Even though fictional books can be wonderful, and can change the lives and thought processes of their readers, I personally rarely give myself time to read fiction. The reason being that there are so many amazing non-fiction books out there, too many for one lifetime.
The book I‘ve given most as a gift, recommended and loaned out, both to clients and to friends and family, is called “The Boy Was Was Raised As A Dog” by Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Maya Szalavitz. Dr. Perry is a child psychiatrist and a Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy. Maya Szalavitz is an award-winning journalist and the author of many books, amongst them the book „Unbroken Brain“, which I‘m also a big fan of and will probably write about some time in the future.
The ChildTrauma Academy gets many of the biggest, most serious cases of childhood neglect and abuse, and in this book, Dr. Perry allows us to be a fly on the wall in some of them.
The book is composed of 12 chapters, each chapter covering one case example, where we get to hear the children‘s stories and what was done to help the children heal from their traumas, while learning about the brain development of children and the effects trauma has on the developing brain and what matters in childhood development and the environment of children, all explained in simple and accessible language.
This book completely changed my thought processes and the way I practised my profession when I first read it, and I‘ve stopped counting how many copies I‘ve bought as of yet. If everyone would read this book, the world would be a better place.
I wholeheartedly recommend you go out and buy a copy today.
The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog
