Online Psychotherapy & Clinical Consulting
Suggested Readings
Psychoeducation
In conjunction with psychotherapy, I often recommend various books, articles, and websites for patients to explore. Here you are going to find some insightful readings. None of these resources should be considered an alternative to psychotherapy; instead, they are ways of optimizing the work done in therapy. In addition to the materials shared here, I often share resources, articles, and ideas on my Facebook and Instagram pages. Feel free to visit or “like” to receive updates on your social media.
Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
Author: Melody Beattie
Is someone else's problem your problem?
If like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to someone else's, you may be codependent--and you may find yourself in this book. The healing touchstone of millions, this modern classic by one of America's best-loved and most inspirational authors holds the key to understanding codependency and to unlocking its stultifying hold on your life.
The Compassionate Mind
Author: Paul Gilbert
Develop your feelings of compassion and increase your sense of well-being. In societies that encourage us to compete with each other, compassion is often seen as a weakness. Striving to get ahead, self-criticism, fear, and hostility towards others seem to come more naturally to us. The Compassionate Mind explains the evolutionary and social reasons why our brains react so readily to threats - and reveals how our brains are also hardwired to respond to kindness and compassion. Research has found that developing kindness and compassion for ourselves and others builds our confidence, helps us create meaningful, caring relationships, and promotes physical and mental health.
The Compassionate Mind Workbook
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Authors: Chris Irons & Elaine Beaumont
There is good and increasing evidence that cultivating compassion for one's self and others can have a profound impact on our physiological, psychological and social processes. In contrast, concerns with inferiority, shame, and self-criticism can have very negative impacts on these processes and are associated with poorer physical and mental health. The Compassionate Mind Workbook is for anyone who is interested in how compassion - in the form of ideas and practices derived from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and other approaches - may help us to engage with, understand, and ultimately, try to alleviate suffering. CFT utilizes both Buddhist practices and Western psychological science. It draws on neuroscience, insights into emotion regulation and identity formation, interpersonal psychology, and a range of psychotherapeutic models. CFT-based interventions can help people with a range of mental health problems develop compassion for themselves, be open to the compassion of others, and develop compassion for others.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Author: Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
Becoming Safely Embodied: A Guide to Organize Your Mind, Body and Heart to Feel Secure in the World
Whether you are stuck in the distress of life or appear like nothing’s wrong, you may have faced trauma or incredible stress, or suffocating fear. Maybe you wonder whether those emotions, memories, and experiences are blocking you from being as fulfilled and happy as you could be. Maybe you’re stuck in patterns that simply no longer work for you. What if you could change it all? What if you could feel safe and solid and secure inside your own body? What if your life could be peaceful and centered and fulfilled? In Becoming Safely Embodied, Deidre Fay shares from her 35 years of psychotherapy and spiritual practice to provide a truly practical way to integrate modern neurobiology.