Book recommendations

• Living like you mean it by Ronald Fredrick.This book explores why people are afraid of their emotions and how this fear can create a variety of problems. This book begins with a questionnaire-style list that helps readers understand themselves better and recognise whether they are afraid of their feelings. It then moves on to explore the origins of fear of feelings and introduces a four-part programme for overcoming this.
• The gifts of imperfection by Brene Brown.This book talks about a concept called ‘Wholehearted living’, which refers to engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.The author describes ways in which we can start to cultivate a sense of satisfaction with how we are at the moment. Her Netflix show, “The call to courage” is also popular.
• The man who couldn’t stop by David Adam.This book talks about OCD and it explores this through the author’s personal experiences. It draws on recent findings from Psychology and Neuroscience research, as well as historical accounts of people who struggled with OCD.
• The book that you wish your parents had read (and your children will be glad you did) by Philippa Perry. This book talks about parenting techniques and it offers a big-picture look at the elements that lead to good child-parent relationships.
• Reinventing your life by Jeffrey Young and Janet S. Klosko. The authors talk about how to free yourself from negative life patterns. They talk readers through the process of identifying “life traps” such as always putting other’s needs before your own or always feeling inadequate when comparing yourself to others.
• Change for the better by Elizabeth Wilde McCormick. This was one of the first self-help books that used the Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) model. It provides the basic principles of CAT in a readable and logically presented format. Presenting an easy-to-follow programme, this book helps to develop insights into the old patterns that govern our choices. It shows how to identify unhelpful patterns of behaviour and how to go about changing them in a realistic way.
• The compassionate mind workbook by Chris Irons. There is increasing evidence that cultivating compassion for one’s self and others can have a profound impact on our physiological, psychological, and social processes. This book is for people who are interested in how fostering compassion through practices from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) may help us engage with, understand, and ultimately try to alleviate suffering. It provides a step-by-step guide in skills that will help you develop a more compassionate mind and learn to work with whatever difficulties you’re currently struggling with.
• Trauma is really strange by Steve Haines. When something traumatic happens to us, we dissociate and our bodies shut down their normal processes. This unique comic explains the strange nature of trauma and how it confuses the brain and affects the body. With wonderful artwork, cat and mouse metaphors, essential scientific facts, and a healthy dose of wit, the narrator reveals how trauma resolution involves changing the body’s physiology and describes techniques that can achieve this.
• Outgrowing the pain by Eliana Gil. This is an important book for any adult who was abused or neglected in childhood. It outlines some of the ways an adult may be affected by abuse or neglect as a child. It also helps the adult recognise the change that can be accomplished in breaking patterns and habits which resulted from the impact of abuse.
• The courage to be me by Nina Burrows. Using a combination of illustrations, storytelling, and research data, this book has been written to send a message of hope to the millions of people who are living with the impact of sexual abuse.
• The ‘Overcoming’ series. These are self-help books based on principles from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Examples from this series include ‘Overcoming Anxiety’, ‘Overcoming Depression’, ‘Overcoming Panic and Agoraphobia’, and ‘Overcoming paranoid and suspicious thoughts’. Each book comprises a step-by-step programme to help people overcome the types of difficulties it was designed to address.