Recommended Reading
We’ve found the following books on mental health to be useful and want to share them with you. Mental health has many facets and choosing a book is subjective, it depends on individual needs and preferences. However, considering the main counselling issues brought to us here at PRC in Plymouth, we regard the following books on the topic the most informative;
For understanding trauma and its effects:
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
by Bessel van der Kolk:
This book explores the physical and psychological effects of trauma and offers evidence-based methods for healing.
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey
This book explores the impact of childhood trauma on mental and physical health and offers insights on building resilience and healing.
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
by Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté
Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognise the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing.
For managing anxiety and stress:
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
by Lori Gottlieb
This memoir by a therapist explores the experiences of both the therapist and the client, offering insights into therapy and mental health challenges.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
by Edmund J. Bourne
This practical guide provides self-help strategies for managing anxiety and phobias, including relaxation techniques, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and exposure therapy.
For self-compassion and self-acceptance:
The Mindful Way Through Depression
by Mark Williams and John Teasdale
This book teaches mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) techniques for preventing and managing depression.
The Gifts of Imperfection
by Brene Brown
This book explores the importance of vulnerability, self-compassion, and authenticity in mental and emotional well-being.
For navigating relationships and boundaries:
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find--and Keep-- Love
by Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller
This book explores attachment styles and their impact on romantic relationships.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself
by Nedra Glover Tawwab
This book teaches readers how to set healthy boundaries in their personal and professional lives.
For memoirs and personal stories:
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
by Andrew Soloman
This Pulitzer Prize-winning book explores the history, science and personal experience of depression.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman
This heart warming novel tells the story of a socially awkward woman who learns to connect with others. The novel deals with themes of isolation and loneliness, and depicts Eleanor's transformational journey towards a fuller understanding of self and life.
If you are concerned about your own mental health, it is important to reach out to a qualified mental health professional. Here at PRC counselling in Plymouth we can offer a range of therapists who you can book an appointment with, or have an initial 15-minute chat, just to find out whether we can help you or guide you.
Overcoming Relationship Problems
by Michael Crowe
Everyday problems such as financial pressures, sexual and emotional problems, fidelity issues or the complications of second marriages can put unbearable pressure on relationships and family life. This highly effective self-help guide uses proven therapeutic strategies derived from family therapy to help you to overcome your relationship problems.
The New Male Sexuality
by Bernie Zilbergeld
Clear, comprehensive, witty, and refreshingly realistic, The New Male Sexuality addresses the most urgent questions of men today – and of the women who love them. Bernie Zilbergeld reports findings from his twenty years as a psychologist specializing in human sexuality, as well as those other experts in the field, and shares his own and his clients’ experiences. The result is the most comprehensive guide ever to enhancing desire and arousal, focusing on pleasure rather than performance, and keeping sex exciting and fulfilling.
Hot! Hot! Hot!: The Body Electric
by Anne Hooper
Hot Hot Hot is written for everyone who wants a cracking good sex life but hasn’t quite managed to grasp it yet. Based on a sex workshop run by Anne Hooper, it is both a reality sex manual and a compelling read. Described as ‘a seminal work’, it breaks the mould. If you ever wanted to gain more sensual pleasure when making love, you need this book.
Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure
by Robert de Board
This best-selling author says: ‘Toad’s experiences are based on my own experiences of counselling people over a period of twenty years. Counselling for Toads is really an amalgamation of the many counselling sessions I have held and contains a distillation of the truths I have learnt from practice.’
Appropriate for anyone approaching counselling for the first time, whether as a student or client, or for the professional counsellor looking for something to recommend to the hesitant, Counselling for Toads will appeal to both children and adults of all ages.
Quiet the Mind
by Matthew Johnstone
In a world where finding even ten minutes to ‘do nothing’ is difficult, the benefits of meditation can be profound. Meditation is simply a way of giving our brains a well-deserved break and can actually help our brains to function in a healthier way.
Downloads
Feel free to download these guides for personal use:
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