Man's Search for Meaning

Therapy book essential:  Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl.

Drama of the Gifted Child

A therapy book essential, Alice Miller's Drama of the Gifted Child, "examines the loss of the self that occurs in childhood and the subsequent process by which an adult can retrieve his or her true identity that was misplaced in earlier years." Formerly titled "Prisoners of Childhood," this is Alice Miller's best--and widest read--book.

Getting Over Narcissistic Parents

Two stand-out books help guide the way in recovery from a childhood dominated by a self-absorbed, narcissistic parent or parents. Trapped in the Mirror and Children of the Self-Absorbed each capture the experience of being raised in a home where the nurturing flows not from parent to child, but from child to parent, an inversion that invariably affects how the grown child meets the world and builds new relationships. If that sounds like you or someone you know, both of these books are strongly recommended.

Mental Health Memoirs

Just added to the online bookstore, a section of mental health memoirs. These are tales from people who have lived through it--depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder...you name it.

Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind is the giant of the genre--read and shared and studied--a psychiatry professor's tale of manic-depressive suffering.

Wherever You Go, There You Are

Another great all-purpose book for just about any problem you're having is Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go, There You Are. Kabat-Zinn has spent decades now bringing mindfulness into mental health.

A mindfulness discipline, usually rooted in breathing meditation practice, has been shown to reduce a whole range of symptoms, including depression, anxiety, even bodily pain.

In Wherever You Go..., Kabat-Zinn walks readers through different ways to integrate mindfulness into everyday life--from walking, to driving, to doing the dishes. Short chapters and interspersed quotations help make this extremely readable, in addition to being potentially life changing. Highly recommended.

Radical Acceptance

You'll find a few books in the Therapy Books online store repeated under several categories (depression, anxiety, mindfulness). One book that makes multiple appearances is Radical Acceptance, by Tara Branch. Branch tackles something at the heart of many, if not most, people's suffering: "Believing that something is wrong with us."

Branch puts Buddhist precepts to use to gently urge readers to end the war with themselves. A good, soothing, and helpful read.

Welcome

Coming soon in this space: Collecting, reviewing, and discussing the best in bibliotherapy--therapy books focused on anxiety, depression, anger, stress, marriage, divorce, relationships, mindfulness, and everything in between (and beyond). Therapy books for adults, children, and couples. Therapy books for the ABCs of problems and solutions--ADHD, BPD, CBT, DBT, EMDR, and so on...

For a collection of recommended therapy books in a growing number of categories, click here.