmaa Menakem
Trauma, and healing pathways for providers and communities.
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Waking the Tiger and Polyvagal (Stephen Porges)
Peter Levine
Somatic discharge, titration, and autonomic state models which guide safe, paced interventions.
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When the Body Says No; In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Gabor Maté
Relational, stress-based perspectives linking early adversity and body health; emphasis on compassion and relational inquiry.
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It Didn’t Start with You
Mark Wolynn
Practical approach to inherited/family trauma and how transgenerational patterns can be identified and worked with.
Articles and Clinical Frameworks
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“What Is Vicarious Trauma?”
American Counseling Association
Defines vicarious trauma and best practices for providers. -
“The Science of Intergenerational Trauma”
National Institutes of Health
Biological + sociocultural transmission of trauma. -
“Somatic Therapies for Trauma Treatment”
PESI & NCTSN summaries
Modalities: SE, Sensorimotor, EMDR, Polyvagal. -
“Healing Justice: A Framework for Liberation”
Cara Page & Kindred Collective
Community-rooted, Black feminist trauma healing frameworks. -
Healing Justice, Transformative Justice, and Holistic Self-Care for Social Workers
Videos / Interviews
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How The Body Keeps The Score On Trauma
Bessel van der Kolk for Big Think+
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You Can Heal Intergenerational Trauma
Dr. Thema Bryant
This is a call, an invitation, a mandate, a manifesto, and a recipe for those of us who are surviving, struggling, and juggling the wounds of collective trauma. -
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome
Joy DeGruy
How is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome different from PTSD? Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation. -
What My Bones Know — Book Talk
Stephanie Foo’s book talk with Kat Chow
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Trauma and The Nervous System: A Polyvagal Perspective
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Gabor Maté on the power of addiction and the addiction of power
Gabor Maté
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Compassionate Inquiry
Gabor Maté
Dr. Gabor Maté, renowned addiction expert and international speaker, discusses Compassionate Inquiry, a psycho-therapeutic method for facilitating physical, mental and emotional healing.
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“Notice The Rage, Notice The Silence”
Resmaa Menakem
Resmaa Menakem activates the wisdom of elders, and very new science, about how all of us carry in our bodies the history and traumas behind everything we collapse into the word “race.” He offers up his intelligence on changing ourselves at a cellular level — practices towards the transformed reality most of us long to inhabit.
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Decolonizing Therapy
Dr. Jennifer Mullen
Dr. Mullan's work in Decolonizing Therapy is truly inspiring, and the discussion was an enlightening opportunity to delve into the intersections of her practice and its impact on individuals.
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Introductory video(s)
Polyvagal Institute
Clear, clinician-friendly explanations of autonomic states and neuroception that map directly onto observable somatic cues.
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Short breath & Yoga Nidra practices
Tracee Stanley
Trauma-informed somatic/yoga practice examples suitable for provider self-care or short group practice.
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It Didn’t Start With You
A talk with Mark Wolynn: Science and Nonduality Conference
The latest advances in epigenet- ics—how traumatic experiences can be inherited from our parents and grandparents—as well as the newest research in neuroscience that supports healing, how to break the patterns we’ve unknowingly adopted that keep the cycle of suffering alive from generation to generation. Wolynn will also present his Core Language Approach, a method for identifying inherited family trauma and decoding our own personal language of trauma.
