Articles & Bibliotherapy

BIBLIOTHERAPY

What is this?

We consider the use of books to be adjunctive to the therapy experience, aiding in the healing process. Reading can be balm for the soul and provide a meaningful path to reflection, self-exploration, and affirmation. When we identify with the words on the page, we often do not feel so alone and, therefore, the possibility of hope for ourselves or our situation increases.

How can it be helpful?

It is our professional opinion that potentially books can help us learn and grow, increase our sense of Self and well-being, and offer wisdom so that we may improve the quality of our lives. Books can be enormously useful and a significant resource in identifying a personal or relational problem and may offer guidance in its resolution.

Recommended Articles:

 
 

Recommended Readings

The following book titles are some of our favorites.
Some current and some oldies, but goodies! We have listed them under topical headings for ease of browsing. It is not a comprehensive list by any means, but we have found many of them to be helpful in our own lives as well as useful for our clients over the years.

PERSONAL GROWTH

  • Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
    BY BRENÉ BROWN
  • Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
    BY BRENÉ BROWN
  • Rising Strong
    BY BRENÉ BROWN
  • The Gifts of Imperfection
    BY BRENÉ BROWN
  • I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame
    BY BRENÉ BROWN
  • Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World
    BY MARY PIPHER
  • How to Be an Adult: A Handbook for Psychological and Spiritual Integration
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • The Five Things We Cannot Change and the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • When the Past is Present: Healing the Emotional Wounds that Sabotage our Relationships
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • When Love Meets Fear: How to Become Defense-less and Resource-full
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power and Creativity of Your Dark Side
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
    BY JACK KORNFIELD
  • After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path
    BY JACK KORNFIELD
  • True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart
    BY TARA BRACH
  • Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
    BY TARA BRACH
  • Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood
    BY WAYNE MULLER
  • What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life
    BY JAMES HOLLIS
  • Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves
    BY JAMES HOLLIS
  • Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
    MITCH ALBOM
  • Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
    BY JOAN BORYSENKO
  • Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
    BY TARA BENNETT-GOLEMAN
  • The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness
    BY PEMA CHODRON
  • Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis
    BY STANISLAV GROF & CHRISTINA GROF, EDSS
  • Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
    BY STEPHEN COPE
  • The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living
    BY STEPHEN COPE
  • Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness
    BY MARK EPSTEIN
  • Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
    BY THICH NHAT HANH
  • Being Peace
    BY THICH NHAT HANH
  • How Then Shall We Live? Four Simple Questions that Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
    BY WAYNE MULLER
  • Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest
    BY WAYNE MULLER
  • The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
    BY MARK NEPO
  • Pathways to Spirituality: Connection, Wholeness, and Possibility for Therapist and Client
    BY BILL O'HANLON
  • Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
    BY RICHARD ROHR
  • Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
    BY JOHN WELWOOD
  • Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man
    BY SAM KEEN
  • The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving
    BY SAM KEEN
  • Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of St. Francis in an Age of Anxiety
    BY RICHARD ROHR

LOSS, GRIEF, & CHANGE

  • On Death and Dying
    BY ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS
  • Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
    BY IRVIN YALOM
  • To Begin Again: The Journey Toward Comfort, Strength, and Faith in Difficult Times
    BY NAOMI LEVY
  • Living Through Personal Crisis
    BY ANN KAISER STEARNS
  • Living Your Dying
    BY STANLEY KELEMAN
  • Good Grief
    BY GRANGER WESTBERG
  • Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair
    BY MIRIAM GREENSPAN
  • Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations that All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow
    BY JUDITH VIORST
  • Losses in Later Life: A New Way of Walking With God
    BY SCOTT SULLENDER
  • The Gifts of Suffering: Finding Insight, Compassion, and Renewal
    BY POLLY YOUNG-EISENDRATH
  • Saying Yes to Change: Essential Wisdom for Your Journey
    BY JOAN BORYSENKO
  • Comfortable With Uncertainty: 108 Teachings
    BY PEMA CHODRON
  • When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
    BY PEMA CHODRON
  • The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
    BY PEMA CHODRON
  • Change 101: A Practical Guide to Creating Change in Life or Therapy
    BY BILL O'HANLON
  • Do One Thing Different: 10 Simple Ways to Change Your Life
    BY BILL O'HANLON
  • Thriving Through Crisis: Turn Tragedy and Trauma Into Growth and Change
    BY BILL O'HANLON

SEASONS OF LIFE

  • The Grace in Aging: Awaken as You Grow Older
    BY KATHLEEN DOWLING-SINGH
  • The Grace in Dying: How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die
    BY KATHLEEN DOWLING-SINGH
  • A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
    BY STEPHEN LEVINE
  • Imperfect Control: Our Lifelong Struggles with Power and Surrender
    BY JUDITH VIORST
  • Living Your Unlived Life: Coping with Unrealized Dreams and Fulfilling Your Purpose in the Second Half of Life
    BY ROBERT JOHNSON
  • Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up
    BY JAMES HOLLIS
  • The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom
    BY ANGELES ARRIEN
  • The Seasons of a Man's Life
    BY DANIEL LEVINSON
  • Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders
    BY MARY PIPHER
  • A Time to Live: Seven Tasks of Creative Aging
    BY ROBERT RAINES
  • It's Better to be Over the Hill than Under It: Thoughts on Life Over Sixty
    BY EDA LESHAN
  • Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
    BY RICHARD ROHR
  • Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Pilgrimage
    BY JEAN SHINODA BOLEN
  • The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
    BY JAMES HOLLIS
  • From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older
    BY RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI & RONALD MILLER
  • Passages; Predictable Crises of Adult Life
    BY GAIL SHEEHY
  • New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time
    BY GAIL SHEEHY
  • Pathfinders: Overcoming the Crises of Adult Life and Finding Your Own Path to Well-Being
    BY GAIL SHEEHY

FORGIVENESS

  • The Forgiving Self
    BY ROBERT KAREN
  • Forgiven and Forgiving
    BY L. WILLIAM COUNTRYMAN
  • Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love
    BY STEPHANIE DOWRICK
  • The Act of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
    BY JACK KORNFIELD
  • A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
    BY JACK KORNFIELD
  • Forgiveness
    BY ROBIN CASARJIAN
  • Radical Forgiveness
    BY COLIN TIPPING

INFIDELITY

  • Private Lies
    BY FRANK PITTMAN
  • Surviving Infidelity
    BY RONA SUBOTNIK & GLORIA HARRIA
  • Getting Past the Affair: A Program to Help You Cope, Heal, and Move on—Together or Apart
    BY DOUGLAS SNYDER, DONALD BAUCOM, AND KRISTINA COOP

HEALTH

  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
    BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D.
  • The Wisdom of Menopause
    BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D.
  • The Male Body: An Owner's Manual
    BY K. WINSTON CAINE, PERRY GARFINKEL, AND THE EDITORS OF MEN'S HEALTH BOOKS
  • Addiction and Grace
    BY GERALD MAY
  • Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression
    BY JAMES GORDON
  • The Doctor's Guide to Instant Stress Relief
    BY RONALD NATHAN, THOMAS STAATS, & PAUL ROSCH
  • Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water: Reflections on Stress and Human Spirituality
    BY BRIAN LUKE SEAWARD
  • Spontaneous Healing: How to Discover and Embrace Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself
    BY ANDREW WEIL
  • Eight Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power
    BY ANDREW WEIL
  • Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health
    BY DANIEL GOLEMAN, ED.
  • Prayer is Good Medicine
    BY LARRY DOSSEY, M.D.

COMMITTED RELATIONSHIPS

  • Intimacy and Desire: Awaken the Passion in Your Relationship
    BY DAVID SCHNARCH
  • Resurrecting Sex: Solving Sexual Problems and Revolutionizing Your Relationship
    BY DAVID SCHNARCH
  • Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships
    BY DAVID SCHNARCH
  • 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work
    BY JOHN GOTTMAN
  • Why Marriages Succeed or Fail: And How You Can Make Yours Last
    BY JOHN GOTTMAN
  • And Baby Makes Three: The Six-Step Plan for Preserving Marital Intimacy and Rekindling Romance After Baby Arrives
    BY JOHN GOTTMAN & JULIE SCHWARTZ GOTTMAN
  • Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
    BY ESTHER PEREL
  • How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving
    BY DAVID RICHO
  • Marriage Rules: A Manual for the Married and the Coupled Up
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • Intimate Partners: Patterns in Love and Marriage
    BY MAGGIE SCARF
  • Rekindling Desire: A Step-by-Step Program to Help Low-Sex and No-Sex Marriages
    BY BARRY & EMILY MCCARTHY
  • We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love
    BY ROBERT JOHNSON

WOMEN'S ISSUES

  • The Mother Dance: How Children Change Your Life
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change
    BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing
    BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP
  • The Silent Passage: Menopause
    BY GAIL SHEEHY
  • A Woman's Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle
    BY JOAN BORYSENKO
  • A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path
    BY JOAN BORYSENKO
  • Take Time for Your Life: A 7-Step Program for Creating the Life You Want
    BY CHERYL RICHARDSON
  • Self-Nurture: Learning to Care for Yourself as Effectively as You Care for Everyone Else
    BY ALICE DOMAR
  • Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
    BY MARY PIPHER

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Intimacy and Solitude: Balancing Closeness and Independence
    BY STEPHANIE DOWRICK
  • The Dance of Intimacy: A Woman's Guide to Courageous Acts of Change in Key Relationships
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • The Dance of Deception: Pretending and Truth-telling in Women's Lives
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You're Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted, Betrayed, or Desperate
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • The Dance of Fear: Rising Above Anxiety, Fear, and Shame to Be Your Best and Bravest Self
    BY HARRIET LERNER
  • That's Not What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Your Relations with Others
    BY DEBORAH TANNEN
  • You Just Don't Understand! Women and Men in Conversation
    BY DEBORAH TANNEN
  • You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
    BY DEBORAH TANNEN

SEXUALITY & SPIRITUALITY

  • Between Two Gardens: Reflections on Sexuality and Religious Experience
    BY JAMES NELSON
  • Body Theology
    BY JAMES NELSON
  • Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology
    BY JAMES NELSON
  • Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection
    BY JAMES NELSON
  • The Intimate Connection: Male Sexuality, Masculine Spirituality
    BY JAMES NELSON
  • The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love
    BY THOMAS MOORE
  • Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God
    BY CARTER HEYWARD
  • Sacrament of Sexuality: The Spirituality and Psychology of Sex
    BY MORTON & BARBARA KELSEY