Change it Top 7 Clinical Psychology Books
Change it Top 7 Mindfulness Books
Change it Top 7 Positive Psychology Books
Change it Top 7 Clinical Psychology Books
Here's my own “top 7” list for clinical psychology books. Most are available from public libraries.
1. The mindful way through depression – Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
You don’t have to have depression to benefit from this book. It shows readers in a non-threatening way, how to disentangle themselves from their thoughts. Highly recommended.
2. Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky
A very good beginning to CBT. This book has chapters on anxiety, depression, anger, guilt and shame and teaches the basics of thought records and behavioural experiments.
3. Self esteem – Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning
Includes chapters on dealing with criticism, “the shoulds”, and how to develop compassion for yourself.
4. The anxiety and phobia workbook – Edmund Bourne
It just keeps getting reprinted, and no wonder, this is a goldmine of information and how-to strategies.
5. Staying in Love: The Top Secrets of Great Relationships. Robyn Salisbury.
A NZ author and director of Sex Therapy New Zealand has written a very readable and practical book for couples. The questions at the end of each chapter are thought-provoking and worth doing.
6. Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Steven Hayes
A workbook about how to disentangle yourself from your thoughts and accept parts of your experience.
7. The power of full engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.
Less a clinical book than a good read for the stressed out corporate person. Takes the reader through case studies which are easy to relate to, and gives practical ways to change behaviour.
Other great reads:
The pursuit of perfect - Tal Ben Shahar
The paradox of choice - Barry Schwartz
Why marriages succeed or fail - John Gottman
The relationship cure - John Gottman
Curious:discovering the missing ingredient to a fulfilling life
- Todd Kashdan
Counter clockwise : mindful health and the power of possibility - Ellen Langer
Connected : the surprising power of our social networks - Nicholas Christakis
Change it Top 7 Mindfulness Books
Here's my own “top 7” list for mindfulness books. Most are available from public libraries.
1. The mindful way through depression – Mark Williams, JohnTeasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
You don’t have to have depression to benefit from this book. It shows readers in a non-threatening way, how to disentangle themselves from their thoughts. Highly recommended.
2. Get out of your mind and into your life – Steven Hayes
An excellent easy to read how-to book from the founder of Acceptance and Commitment therapy. Useful exercises to do and practice as you go.
3. Mindfulness – choice and control in everyday life – Ellen Langer
Talks about mindlessness and how we can perform our daily tasks in a routined, robotic way or wake up to the choices we have in each moment.
4. Emotional alchemy – Tara Bennet Goleman
An interesting read as it uses mindfulness combined with schema therapy (which grew out of cognitive therapy). Useful because one sees how mindfulness can work to heighten peoples’ awareness and then change their habitual patterns.
5. The Miracle of mindfulness – Thich Nhat Hanh
This author is a Buddhist monk whose work has profoundly influenced clinical psychology. Many of the exercises in this book have been adapted for use in clinical populations. An oldie (written in 1967) but a goodie.
6. The Mindful Leader – Michael Carroll
A gentle yet practical book explaining how mindfulness can be applied to business and management.
7. Full catastrophe living – Jon Kabat Zinn
This is the man whose Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program we will be runing at Change it. He talks about life as “embracing the full catastrophe” (i.e., taking a compassionate look at life issues we face) rather than running from or avoiding them in other ways. Quite a heavy read but provides a good background to mindfulness.
Change it Top 7 Positive Psychology Books
Here's my own “top 7” list for positive psychology books. All can be found in my bookshelf and all are available from public libraries.
1. The How of happiness - Sonya Lyubomirsky
A very readable book with 12 methods of increasing your happiness with interesting research to prove it. Among fascinating statistics Lyubormirsky covers: Happiness is 50% genetic, 10% due to circumstances and 40% due to intentional activity (what we do and how we view things).
2. Authentic Happiness - Martin E. P. Seligman
Martin Seligman is the founding father of Positive Psychology having created the field in the late 90s and established it as a credible science. In this book he talks about how to lead a life of positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. Use this book in conjunction with the assessments at www.authentichappiness.org.
3. Happier – Tal Ben Shahar
Another easy to read book with unique analogies (e.g., hamburger model of happiness!) but gets better reviews from my clients than Seligman’s book.
4. Positivity – Barbara Fredrickson
One of the latest books to hit the shelves in the happiness genre, Fredrickson is the author of the “broaden and build” theory which explains the function of happiness in our lives.
5. Thanks – Robert Emmons
Emmons explains “How to want what we have” and how using gratitude exercises can boost happiness by 25% over many months. See “Why gratitude is good for you” in the “resources” section.
6. The Resilience Factor - Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte
Combining research and theory, Reivich and Shatte offer seven practical strategies that have been proven to increase people's capacity to overcome adversity, negotiate daily obstacles, and bounce back from life-altering events.
See “Build your bounce back muscle” in the “resources” section.
7. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Flow" is the state where we become so absorbed in a task that we barely notice the time passing. According to Csikszentmihalyi the more challenging, flow-inducing activities we can introduce into our lives, the happier we are.
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