At the Australian Resource Therapy Institute (ARTI), we believe in staying deeply informed honouring the roots of parts-based therapy while expanding with modern, trauma-informed innovations.
Below you will find a hand-picked list of essential books that have shaped my clinical mindset and continue to influence trauma therapists, psychologists, and parts-based practitioners around the world.
These titles explore modalities such as Resource Therapy, EMDR, Ego State Therapy, Structural Dissociation, Thought Field Therapy, EFT, Mindfulness, Somatic therapy, and clinical hypnosis. Whether you are a seasoned therapist or just discovering the power of personality parts, this collection offers powerful tools, theory, and heart.
🧠 Core Resource Therapy Texts by Professor Gordon Emmerson
Gordon Emmerson’s books are the foundation texts of Resource Therapy, offering clarity, structure, and practical techniques for working directly with Resource States.
📘 We stock these at our trainings, often at a discounted rate for attendees.
💡 Foundational Influences and Complementary Texts
These authors and titles have helped me build a rich, integrative therapy practice:
✨ Rachel Naomi Remen – Kitchen Table Wisdom, My Grandfather’s Blessings
Heart medicine for therapists. Her soulful storytelling brings presence, compassion, and meaning to our work.
A gentle invitation back to purpose.
🌀 Maggie Phillips & Claire Frederick – Empowering the Self Through Ego State Therapy
A brilliant primer on Ego States, hypnosis, and healing trauma through part-based work. Includes interventions drawn from TFT, EFT, and EMDR.
🔥 Janina Fisher – Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors
Janina is like the wise grandmother of trauma therapy. I was lucky to attend her Sydney workshop, and her warmth and insight were unforgettable. A must-read on internal self-alienation and resistance.
💖 Carol Forgash, Margaret Copeley, Jim Knipe – Healing the Heart of Trauma and Dissociation with EMDR and Ego State Therapy
A solid volume, especially for EMDR-trained clinicians seeking to understand how parts work enhances trauma treatment.
🧬 Kathy Steele, Suzette Boon, Onno van der Hart – Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation & The Haunted Self
For those working with structural dissociation, these books are vital. Kathy Steele’s work is compassionate, rigorous, and accessible – essential for complex trauma clinicians.
👁️ Sandra Paulsen – Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation
Excellent for clinicians integrating somatic and visual processing. Adds depth to any dissociation-informed practice.
🧩 Robin Shapiro – Easy Ego State Interventions
Straightforward, effective parts work strategies from a well-known EMDR therapist. Great for clinicians seeking quick integration into sessions.
📢 Jess Hill – See What You Made Me Do
An investigative tour de force on domestic violence in Australia. Jess explores power, politics, history, and trauma. A must-read for psychologists and therapists supporting survivors of coercive control and intimate partner violence.
👩🔬 Helen H. Watkins & John G. Watkins – Ego States: Theory and Therapy
The original voices behind Ego State Therapy. RT has evolved well beyond this foundational model, but these texts give us the roots of the tree that holds it up.
💬 Your Turn
Have a favourite therapy book that changed your life or your practice?
We would love to include it! Drop us a line and let us know what titles shaped your journey.
📦 How to Buy
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Of course, you are free to purchase directly without the link – we appreciate you either way. 💛
This is a gem real therapy sessions, whereon learn directly from Gordon.
The Advanced Skills and Interventions in Therapeutic Counselling is so practical and supportive. This counselling skills book from Professor Emmerson has it all, ethics, counseling practice and management. Perfect for the new practitioner or the experienced therapist, All will benefit.
This early Ego State Therapy book is a great addition to the Resource Therapist’s library. Here you will see the beginnings of Resource Therapy taking shape. Highly recommended.
A different pace from Professor Emmerson. This is delightful.
Plus some more interesting titles:
And from his Research Your Therapy – Analyse your Results and Publish Workshop comes this terrific book. Ideal for the psychology student, and it sorts out statistics and experimental design issues in plain English. It’s like Research Methods Psychology 101, boy do I wish I had it back then!
Plus, you don’t need fancy and costly SPSS. He has tailored it to a work with JASP very user friendly stats software available free !
Remember, Professor Emmerson is an advanced statistician and holds statistics workshops worldwide he is a member of STATA. A mere sideline but great for us, Stats, Math and research Luddites and newbies :
Why Therapists Love Rachel Naomi Remen’s Books
One of my greatest therapy inspirations is Rachel Naomi Remen – a medical doctor, psychotherapist, and storyteller whose words have touched the hearts of countless healers around the world.
Her books, including Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings, are filled with short, soulful stories that often move me to tears. They are gentle yet profound – deeply human reflections on suffering, healing, and connection. Rachel draws from her own journey with chronic illness and her long career in both medicine and psychotherapy, offering a rare and gracious wisdom.
For therapists, her writing is not only heart-warming but professionally grounding. It reminds us of the sacredness of the therapeutic relationship and the quiet power of presence.
If you are a therapist, healer, or simply someone seeking meaning, Rachel Naomi Remen’s work is essential reading. Her books are enduring, soul-nourishing, and a beautiful companion to the inner work we do.