Reading is Self-Care
Motherhood changes everything…your body, your identity, your relationships, and sometimes even your faith. If you’re in a season where you’re questioning what you believe, carrying unresolved trauma, or feeling stretched thin by the mental and emotional load of motherhood, the right book can feel like a lifeline.
These are books I regularly recommend to moms in therapy. Each one supports healing, self-compassion, boundaries, and identity rebuilding…especially during faith transitions and emotionally overwhelming seasons of motherhood.
This list is not about “fixing” yourself. It’s about understanding yourself with more clarity and less shame. Bookmark this page as I’ll update it often with new books.
by Lindsay Kite, PhD & Lexie Kite, PhD
This book is especially powerful for moms who feel disconnected from their bodies—whether due to religious messaging, postpartum changes, or years of valuing appearance over internal experience.
Why I recommend it:
More Than a Body helps you shift from viewing your body as something to manage or criticize to something that supports your life and values. For moms healing from religious trauma or purity culture, this book gently challenges harmful narratives around worth, appearance, and control.
Helpful if you’re:
by The Arbinger Institute
This book explores how internal emotional states shape conflict—especially in families and close relationships.
Why I recommend it:
Many moms in faith transitions struggle with relational tension: partners, parents, in-laws, or community members who don’t understand their growth. This book helps you identify how blame, defensiveness, and self-betrayal quietly fuel conflict—and how to shift toward compassion without self-abandonment.
Helpful if you’re:
by KC Davis, LPC
Never judge a book by its cover, or title. This is not a book about cleaning. It’s a book about survival, dignity, and mental health.
Why I recommend it:
KC Davis offers a compassionate, trauma-informed approach to care tasks. This book is especially validating for moms dealing with depression, anxiety, postpartum struggles, or executive dysfunction.
Helpful if you’re:
by Brené Brown, PhD
A foundational book on vulnerability, courage, and shame resilience.
Why I recommend it:
Faith transitions and motherhood both require vulnerability—often without a roadmap. Daring Greatly helps you understand how shame operates and how vulnerability is not weakness, but a necessary part of living aligned with your values.
Helpful if you’re:
by Brené Brown, PhD
This book focuses on letting go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embracing who you actually are.
Why I recommend it:
A lot of moms, especially those raised in high-demand religious environments, struggle with perfectionism and self-judgment. This book offers practical guidance for cultivating worthiness, boundaries, and self-acceptance.
Helpful if you’re:
by Eve Rodsky
This book addresses the invisible labor and mental load carried by women in families.
Why I recommend it:
So many moms feel exhausted not because they’re doing everything but because they’re responsible for remembering everything. Fair Play provides language and structure for redistributing responsibility in a way that supports equity and partnership.
Helpful if you’re:
by Kim John Payne, M.Ed., with Lisa M. Ross
This book focuses on reducing overwhelm, for both kids and parents, by simplifying schedules, environments, and expectations.
Why I recommend it:
For moms healing from trauma or navigating faith transitions, overstimulation can heighten stress and emotional reactivity. Simplicity Parenting offers a gentle, values-based approach to family life that supports regulation and connection.
Helpful if you’re:
edited by David P. Gushee & Glen H. Stassen
Religious faith can be a source of meaning, community, and comfort — but for many of us, it also carries deep wounds. When Religion Hurts You offers a compassionate, accessible introduction to the experience of religious trauma, especially for those who have been shaped by high-control or authoritarian faith systems.
Why I recommend it:
This collection of essays helps you see that your pain is real and understandable — not imagined or “just a phase.” It names experiences that are often dismissed within religious communities: shame, fear, silence, and the emotional cost of conforming to rigid expectations. For moms navigating a faith transition or trying to separate spirituality from harmful messaging, this book offers clarity, validation, and a path toward healing.
Helpful if you’re:
Questioning religious beliefs that once felt secure
Healing from spiritual abuse or fear-based teaching
Rebuilding identity outside of doctrinal pressure
y Emily Nagoski, PhD
Sexuality is deeply personal, layered with emotion, culture, and history. But for many women — especially those raised in purity culture or environments where sex was tied to shame — understanding desire can feel confusing or fraught with judgment. Come As You Are explores sexuality through a science-based, shame-free lens, helping you reconnect with your body and your capacity for pleasure.
Why I recommend it:
This book provides not just information, but permission — permission to understand your body’s responses without shame, to learn how stress affects desire, and to let go of cultural myths that disconnect sexuality from joy and intimacy. For moms healing from trauma or unpacking messages about purity, worth, and desire, Come As You Are offers language and insight that can be truly liberating.
Helpful if you’re:
Reconnecting with your body after childbirth or trauma
Struggling with sexual shame or identity
Seeking a compassionate, evidence-based view of desire
In my work at Wild Bloom Therapy & Wellness, I blend evidence-based approaches like CBT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Brainspotting, mindfulness, and somatic practices. Books like these often complement therapy by helping you:
Reading is never a replacement for therapy but the right book can support your healing between sessions.
If these themes resonate with you, you don’t have to work through them alone. I specialize in supporting moms navigating:
Services offered in Arizona:
If you’re ready for support that’s compassionate, grounded, and shame-free, I’d be honored to work with you.
