Conflict Is Not Abuse - Sarah Schulman - A pertinent read for anyone living today. Outlining the difference between conflict and abuse, this book unravels how a culture of overstating harm in order to avoid accountability underpins social issues, personal relationships, shame, trauma, politics and more.

Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Structures of Subjugation - Daniel Shaw - A heavy title and a fairly academic read, however this book is extremely relevant, interesting, and surprisingly straightforward. A good look at how we develop skills for interacting with others, and the subtleties therein.

Scattered Minds - Dr. Gabor Maté This book focuses primarily on Attention Defect Disorder, but is also a good look into the effects developmental trauma has on all of us.

Traumatized Motherfuckers - A refreshingly sarcastic and real exploration of the brain science, behavioural science, and realities of living with CPTSD.

Navigating Narcissism - Dr. Ramani Durvasula chats with survivors of narcissistic abuse, outlining many key dynamics, behaviours, and red flags.

*She also has many helpful videos regarding narcissism and strategies for coping with narcissistic personality styles on her youtube channel.

Shame Spiral - Comedian and psychotherapist Ely Kremeindahl chats with guests about their relationship to shame, their own specific shame narratives, and provides a hypothetical shameful scenario in order to examine their potential feelings and reactions. It’s funny, it’s insightful, it’s real, I like it.

Witch Please - this podcacst began as a feminist reading of the Harry Potter series, but has evolved into a string of invaluable lessons on critical thinking. It’s one of my favourites for delving into the psychology of our culture, learning new things, and spending an hour with hosts that just get it.

Material girls - Witch Please hosts, Hannah and Marcelle offer a critical examination of the forces beneath pop culture. Some context for understanding the world we live in.

Gender Playground - Another Witch Please pod, this time looking into gender and gender-affirming care for kids.

Cover Story - Power Trip - An investigative journalism podcast, the season ‘Power Trip’ takes a look into the use of psychedelics in therapy and gives a lot of important, useful information about what to look out for in the world of psychedelic therapy, “guides”, and wellness cult culture.

*I personally feel that psychedelics can be beautiful and powerful tools for healing ... and that it is important to be keenly aware of how vulnerable we become in these altered states, and the unfortunate human tendency to abuse power. If psychedelic use is something you are interested in please take care to understand the risks of that human abuse of power, narcissism, and re-traumatisation so that you will be better able to keep yourself safe.