Self-Help Booklist

A self-help booklist can be very helpful when working through challenges such as depression, anxiety, trauma, or relationship difficulties. The titles below offer practical tools, personal stories, and compassionate insights to support your journey toward healing and self-understanding. Many of these I have read or have been recommended to me by other therapists. Let me know what you think.

💭 Understanding and Lifting Depression

• Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy - David D. Burns. A classic cognitive-behavioural guide with practical exercises for shifting negative thought patterns.

• The Mindful Way Through Depression - Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal & Jon Kabat-Zinn. Combines mindfulness and self-compassion to break the cycle of low mood.

• Lost Connections  - Johann Hari. Explores social, emotional, and environmental causes of depression and paths to reconnection.

• Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig. A heartfelt, hopeful memoir about recovery from depression.

• Overcoming Depression - Paul Gilbert. Straightforward guide to understanding and challenging depression.

😰 Managing Anxiety and Panic

• The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook - Edmund J. Bourne. A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for understanding and managing anxiety.

• The Anxiety Toolkit - Alice Boyes. Simple CBT-based tools for everyday anxious thinking.

• When Panic Attacks - David D. Burns. A practical guide for tackling panic and worry using evidence-based strategies.

• How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety - Ellen Hendriksen. Reassuring advice for anyone struggling with shyness or social anxiety.

• The Feeling Good Handbook - David Burns. Another good book from David Burns offering practical exercises.

• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers. Straightforward text encouraging us to gently face our fears.

• Overcoming Anxiety - Helen Kennerley.

💔 Healing from Trauma and Emotional Pain

• The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van der Kolk. Explores how trauma affects the mind and body — and how healing can occur through body-based therapies.

• Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma - Peter Levine. Introduces gentle techniques to release stored trauma energy.

• What Happened to You? - Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey. A compassionate conversation about trauma, resilience, and understanding ourselves.

• It Didn’t Start With You - Mark Wolynn. Explores how family patterns and inherited trauma can shape emotional well-being.

• The Primal Wound - Nancy Verrier. Ground-breaking text exploring the impact of adoption from an attachment perspective.

• The Myth of Normal - Gabor Mate. Understanding the impact of emotional pain.

🌿 Addiction, Recovery and Self-Compassion

• In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts - Gabor Maté. Understanding the roots of addiction and pathways to healing.

• Unbroken Brain - Maia Szalavitz. Challenges the “disease model” of addiction with empathy and research.

• Clean: The New Science of Addiction and Recovery - David Sheff. An overview of what recovery can look like.

💞 Relationships, Boundaries, and Emotional Growth

• Attached - Amir Levine & Rachel Heller. Understanding your attachment style and how it affects relationships.

• Why Love Matters - Sue Gerhardt. Why loving relationships are essential to brain development.

• Set Boundaries, Find Peace - Nedra Glover Tawwab. A practical guide to creating healthier relationships.

• The Gifts of Imperfection - Brené Brown. Encourages courage, vulnerability, and self-acceptance.

• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents - Lindsay C. Gibson. Exploring difficult family dynamics.

• Getting The Love You Want - Harville Hendrix. Practical exercises to improve your relationship.

• Love’s Executioner - Irvin Yalom. Clients' and Yalom exploring love.

• The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work - John Gottman. How to improve your long-term relationship.

• The 5 Love Languages - Gary Chapman. What is your way of expressing and receiving love?

🧘‍♀️ Mindfulness, Compassion and Everyday Well-Being

• Wherever You Go, There You Are - Jon Kabat-Zinn. A simple introduction to mindfulness practice.

• Radical Acceptance - Tara Brach. Teaches how to meet pain and imperfection with compassion.

• Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself - Kristin Neff. A practical guide to treating yourself with the same care you offer others.

• The Happiness Trap - Russ Harris. ACT-based techniques for accepting emotions and living a meaningful life.

• When Things Fall Apart - Pema Chödrön. Gentle Buddhist wisdom on facing difficulty with openness and courage.

  ☁️Bereavement

• You’ll Get Over it – the Rage of Bereavement - Virginia Ironside. Grief can be very different for each of us.

• Grief Works - Julia Samuels. Super book describing clients' experiences of processing their grief.

🧠 Personal Growth and Meaning

• Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life - James Hollis. Exploring the impact of aging.

• Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl. A profound reflection on finding purpose through suffering and choice.

• The Road Less Travelled - M. Scott Peck. Combines psychology and spirituality to explore personal growth and discipline.

• The Gifts of Therapy - Irvin D. Yalom. Insightful stories about change and the human condition from a master psychotherapist.

• Games People Play - Eric Berne. Exploring our interactions and behaviours in relationships.

  🪆Other Useful Self Help Books:

BPD/EUPD: I Hate You – Don’t Leave Me - Jerold Kreisman & Hal Straus

Co-dependency: Codependent No More - Melody Beattie

Domestic Abuse / Violence: Living With The Dominator - Pat Craven

Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Other Eating Disorders - Eva Musby

EMDR: Tapping In - Laurel Parnell

Inner Child: Homecoming- Reclaiming and Championing your Inner Child- John Bradshaw

IFS: No Bad Parts - Richard Schwartz

Introversion: Quiet - Susan Cain

Mortality: Staring at the Sun - Irvin Yalom

Parenting: The Book You Wished Your Parents Had Read - Phillippa Perry

Self-Esteem: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem - Melanie Fennel

Sex / Sexuality: Mind the Gap - Karen Gurney

Rewriting the Rules - Meg John Barker

Sexual Abuse: New Shoes - Rebecca Mitchell

Sleep: Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker

Vulnerability: Daring Greatly - Brene Brown

🌱 A Final Self-Help Booklist Note

A self-help booklist can be a powerful source of insight and comfort, but it’s not a substitute for therapy. If you find any of these books bring up strong emotions, you might want to discuss them with your therapist or someone you trust.

If you have read a book not on the list and found it useful, let me know! Always happy to add new books particularly recommendations.