RESOURCES
Book & Podcast Recommendations
General
Click on the image for more information from the author/publisher.
Hold Me Tight - Dr. Sue Johnson
Hold Me Tight offers a revolutionary way to see and shape your relationships. Based on the science of love and the wisdom of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the stories, ideas, and exercises walk the reader through seven conversations that can define a love relationship. Learn to shape these crucial relationship moments and create a secure bond that will last for a lifetime.
The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change - Pauline Boss, PhD
How do we begin to cope with loss that cannot be resolved?
With a loss of trust in the world as a safe place, a loss of certainty about health care, education, employment, lingering anxieties plague many of us, even as parts of the world are opening back up again. Yet after so much loss, our search must be for a sense of meaning, and not something as elusive and impossible as "closure."
This book provides many strategies for coping: encouraging us to increase our tolerance of ambiguity and acknowledging our resilience as we express a normal grief, and still look to the future with hope and possibility.
Scattered Minds: The Origins & Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder - Gabor Maté, MD
Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder – published in the U.S. as Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates And What You Can Do About It – is written from the inside by a doctor who himself has Attention Deficit Disorder. It offers a completely new perspective on ADD and a new approach to helping children and adults living with the problems Attention Deficit Disorder presents.
Demonstrates that ADD is not an inherited illness, but a reversible impairment, a developmental delay
Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy—and why
Shows how “tuning out” and distractibility are the psychological products of life experience, from in utero onwards
Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviors
Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood
Presents a program of how to promote this development in children and adults alike
Shift - Ethan Kross
Shift weaves groundbreaking research with riveting stories of people struggling and succeeding to manage their emotions—from a mother whose fear prompted her to make a spur-of-the-moment decision that would save her daughter’s life mid-flight to a nuclear code-carrying Navy SEAL who learned how to embrace both joy and pain during a hellish training activity. Dr. Kross spotlights a wide array of tools that we already have access to—in our bodies and minds, our relationships with other people, and the cultures and physical spaces we inhabit—and shows us how to harness them to be healthier and more successful.
Filled with actionable advice, cutting-edge research, and riveting stories, Shift puts the power back into our hands, so we can control our emotions without them controlling us—and help others do the same.
The Invisible Lion - Benjamin Fry
Drawing from his own experiences of childhood trauma, breakdown, and recovery, the author, psychotherapist and founder of Khiron Clinics, a world-leading residential trauma clinic, introduces a powerful analogy to help his clients understand the complex nature of trauma and its effects on our lives.
He paints a picture of someone running through life in a state of fear, anxiety, and depression, feeling powerless to stop their apparently irrational reactions to everyday situations and people, appearing "crazy" to themselves and those around them – until the invisible lion that’s been chasing them is finally seen. At that moment, everything begins to make sense.
The Invisible Lion offers readers a new lens through which to view their own struggles while also demystifying mental health challenges. It provides tools and understanding to help people identify and address their own invisible lions, and heal from their trauma, fostering a more compassionate and supportive world.
Parents & Caregivers
Click on the image for more information from the author/publisher.
Hold On to Your Kids - Gordon Neufeld, PhD; Gabor Maté, MD
This parenting classic is as relevant today as it was when it was first published, shining a light on one of the most misunderstood trends of our time: how the influence of peers, magnified by social media and video game culture, is replacing parents in the lives of children, and what parents can do about it—now featuring a new chapter.
The Emotional Lives of Teenagers - Lisa Damour, PhD
In teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. And with so many of today’s teens contending with academic pressure, social media stress, worries about the future, and concerns about their own mental health, it’s easy for them—and their parents—to feel anxious and overwhelmed. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Untangled - Lisa Damour, PhD
In her New York Times bestseller, Dr. Damour draws on decades of experience and the latest research to reveal the seven distinct—and absolutely normal—developmental transitions that turn girls into grown-ups, including Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself. Providing realistic scenarios and welcome advice on how to engage daughters in smart, constructive ways, Untangled gives parents a broad framework for understanding their daughters while addressing their most common questions.
Staying Connected with Your Teen - Yshai Boussi, LPC
Grounded in cutting-edge polyvagal theory, Staying Connected with Your Teen shines a light on why teens are so easily triggered and offers nerve-calming strategies to minimize reactivity, nurture a stronger connection, and help you lovingly guide your teen on the path to adulthood. You’ll also find skills to help you meet your teen where they are developmentally, and discover ways you can help them feel safe and loved—even when you are having disagreements.
Trust is at the heart of the bond between parents and teens. This book will help you strengthen that trust and create a peaceful atmosphere where expectations are better communicated.
Topics from episode:
What is peer attachment vs peer orientation?
Why emotional health is messy and how to work through it
Where is the story of emotional health?
Working with the emotional playground
The consequences of our children holding back their feelings