Therapy is not for the broken but for the brave who are ready to grow.
The Growth Shelf
Recommended Books and Other Tools to Support Your Health Journey
Welcome to my curated list of tools and resources designed to support your mental health and personal growth. As a therapist, I often recommend books, journals, mindfulness tools, and other helpful products to my clients. This page features carefully selected items that align with the strategies and practices we explore in therapy.
I’ve partnered with Amazon as an affiliate, which means I may earn a small commission when you purchase through these links—at no additional cost to you.
Please note that clicking on these links takes you to amazon.com.
Tools
Muse 2: Headband Meditation Tracker and Monitor
Personal meditation guide: Meet Muse 2, a smart headband that supports mindfulness and relaxation practices, helping you live a more relaxed, present life. Includes real-time sound feedback: Advanced sensors detect when your focus shifts and provide gentle audio cues to help you stay centered during meditation. Includes Muse App with guided meditations and instructions.
249.99
Verilux HappyLight Therapy Lamp with 10,000 Lux
UV-Free, Full Spectrum Light therapy lamp that delivers up to 10,000 lux for effective, safe, and natural light therapy. Bright light therapy improves sleep, boosts mood, increases energy, enhances focus, and leaves you feeling revitalized. The HappyLight Full-Size is ideal for use at home and on tabletops like desks, nightstands, and counters, making it perfect for the winter blues, insomnia, sunlight deprivation, shift work, and more.
59.99
Books & Workbooks
No Bad Parts
by Richard C. Schwartz, PhD
This book gives an overview of Dr. Schwartz’s therapeutic intervention- Internal Family Systems (IFS). Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz that views the mind as made up of multiple “parts,” each with its own perspectives, feelings, and roles. It also recognizes a core Self, which is compassionate, calm, and capable of leading the internal system toward healing and harmony.
12.99
Getting Past Your Past
Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy
by Francine Shapiro
“An accessible user's guide to overcoming trauma from the creator of a scientifically proven form of psychotherapy that has successfully treated millions of people worldwide.” Shapiro, the creator of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), explains how our personalities develop and why we become trapped into feeling, believing and acting in ways that don't serve us. Through detailed examples and exercises readers will learn to understand themselves, and why the people in their lives act the way they do. Most importantly, readers will also learn techniques to improve their relationships, break through emotional barriers, overcome limitations, and excel in ways taught to Olympic athletes, successful executives, and performers.
9.29
Our Polyvagal World
How Safety and Trauma Change Us
by Stephen W. Porges, PhD & Seth Porges
“The creator of the Polyvagal Theory explains the principles in simple terms that are accessible to all.” Stephen Porges first proposed the Polyvagal Theory in 1994, and its basic idea is that the level of safety we feel impacts our health and happiness. Our Polyvagal World definitively presents how Polyvagal Theory can be understandable to all and demonstrates how its practical principles are applicable to anyone looking to live their safest, best, healthiest, and happiest life. What emerges is a worldview filled with optimism and hope, and an understanding as to why our bodies sometimes act in ways our brains wish they didn’t.
20.46
Codependent No More
How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
by Melody Beattie
Melody Beattie’s compassionate and insightful look into codependency—the concept of losing oneself in the name of helping another—has helped millions of readers understand that they are powerless to change anyone but themselves and that caring for the self is where healing begins. If, like so many others, you’ve lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to a loved one’s self-destructive behavior, you may be codependent—and you may find yourself in this book. With instructive life stories, personal reflections, exercises, and self-tests, Codependent No More helps you to break old patterns, maintain healthy boundaries, and say no to unhealthy relationships. It offers a clear and achievable path to freedom and a lifetime of healing, hope, and happiness.
11.79
Self-Therapy Workbook
An Exercise Book For The IFS Process
by Bonnie J. Weiss, LCSW
This workbook is a companion to Self Therapy by Jay Earley. It is a clear and concise description of the steps in the IFS process designed for people using IFS to do personal work on themselves or professionals introducing the material to their clients. It provides written exercises that give readers a chance to process their experience and track their internal work.
13.50
Radical Acceptance
Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
by Tara Brach, PhD
“Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,” says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork—all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s forty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students. Step by step, she shows us how we can stop being at war with ourselves and begin to live fully every precious moment of our lives.
11.09
This is Your Brain on Food
An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More
by Uma Naidoo, MD
Did you know that blueberries can help you cope with the aftereffects of trauma? That salami can cause depression, or that boosting Vitamin D intake can help treat anxiety? When it comes to diet, most people's concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health, and longevity. But what we eat affects more than our bodies; it also affects our brains. Dr. Uma Naidoo is a board-certified psychiatrist, nutrition specialist, and professionally trained chef. In This Is Your Brain on Food, she draws on cutting-edge research to explain the many ways in which food contributes to our mental health, and shows how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psychological and cognitive health issues.
13.50
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD
Wherever You Go, There You Are remains a foundational guide to mindfulness and meditation, introducing readers to the practice and guiding them through the process. The author of over half a dozen books on mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn combines his research and medical background with his spiritual knowledge to help readers find peace and change their lives.
14.22
The Body Keeps the Score
by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. van der Kolk uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
59.99
Dissociation Made Simple
A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Daily Life
by Jamie Marich PhD
“Dissociation 101: The go-to guide for understanding your dissociative disorder, breaking the stigma, and healing from trauma-related dissociation.” Guided by clinical counselor Jamie Marich—a trauma-informed clinician living with a dissociative disorder herself—this book tells you everything you need to know about dissociation...but were too afraid to ask.
Here, you’ll learn: What dissociation is—and why it’s a natural response to trauma; How to understand and work with your “parts”—the unique emotional and behavioral profiles that can develop from personality fragmentation; Skills and strategies for living your best, authentic, and most fulfilled life; and more!
11.91
The Highly Sensitive Person
How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
by Jamie Marich PhD
ARE YOU A HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON? Do you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams? Is time alone each day as essential to you as food and water? Are you noted for your empathy? Your conscientiousness? Do noise and confusion quickly overwhelm you? If your answers are yes, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP) and Dr. Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person is the life-changing guide you’ll want in your toolbox. Dr. Elaine Aron, a research and clinical psychologist as well as an HSP herself, helps you grasp the reality of your wonderful trait, understand your past in the light of it, and make the most of it in your future.
12.10
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
by Matthew McKay PhD, Jeffrey C. Wood PsyD & Jeffrey Brantley MD
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, and can greatly improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. However, to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. The DBT Skills Workbook, a collaborative effort from three esteemed authors, offers evidence-based, step-by-step exercises for learning these concepts and putting them to work for real and lasting change.
14.99
Self-Therapy
A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness Using IFS
by Jay Earley & Karen Donnely
Understand your psyche in a clear and comprehensive way, and resolve deep-seated emotional issues. Self-Therapy makes the power of a cutting-edge psychotherapy approach accessible to everyone. Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has been spreading rapidly across the country and the world. It is incredibly effective on a wide variety of life issues, such as self-esteem, procrastination, depression, and relationship issues. IFS is also user-friendly; it helps you to comprehend the complexity of your psyche.
17.84
The ADHD Effect on Marriage
Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps
by Melissa Orlov & Edward M. Hallowell
This book is an invaluable resource for couples in which one of the partners suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It authoritatively guides couples in troubled marriages towards an understanding and appreciation for the struggles and triumphs of a relationship affected by ADHD, and to look at the disorder in a more positive and less disruptive way. This resource encourages both spouses to become active partners in improving their relationship and healing the fissures that ADHD can cause. Also included are worksheets and various methods for difficult conversations so that couples can find a technique that fits their unique relationship and improve their communication skills.
13.99
Attached
The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find--and Keep--Love
by Amir Levine, MD & Rachel Heller, MA
Attached guides readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (or potential mate) follow, offering a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections with the people they love. psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller scientifically explain why some people seem to navigate relationships effortlessly, while others struggle. Discover how an understanding of adult attachment—the most advanced relationship science in existence today—can help us find and sustain love. Pioneered by psychologist John Bowlby in the 1950s, the field of attachment posits that each of us behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways.
8.25