Recommended Reading
Check out these great books on anxiety, trauma, vulnerability, relationships and psychotherapy approaches!
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown PhD, LMSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.
Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity. She writes: “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.”
Esslin’s Review
A beautiful conversation with vulnerability and why it may indeed be our greatest strength. We feel being vulnerable as we have been hurt before, but this book gives us a window into how our lives and wellbeing could transform for the better if we handle our vulnerability well and with courage.
Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide
Designed to meet the formidable challenges of treating personality disorders and other complex difficulties, schema therapy combines proven cognitive-behavioral techniques with elements of other widely practiced therapies.
Esslin’s Review
This book is useful for clients, therapists, interns, students, and anyone with an interest in therapy and the human mind. I base my practice on schema therapy, particularly in the assessment stages, and have seen great success with it for many of my clients.
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
Research shows that DBT can improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. In order to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas-distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Esslin's Review
I have found DBT incredibly effective with clients and recommend this book for those who want to take their therapy further, both as clients and therapists. The practical exercises stimulate reflection and allow us to add new tools to our belt for managing challenges as they arise.
The 5 Love Languages
bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse’s primary love language—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. By learning the five love languages, you and your spouse will discover your unique love languages and learn practical steps in truly loving each other.
Esslin's Review
Excellent, insightful book that highlights five different ways we express, receive and understand love. I have found that with couples these love languages can have a revolutionary effect on the relationship – many misunderstandings are recognized for the first time, and it brings them closer together. This book is a great resource for couples, families and singles to understand their own love languages and begin speaking the love languages of their close relationships for deeper, more meaningful connections.
Staring at the Sun: Being at Peace with your Own Mortality
At age 70 and facing his own fear of death, which he discusses in a special afterword, Dr Yalom tackles his toughest subject yet and finds it to be the root cause of patients’ fears, stresses and depression. If therapists are to deliver ‘the gift of therapy’, they must confront the realities of life for themselves and their practice, as must we all.”
Esslin’s Review: This book is highly relatable for therapists and clients alike. I have found that many challenges my clients come in with link back to a conscious or subconscious death anxiety – or fear of an end. It may drive us to impulsive life-embracing behaviours, perpetuate difficulties in decision-making, leave us feeling empty or depressed, or push us to seek meaning and purpose in life.
Esslin’s Review
Coming to terms with our mortality can help us to live our lives in a mindful, meaningful way. This book is great for anyone who has come across a stumbling stone in life and is unsure where to go from here. It can help to find perspective and connection in something that ultimately links all of us.
Experiencing Schema Therapy from the Inside Out: A Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Workbook for Therapists (Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Guides for Psychotherapists)
This unique resource helps therapists build their skills in schema therapy (ST) by applying ST techniques to themselves and reflecting on the experience. Designed for use by individuals or groups, the book harnesses the power of self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR), an evidence-based training strategy. Twenty modules take therapists step by step through using ST to address a professional or personal problem–from establishing safety and creating a self-conceptualization to implementing mode change work, including cognitive, experiential, and behavioral pattern-breaking interventions
Esslin's Review
Self-reflection is a key element of therapy for psychotherapists and psychologists. This book has step-by-step modules that help us to reflect on our own challenges, emotions, and beliefs, and thereby continue to deepen our understanding of schema therapy on our journey as psychotherapists.
DBT Skills Training Manual
The reproducible teaching notes, handouts, and worksheets used for over two decades by hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been significantly revised and expanded to reflect important research and clinical advances. The book gives complete instructions for orienting clients to DBT, plus teaching notes for the full range of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills. Handouts and worksheets are not included in the book; purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print all the handouts and worksheets discussed, as well as the teaching notes.
Esslin's Review
More practical exercises and a step-by-step practice guide
The 5 Love Languages of Children
Discover how to speak your child’s love language in a way that he or she understands. Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Ross Campbell help you:
Discover your child’s love language
Assist your child in successful learning
Use the love languages to correct and discipline more effectively
Build a foundation of unconditional love for your child.
Esslin's Review
The five languages child edition! This book tailors the love languages to children who are at different developmental stages. Great for parents, aunties, uncles, and grandparents who want to strengthen their bond with the kids in the family.