Resources

This is a great book to read if you are along your healing journey and are ready for a heavier read. Gibson details what it is like to grow up with emotionally immature parents, as well as ways to heal and grow your own emotional maturity.

In our current age of easily accessible "high dopamine goods", such as fast food, online shopping, social media, pornography, and video games, Lembke offers powerful insights on how we can literally rewire our brain and reset our dopamine back to a healthy level.  Throughout the book, Lembke includes anecdotes from her psychiatry clients as well as her own learning through her personal addiction history.  I ended up finishing this book within 24 hours of starting it, because it was so fascinating.  This is a great book to read if you are struggling to kick a habit and need some inspiration and tried-and-true knowledge, written by a doctor who has practiced at Stanford Medicine for nearly 15 years.

This is the book you read when you are in a rut and need to shift your mindset. Each chapter is only a few pages long, which makes it a quick read. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom from this book is "Becoming comfortable with discomfort is the gateway to expanding our tolerance for happiness."

I recommend this book to people who know that their home had some dysfunction growing up, but aren't quite ready to dive into the nitty gritty of it all. Every chapter is 2-3 pages, so it's easy to read and has phenomenal insight on things like recovering your inner voice and embracing challenges with a resilient mindset.

This book is written as a conversation between Oprah and Dr. Perry. Oprah asks questions and shares her personal experiences as well as the stories she has encountered over the years. Dr. Perry answers her questions and explains the biology behind our stories as it is coded in our nervous systems. If you want to understand how the nervous system impacts mental health and how we connect or withdraw from others, this book explains it clearly. This is a favorite among my clients, as it offers a compassionate new perspective on some of our most challenging struggles. It is similar to The Body Keeps the Score, but much more digestible.

This is one of my most highly recommended books. Lerner unpacks how we often "choose to have a relationship instead of choosing to have a self" and how we often perpetuate the patterns that leave us exasperated and resentful. She empowers the reader with easy to understand language on how to make clear changes in our relationships that don't require waiting on the other person to change as well. This is one of the most impactful books I have ever read.

Just as much as we need books that bring fresh winds of change and empowerment, we also need books that usher in beauty. This book has long been one of my most cherished possessions, and something I have oft referred to as my personal bible: celebrating the smallest details of joy and reminding us how to find them.

Witty and relatable rabbi Steve Leder wrote this book after walking hundreds of families through the sacred process of death and grieving. His book poses eight powerful questions, like "What is your biggest regret?" and "What do you want your legacy to be?" Leder interviewed people from all backgrounds to answer these questions, including people identifying as LGBTQ+, an individual who struggled with addiction, and someone who is in the C suite of a Fortune 500 company, just to name a few. Reading their answers to these questions is endearing and inspiring. This book guides you in the process of writing an ethical will, which Leder expresses is far more valuable than any physical possession we could leave our loved ones; it's a summary of what our lives stood for and how we hope to live on past our death.

Steven Porges, PhD developed the Polyvagal Theory in the 1990s, and Deb Dana has been the instrumental link who has made this knowledge accessible.  In her book Anchored, she explains the Polyvagal Theory in layman's terms, provides multiple exercises to practice getting to know your nervous system, and ultimately leads the reader into "befriending the nervous system", just as her title suggests.  If you read the Understanding and Regulating the Nervous System blog post and want to learn more, you'll love this resource!