Britt’s Bookshelf
Featured
By Richard C. Schwartz and Martha Sweezy
From Amazon:
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) reveals how the sub-personalities or "parts" of each individual's psyche relate to each other like members of a family, and how--just as in a family--polarization among parts can lead to emotional suffering.
By John Bradshaw
Shame is that icky thing that often keeps us stuck. This book is great for an in-depth look at where it comes from and how to navigate it. Love that he breaks down an experience that we ALL have had and it seems like he’s been following me around for 30 years taking notes.
By Bessel Van Der Kolk
This book is great for understanding that trauma is not in our head, not in the story, and does not require hours and hours of talking about the past. Trauma is in the body and the body is key to healing it. Love that this book explains why talking your way out of your “stuff” rarely works.
By Peter A. Levine
This book is a great intro to Somatic Experiencing and talks about how animals in the wild NEVER sustain PTSD and when we understand why, we too can heal. Love that it’s easy to read and makes complex concepts super understandable.
By Peter A. Levine
In Healing Trauma, Peter Levine breaks down the biology of fight/flight/freeze in an easy to understand way and gives tools that the reader can immediately implement. Understanding how the nervous system is wired is the key to feeling better.
By Alice Miller
An examination of childhood trauma and its surreptitious, debilitating effects by one of the world's leading psychoanalysts.
Never before has world-renowned psychoanalyst Alice Miller examined so persuasively the long-range consequences of childhood abuse on the body.
By Becky A. Bailey
Becky Bailey is a child whisperer. Her tools and techniques will empower any parent and provide lots of examples of how to use the skills in the book.
By Becky A. Bailey
Little developing nervous systems love rituals. This book is great for helping parents come up with ideas for often difficult transitions (to and from school, to and from a parent in a divorce, going to bed at night, etc.)
By Henry Cloud and John Townsend
This book is for anyone who has trouble saying no, feels guilty for having needs, and generally feels a sense of resentment for being taken advantage of but no tools for improving the situation. Love that this book, while originally written for a Christian audience, can be utilized and adapted for anyone who has a hard time saying “No.”
View the full collection of “Boundaries” books here:
http://www.boundariesbooks.com/boundaries-books/
by Brene Brown
Perfectionism is the ultimate form of self-hatred. This book is a great reminder why and how to combat the disease of perfection. Love that she reminds us that striving for excellence = good, and striving for perfection = impossible! All of her books and audio can be found here: https://brenebrown.com/books-audio/
By Brene Brown
If you have never heard of her, run don’t walk to YouTube and check out “Listening to Shame.” Brene Brown is the shame and vulnerability guru. Love everything about her books!
By Martha Beck
A non-therapy book from the business sector! This one is awesome for anyone in transition (relationships, work, etc.) who feels lost and wants to have some direction towards their passions. Love this book for its easy to implement and highly effective exercises. You don’t need to be clinically diagnosed with a mental illness in order to gain a ton of valuable info from this book.
Find out all about Martha’s books: marthabeck.com/books
By Melody Beattie
Melody Beattie - along with Pia Mellody - both have awesome books on codependency. While I generally don’t like the term “Letting Go” as a catch-all and think it gets WAY overused, this book has awesome (and short!) daily readings.
By Pia Mellody
Trouble with relationships? Pia Mellody, one of the founders of the world renowned Meadows of Wickenburg in Arizona, wrote the book on boundaries, codependency, and relational recovery. Love her explanation of relationships and why and how some of them go super offline.
By Pia Mellody
What is love addiction? Why do I find myself in the same relationship over and over with different people? Love that this book breaks down the all too common experience and provides hope for change.
By Patrick Carnes
Sexual addiction is a term that gets tossed around loosely, but is very real and incredibly scary and painful to navigate. This book breaks down the hows, whys, and whats of sexual addiction.
By Patrick Carnes
Why do we fall in love with people who hurt us? This book is great for understanding why we feel a bizarre attachment and loyalty to unhealthy and toxic people.
By Harville Hendrix
We pick our partners for reasons. This book will unpack why. Love that he offers explanations for the baffling question, “how in the world did I end up with this person…again?”
By Bryan Robinson
Workaholism is one of the most culturally sanctioned addictions but can have profound and devastating consequences on a family system.
By Marianne Williamson
This book goes a bit away from traditional clinical literature into more of a spiritual/metaphysical arena, but there is AMAZING and EMPOWERING information in here that I definitely recommend.
By Marianne Williamson
Change is messy. Change is painful. Change is essential to a passionate and whole-hearted living.
By John Lee
This book is incredibly helpful for anyone who ever feels like they have situations where they experience feeling like a little kid at the grownup's table, whether at work, at home, with family members, or in any emotionally charged situation.
By Robert Whitaker
From Amazon:
In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades?
By Gabor Mate
This book is about addiction.
From Amazon: Based on Gabor Maté’s two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver’s skid row, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts radically reenvisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach.