I have spent most of my professional career as a therapist and educator, working with children who have experienced trauma and parents who want to do a better job. Trauma affects every aspect of human development and relationships. With support and understanding, trauma and its impacts need not be permanent: change and healing are always possible. The sooner the process begins, the better. The first five years of a child’s life are so important, and most parents are both overwhelmed by a glut of information and missing out on the most important parts of parenting. My hope is to make this information available to everyone who might benefit from it.
I wrote
Positive Discipline for Preschoolers: For Their Early Years -- Raising Children Who Are Responsible, Respectful, and Resourceful
Positive Discipline for Preschoolers offers parents (and early childhood educators) practical, science-based information about how to build a healthy connection…
What Happened to You? is both profound and easy to understand. Bruce Perry, one of the leading experts on early childhood trauma, has been a frequent guest of Oprah Winfrey, who has spoken many times about the trauma she experienced and the impact it had on her life. In this “conversation”, they explore what constitutes trauma, the effect it has on a person’s life, and how to find healing. Simply put, we need to change the question we ask of anyone who is struggling (especially a child) from “what’s wrong with you” to “what happened to you?” If you’re searching for understanding about your own behavior or that of someone you love, you may well find it here.
Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.
“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”―Oprah Winfrey
This book is going to change the way you see your life.
Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my…
This book distills volumes of science about how the human brain develops into practical tools that parents can use on a daily basis. The Whole-Brain Child also includes information (often in the form of drawings) that can be shared with children, so they too can understand why they sometimes feel and do the things they do. How we raise and relate to our children matters; this book will help you understand just why, and give you concrete tools for enhancing your child’s emotional development.
In this pioneering, practical book for parents, neuroscientist Daniel J. Siegel and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson explain the new science of how a child's brain is wired and how it matures. Different parts of a child's brain develop at different speeds and understanding these differences can help you turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child's brain and raise calmer, happier children.
Featuring clear explanations, age-appropriate strategies and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child will help your children to lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives using…
You will never forget this book. Tara Westover experienced heartbreaking trauma as a child and young adult growing up in an isolated, cult-like family, yet this book is anything but a downer. Westover’s story of hope, curiosity, growth, and healing is inspiring, and provides a real-life story of how one young woman, with little or no outside support, overcame huge obstacles to create a rewarding life. Absorbing and beautifully written, Educated will inspire you to be the best you can be, regardless of what might have come before this moment.
Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE
'One of the best books I have ever read . . . unbelievably moving' Elizabeth Day 'An extraordinary story, beautifully told' Louise O'Neill 'A memoir to stand alongside the classics . . . compelling and joyous' Sunday Times
Tara Westover grew up preparing for the end of the world. She was never put in school, never taken to the doctor. She did not even have a birth certificate…
Dr. Harris is a world-changer. In her pediatric practice in an at-risk neighborhood in San Francisco, she saw young patients suffering challenges and illnesses that did not appear to be linked to any physical condition. She dug deeper, and discovered Adverse Childhood Experiences and the deep impact they can have on young lives. It is now her mission to educate doctors, who have not typically been trained in trauma or social and emotional challenges. Her book (and her TEDtalk on the same topic) is fascinating, exacting, and hopeful. Nadine Burke-Harris is now the first-ever Surgeon General of the State of California, and continues to educate parents and professionals about trauma and healing.
2018 National Health Information Awards, Silver Award
“A rousing wake-up call . . . this highly engaging, provocative book prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego—a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual assault—who galvanized her journey to uncover the connections between toxic stress and lifelong illnesses. The…
Despite its sobering title, this book is both uplifting and inspiring. Bruce Perry has worked with traumatized children for most of his professional career, and has trained hundreds of therapists and other professionals. These stories are both fascinating and hopeful, and provide a template for helping children who have been wounded by life and by those they trusted—and unfortunately, there are many such children in this world. Whether you’re a parent, a professional, or simply someone who wants to understand what happens to us along the road of life, this book is a valuable read.
What happens when a young child is traumatized? How does terror affect a child's mind-and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: homicide survivors, witnesses to their own parents' murders, children raised in closets and cages, the Branch Davidian children, and victims of extreme neglect and family violence. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry tells their stories of trauma and transformation. He explains what happens to the brain when children are exposed to extreme stress and trauma and reveals his innovative (non-medicinal) methods for helping to…
Positive Discipline for Preschoolers offers parents (and early childhood educators) practical, science-based information about how to build a healthy connection with a young child, as well as how to encourage the development of critical social and emotional skills, which are essential to healthy relationships and academic learning later in life.
You will learn to understand your child’s development and temperament, why children behave the way they do, and how to respond in ways that teach character and life skills. And you will learn the value of connection and encouragement in raising a capable, confident young person. Positive Discipline is trauma-informed, has been translated into several languages, and is being taught in more than 70 countries.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
