Resources
Below is a collection of some of the books and resources which have helped shape the way I practice and think of psychology and healing. I share them here in the hope that they might serve or inspire you as well.
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD
A true classic. In this powerful work, Dr. Estés—a Jungian analyst and gifted storyteller—retells ancient myths and fairy tales, then explores their deeper psychological significance for women. At the heart of the book is the archetype of the Wild Woman: the instinctual, wise, and untamed part of the female psyche. This book is a road map for re-encountering our essence.
Over the past decade, I’ve returned to this book again and again. Each time, it meets me in a new way. Especially in times of feeling lost, it can be profoundly healing to encounter a story that mirrors our inner landscape—offering both meaning and direction.
C-PTSD from Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker
Hands down the most accessible and useful book on healing from childhood trauma and dysfunctional family dynamics that I’ve ever come across. It’s become a bit of a cult classic in the world of mental health DIY-ers for very good reason.
One of Walker’s major contributions is identifying a fourth trauma response—Fawn—alongside the more well-known Fight, Flight, and Freeze. Fawning is the tendency to abandon oneself, ones own knowing, desires, and feelings in order to appease others—a survival strategy many of us developed early on.
Another powerful concept from this book is that of emotional flashbacks. Unlike visual flashbacks, emotional flashbacks are sudden waves of intense feeling—shame, fear, grief—without a clear memory attached. They can be confusing and overwhelming, but Walker offers a step-by-step process for recognizing and moving through them
The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller
This book is a profound and poetic guide to grieving—both personally and collectively. Francis Weller, a psychotherapist and soul activist, invites us to see grief not as something to "get over," but as a sacred process that connects us more deeply to life, love, and community.
Weller names five gates of grief, offering a language for the many forms of loss we carry: not just death, but also lost dreams, ancestral wounds, the sorrows of the world, and the parts of ourselves we’ve had to exile to survive. His writing is both lyrical and grounded, weaving together psychology, ritual, and indigenous wisdom in a way that feels deeply human.
This book has a way of softening what feels hard and isolating. It reminds us that our grief is not a problem to be fixed, but a response to love—and that healing happens in the presence of others, when we are witnessed and welcomed in our sorrow.
Healing Through the Dark Emotions by Miriam Greenspan
One of the most grounding aspects of this book is its reminder that emotional pain is not a personal failure—it’s a natural, human response to a world that includes suffering. Rather than seeing the feelings of grief, fear and despair as signs of dysfunction or things to be “fixed,” Miriam Greenspan invites us to recognize them as essential gateways to healing, meaning, and transformation.
This book helps to teach us how to metabolize the so-called “dark emotions” in ways that lead to deeper resilience, empathy, and connection. The original title of the book was Emotional Alchemy - meaning that by working consciously with that which originally seems worthless (the alchemist’s lead), we can turn it into something as valuable as gold.
The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock
Unlike the more familiar Hero’s Journey, which moves outward toward conquest and adventure, the Heroine’s Journey is an inward descent to the depths of our psyche. This book maps a path through what can feel like the chaos of unraveling, revealing it instead as a sacred initiation into a more whole, authentic self.
Maureen Murdock, a Jungian therapist, wrote this book in response to the gaps she saw in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey model, which she felt didn’t accurately reflect women’s experiences. Her work offers an essential reimagining of the journey as it exists for women. Not as a quest which takes us away from home, but rather deeper into the truth and power of our essence.
One thing to note: when Murdock speaks of “the feminine” in this book she’s not referring to long hair and pink dresses. Rather, she’s pointing to something far older, deeper, and more primordial.
No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz
This book is an accessible and profound introduction to “Parts Work” or Internal Family Systems (IFS). It’s especially helpful for those who struggle with inner conflict, self-criticism, or shame. Rather than trying to change ourselves through force or willpower, No Bad Parts teaches us to listen inward, and to heal through the practice of changing our relationship to those parts of us that we often want to just get rid of.
Learning to relate to yourself—and your struggles—with curiosity rather than condemnation can be a profound turning point.
