I’ve spent roughly 12,000 hours reading over the last 4 years… but the majority of this research has been redundant, repetitive and frankly ridiculous.

It’s true that I have a deep love and respect for the world class teachers who worked before me, but the difficulty with studying older books is that you’re often gambling with their quality because they don’t have many online reviews.

I’m interested in finding forgotten gems, the majority of my favourite books are out of print or otherwise unknown to the internet, and the average publication date for a random book from this library sits somewhere in the 1980s.

But reading like me is ridiculous, there is too much unnecessary repetition.

In retrospect, it took fewer than 150 high-quality psychology books for me to feel at least 90% ‘trauma informed’ on the essential principles of self healing & self integration - so why did I continue to invest the extra years if it wasn’t technically necessary?

Simple answer: there’s a tremendous difference between healing yourself and supporting other people in their healing process - this is especially true when working with people who have complex trauma.

If you’re not a coach, therapist or healer then you don’t need to read anywhere near as much as I have. This library spans a century of research, and six hundred psychology books is entirely unnecessary for improving your own mental health.

I needed to read like a madman because it’s my responsibility to do everything I can to understand the clinical literature so that I can avoid doing any unintentional harm because ignorance scales when you’re teaching on the internet.

I will happily read ten niche books so that I can recommend you the top two books and prevent you wasting your time searching in the darkness… which is the last thing you need when working through difficult emotions or experiences.

Bottom line for your personal healing:

I recommend reading at least 2 high-quality psychology books per month for the next two years.

That’s a very manageable fifty books, and it’s enough to become broadly competent in trauma psychology and holistic self integration if you choose your selection wisely.

If you want instant access to my all time favourite recommendations, then join me inside the library via the link below.

https://courses.jordanthornton.com/shadow-work-library/

I’ve got 36 books to share with you, and I’ve built them into a hybrid curriculum which feels like the perfect blend between action-oriented therapy and a mini-masters in shadow psychology.

Jordan