Recommended Self Help Books
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Sway by Matthew John Bocchi
After his father died on 9/11 in the World Trade Center, nine-year-old Matthew John Bocchi began an obsessive quest to find out exactly how he died. In the first memoir told by a child of 9/11, Matt intimately delves into the psychological and emotional torment that ensued after his father’s death. With heartbreaking vulnerability, he details how his incessant quest resulted in a devastating act of violence that stripped his innocence as a young man. As Matt spirals down a bottomless pit of drug abuse, he willfully risks his life in search of the next high—all in an attempt to forget his past.
It Didn't Start with You; How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn
Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is compelling: the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains—but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited—that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations. It Didn’t Start with You builds on the work of leading experts in post-traumatic stress, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score.
Revisioning: Rapid Mirror Neuron Psychotherapy for Grief and Trauma by Mark S. Rider and Lynn Heselton
Revisioning is a rapid psychotherapy technique for grief and trauma. By activating the mirror neuron network of the brain, symptoms of Complicated Grief, PTSD, Depression, Addiction, Personality Disorders, and Dissociative Identity Disorder can now be significantly improved within just a few sessions. Written by a medical psychologist and a psychiatric nurse, this ground-breaking technique is causing psychiatrists and psychotherapists to rethink the conventional approach to psychotherapy. In this bottom-up brain technique, mental health treatment can occur much faster without having to depend on the client reliving painful traumas and losses.
A Moment of Insight: Universal Lessons Learned on A Psychiatrist's Couch by Dr. Suvrat Bhargave
Dr. Bhargave has treated children and adults who sought psychiatry as a last resort to stop feeling empty, misunderstood, and unworthy. None came anticipating a spiritual conquest, and each wanted relief in the quickest way possible. While there was no magic pill for a cure, what evolved time and again, through patience and vulnerability, was the tale of hope through adversity. The result is A Moment of Insight.
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Lack of Focus and Memory Problems by Dr. Daniel Amen
In this breakthrough bestseller, you'll see scientific evidence that your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness could be related to how specific structures in your brain work. You're not stuck with the brain you're born with. Here are just a few of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen's surprising -and effective - "brain prescriptions" that can help heal your brain and change your life
The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk
A pioneering researcher and one of the world’s foremost experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for healing 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. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring - specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Dr. Peter A. Levine
Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: Why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
"Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering," says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork - all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach's 20 years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students.
The Gifts Of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be And Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown
Brené writes, "This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, 'My story matters because I matter.' Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance."
Do it Scared: Find the Courage to Face Your Fears, Overcome Adversity and Create the Life You Love by Ruth Soukup
We tell ourselves we are too busy to pursue our dreams. That there's no time, or that it's not practical. But what if the real reason we're putting off our goals is FEAR?
Equal parts inspiration and tough love, Do It Scared combines easy-to-implement tips with the motivation to start making real changes that lead to big results. Get ready to get off the sidelines and jump into your own life as you dare to Do It Scared.
You Are A Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
Packed with humor, inspiration, and advice, You Are a Badass is the number one New York Times best-selling self-help book that teaches you how to get better without getting busted.
Eight Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery by Babette Rothschild
Trauma recovery is tricky; however, there are several key principles that can help make the process safe and effective. This book gives self help readers, therapy clients, and therapists alike the skills to understand and implement eight keys to successful trauma healing: mindful identification of what is helpful, recognizing survival, having the option to not remember, creating a supportive inner dialogue, forgiving not being able to stop the trauma, understanding and sharing shame, finding your own recovery pace; mobilizing your body, and helping others.