Website Resources

No solicitations please

National Domestic Violence Hotline

https://www.thehotline.org

Joyful Heart Foundation

http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org

National Children's Advocacy Center

https://www.nationalcac.org

National Women's Law Center

https://nwlc.org

The Mama Bear Effect

https://themamabeareffect.org

Darkness to Light

https://www.d2l.org

Trauma Informed Parent

http://traumainformedparent.com

Books

Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow (2019, Little, Brown and Company). Journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow details his investigation into Harvey Weinstein. It’s a riveting story that includes stories of several brave women who helped expose Weinstein’s crimes, NBC’s unethical decision to quash the story, and Weinstein’s shocking efforts to silence and intimidate Farrow.
 
The Catch and Kill Podcast is an excellent supplement to the stories in the book.
Know my Name by Chanel Miller

Know My Name by Chanel Miller (2019, Viking). This beautifully written book is a recounting of Chanel Miller’s experiences in the aftermath of the widely publicized sexual assault perpetrated on her by Brock Turner on the campus of Stanford University. Miller’s thoughts, observations, and emotional reactions reveal stark truths about the ways we treat sexual assault survivors in America. 

The Courage to Heal

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse 20th Anniversary Edition by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis (2008 revised edition, Harper Collins). A sensitively-written, comprehensive and definitive guide to healing from child sexual abuse from experts, interspersed throughout with first-person accounts from survivors. Contains a helpful in-depth chapter on navigating family relationships after abuse.

Toxic Parents

Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life by Susan Forward and Craig Buck (2002, Bantam Books). Explores unhealthy relationship patterns and ways to break free from their destructive forces in adulthood, using case studies.

The Sexual Healing Journey

The Sexual Healing Journey by Wendy Maltz (3rd edition, 2012 William Morrow Paperbacks). Written by a psychotherapist and sex therapist, this book is a resource to help survivors heal from sexual problems; offering techniques and exercises, and using case studies to demonstrate that healthy sex is possible after abuse.

The Body Keeps the Score

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. (2015, Penguin Books). After 30 years working with combat veterans and other trauma survivors, Dr. van der Kolk explains exactly how traumatic stress affects the body and the brain. Through his research scanning trauma survivors’ brains and studying the effectiveness of various treatments, he shows us how innovative modalities (yoga, neurofeedback, massage, e.g.) can repair the damage that trauma causes and help victims repair their lives.

Shout

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson (2019, Viking Books for Young Readers). Shout is a memoir in poetry form that conveys the author’s response to the #MeToo movement, the culture around abuse and assault, and twenty years of hearing from fellow survivors since the release of her acclaimed novel, Speak. She shares personal stories of her own for the first time.

Asking for It

Asking For It by Kate Harding (2015, De Capo Lifelong Books). Calling attention to the cultural response to sexual violence, Asking For It shows how society is complicit in its prevalence and deficient in its response to victims by giving more support to perpetrators than to their victims. This is also a central problem within the families of victims.

Educated

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (2018, Random House). Westover’s story is a poignant demonstration of the tortured decision many abuse survivors must make between their family’s support and their own emotional wellbeing. She details her sheltered and highly religious upbringing in the mountains of Utah, which included severe physical and emotional abuse by her brother. After leaving home and breaking out of her denial, Westover revealed the abuse to her family and stood up to her brother. Her parents and siblings decided she was possessed by the devil and ostracized her from the family.