Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson
Thompson connects neuroscience, attachment, Scripture, and relationships to show how our minds can be transformed. It reminds us that we can only walk with our children to places we are willing to go ourselves.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
An accessible, widely referenced exploration of how trauma affects the brain and body. It is helpful for parents and anyone seeking to understand how past experiences shape the present.

The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis
This accessible guide explains how trauma affects children and offers practical ways to build trust and connection. Created to Connect by Karyn Purvis, Michael Monroe, and Amy Monroe explores the biblical principles behind its approach.

Different by Sally Clarkson
Clarkson shares how she learned to see her son’s differences not as something to fix, but as part of his God-given design. It is encouraging for parents of outside-the-box children and adults understanding their own differences.

Everyday Parenting With Security and Love by Kim Golding
Based on the PACE model—playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy—this book explains challenges involving trust, connection, intimacy, and shame. It offers practical guidance for supporting children affected by trauma.

Fun Games and Physical Activities to Help Heal Children Who Hurt by Beth Powell
Written by a Christian clinician specializing in adoption and attachment, this approachable book shows how simple, screen-free games can be used therapeutically to strengthen connection.

Games and Activities for Attaching With Your Child by Deborah Gray and Megan Clarke
This resource offers purposeful, age-appropriate games for children from infancy onward. Each activity includes an explanation of how it can support attachment and connection.

I Love You Rituals by Becky Bailey
More than 70 simple rhymes and games help parents communicate unconditional love while building connection. The activities take only minutes and are appropriate from infancy through elementary school.

No-Drama Discipline by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
This compassionate guide connects children’s neurological development with parents’ responses to difficult behavior. It reframes discipline as instruction and turns meltdowns into opportunities for connection and growth.

Parenting From the Inside Out by Dan Siegel
Siegel helps parents understand how their own histories and attachment experiences shape their parenting. That awareness can help them better support their children’s developing stories and relationships.

Parenting in the Eye of the Storm by Katie Naftzger
An adult adoptee and family therapist, Naftzger encourages parents to look beyond difficult moods and behaviors. She offers guidance for becoming the parent a child needs both today and for the future.

Parenting With Theraplay by Vivien Norris and Helen Rodwell
This introduction to Theraplay explains the principles behind the attachment-focused model. It also shows parents how to apply its relationship-building practices in everyday family life.

Play Therapy Activities by Melissa LaVigne
This book offers 101 play-based activities families can use at home to improve behavior and strengthen connection. It is especially useful for first-time parents or grownups who feel less confident engaging in play.

The Power of Showing Up by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
This book explores how consistently helping children feel seen, soothed, safe, and secure can foster healing and healthy attachment. Although not adoption-specific, its message is deeply relevant for foster and adoptive families.

Reclaim Compassion by Lisa Qualls and Melissa Corkum
Drawing from their experiences as a birth mother, adoptive mothers, and an adult adoptee, the authors combine neuroscience and faith to address blocked care—the resistance to connection some adoptive parents experience.

Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson
Thompson offers theological and practical tools for recognizing and dismantling shame. The book helps readers understand their own wounded places and find freedom from long-held negative messages.

Therapeutic Parenting Essentials by Sarah Naish
Naish uses experiences from her own family to explore parenting children from hard places. By sharing both parent and child perspectives, she shows how the same interaction can be understood very differently.

Understanding Your Child’s Sensory Signals by Angie Voss
This practical handbook helps parents, teachers, and caregivers recognize when behavior may be driven by sensory needs. It also offers strategies for responding supportively.

The Whole-Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
This accessible guide explains how children’s brains develop and how caregivers can nurture healthy connections. Its insights are especially helpful for parenting children affected by early trauma.