The Bookshop
A curated reading list for those called to understand the body, restore connection, and cultivate a more embodied life. Every book we recommend, we have read and believe in. Click any cover to purchase on Bookshop.org.
Browse Our Full Bookshop.org Storefront"We can nurture an empathic civilization by embodying it in our lives, our lifestyle, and our relationships."
22 curated titles
Touch the Future
John Lee Clark
A DeafBlind poet and essayist challenges every assumption about touch, presence, and what it means to truly connect. Clark's concept of "protonormality" — the invisible privilege of sight and sound — reframes embodiment as a political and relational act.
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The Embodied Mind
Varela, Thompson & Rosch
The landmark text that brought Buddhism and cognitive science into conversation. Varela and colleagues argue that mind is not in the brain but enacted through the living body's engagement with the world — the philosophical foundation of everything WOT stands for.
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Touch
Richard Kearney
A philosopher recovers touch as our most vital and neglected sense. Kearney traces the "flesh" through Aristotle, Merleau-Ponty, and beyond, arguing that tactile presence — skin to skin — is the basis of all genuine human encounter.
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The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk
The definitive text on trauma and the body. Van der Kolk demonstrates that trauma is not just a memory — it is a physical reality stored in muscles, breath, and nervous system. Essential reading for anyone working in somatic healing or relational practice.
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Philosophy in the Flesh
Lakoff & Johnson
Lakoff and Johnson overturn 2,500 years of Western philosophy by showing that reason itself is embodied. Our most abstract concepts — time, causation, morality — are grounded in bodily experience. A ground-breaking work that changes how we understand the mind-body relationship.
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The Practice of Embodying Emotions
Raja Selvam, PhD
Selvam's somatic model expands Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing to include the full body — not just the nervous system. A rigorous clinical guide for those working to help clients complete the embodiment of unprocessed emotional experience.
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Embodied Leadership
Pete Hamill
Hamill brings somatic intelligence into organizational leadership, showing how our physical presence, posture, and nervous system shape how we lead and relate. A practical guide for leaders who want to develop authentic, body-informed authority.
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The Nervous System Workbook
Deb Dana, LCSW
Dana translates polyvagal theory into accessible, practical exercises for everyday nervous system regulation. This workbook helps readers map their own autonomic states and build the capacity for safety, connection, and embodied presence.
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The Quaking of America
Resmaa Menakem
Menakem extends his somatic framework for racial healing to America's political crisis, showing how white-body supremacy lives in the nervous system — not just the mind. Essential for anyone doing equity work through an embodied lens.
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Black & Buddhist
Yetunde & Giles, eds.
A powerful anthology of Black Buddhist voices exploring race, resilience, transformation, and freedom. This collection brings contemplative practice into direct dialogue with the lived experience of anti-Black racism, expanding what embodied awareness can mean and do.
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Living from the Heart
Puran Bair
Bair introduces HeartRhythm Meditation, a practice that uses the heartbeat as the anchor for awareness. Bridging Sufi tradition and modern physiology, this book offers a somatic path to energy, clarity, and inner power rooted in the body's own rhythm.
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The Handbook of Touch
Hertenstein & Weiss, eds.
The comprehensive scientific reference on touch across neuroscience, behavior, and health. This scholarly handbook grounds WOT's work in the research literature, covering everything from tactile perception to the therapeutic dimensions of human contact.
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Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community
Alex Askew, ed.
A collection of essays at the intersection of food, justice, and embodied community. Askew and contributors explore how mindful eating becomes an act of social transformation — nourishing not just the body but the bonds between us.
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Hands of Light
Barbara Ann Brennan
Brennan, a former NASA physicist turned healer, maps the human energy field with extraordinary detail. This classic text bridges science and subtle body awareness, offering a framework for understanding how touch and presence operate beyond the purely physical.
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Listening, Thinking, Being
Lisbeth Lipari
Lipari develops an ethics of attunement — listening not just with the ears but with the whole body and being. Drawing on phenomenology and communication theory, this book reframes listening as a somatic, relational, and ethical practice.
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The Art of Somatic Coaching
Richard Strozzi-Heckler
Strozzi-Heckler, a pioneer of somatic coaching, shows how skillful action, wisdom, and compassion are embodied capacities — not mental ones. An essential guide for coaches, practitioners, and leaders committed to transformation through the body.
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The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory
Stephen W. Porges
Porges himself explains polyvagal theory in accessible terms, centering the concept of neuroception — the body's unconscious detection of safety and danger. This compact guide is the ideal entry point into the science that underpins so much of WOT's approach.
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Terra Viva
Vandana Shiva
Shiva's memoir traces a life of fierce, embodied activism for biodiversity, food sovereignty, and the rights of nature. Her story reminds us that care for the living earth and care for the living body are inseparable — both rooted in the wisdom of touch.
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Reclaiming Conversation
Sherry Turkle
In a digital age, face-to-face conversation is the most human thing we do. Turkle's research validates our insistence on physical presence and thick connection, warning us that substituting screens for eyes leads to a crisis of empathy.
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Polyvagal Theory in Therapy
Deb Dana
While Porges gives us the science, Dana gives us the map. This is the practical handbook for navigating the autonomic hierarchy, teaching us how to move from protection back to connection through the power of co-regulation.
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Earth Democracy
Vandana Shiva
There is no somatic wholeness without economic justice. Shiva connects the dots between globalism, the rights of nature, and the survival of local communities. This text grounds our Fair Trade partnerships in a political philosophy of living economies.
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Seeing Others
Michèle Lamont
Lamont argues that recognition — truly seeing others across lines of difference — is both a moral imperative and a healing force. Her sociological framework complements WOT's relational mission, showing how acknowledgment and dignity are embodied acts of social repair.
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