Book List
BOOKS FOR TEENS:
Conquering the Beast Within: How I Fought Depression and Won... And How You Can Too - Cait Irwin
This book is written by a teenager about her own experience with depression using words and images.
ABUSE (PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL AND SEXUAL):
The Courage to Heal - Ellen Bass & Laura Davis
A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse. Discusses recognizing the damage, healing process, changing the way you think about yourself and assistance from family. Best book I've read to help survivors of sexual abuse. Big book but worth the read.
The Emotionally Abused Women: Overcoming Destructive Patterns and Reclaiming Yourself - Beverly Engel, MFCC
This book helps women recognize abusive patterns, includes good case examples from the writer's work with clients, and offers exercises to re-build self-esteem.
Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life; Dr. Susan Forward with Craig Buck.
Book includes discussion of the inadequate parent, the controller, the alcoholic, verbal abuser, physical abuser and sexual abuser. Self-help guide.
Book for those who want to understand the pain, challenge and journey toward healing many sexually abused men experience when they seek and receive an appropriate form of professional psychotherapy treatment. Book is good for victim/survivor and those who love them.
ADULT RELATIONSHIPS:
The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships - Harriet Lerner
This easy to read book teaches women how to recognize and express their anger so that they can get their needs met. She discusses how anger in women has been looked at negatively by society. However, she sees anger more as a sign that something is just not right.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work - John M. Gottman, Ph.D., & Nan Silver
How well do you know your partner? Guide filled with practical questions and exercises to help establish or continue a positive nurturing relationship.
Facing Love Addiction - Pia Mellody with Andrea Wells Miller & J. Keith Miller
Giving yourself the power to change the way you love. Many of us are drawn to the same type of partner over and over again. Ms. Mellody outlines how we can change this pattern.
SEXUAL IDENTITY
True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism - Mildred L. Brown & Chloe Ann Rounsley
For those questioning their gender as well as those who want a better understanding of transsexuals. Really explains how transsexuals feel, difficulty of adolescence, and what they go through on a day-to-day basis, using real people giving true-life experiences.
GRIEF AND LOSS
How To Survive the Loss of a Love - Melba Cograve, Ph.D., Harold Bloomfield, M.D., & Peter McWilliams
This is a guide for all types of loss. Written by a psychologist, psychiatrist and a poet. It has an education piece and includes poetry that is very touching and meaningful.
Motherless Daughters, The Legacy of Loss - Hope Edelman .
"A work of stunning courage and honesty, Motherless Daughters is a must read for the millions of women whose mothers have gone - but whose need for healing, mourning, and mothering remains."
NURTURING OURSELVES
The Woman's Comfort Book - Jennifer Louden
Ways to nurture yourself in mind, body and spirit.
Taming Your Gremlin, A Guide to Enjoying Yourself - Richard D. Carson
How to work with those negative voices we all hear inside ourselves. Easy read.
Creative Visualization - Shakti Gawain
This book describes the power of using affirmations, thoughts and visualizations to create change in one's life. Offers options for positive thinking.
Be An Outrageous Older Woman - Ruth Harriet Jacobs
Fun ways for women to navigate middle age or older.
Kitchen Table Wisdom - Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
Stories to heal and help us reconnect to ourselves. Wonderful, easy reading. Inspiring.
PARENTING TEENS)
I'm Not Mad, I Just Hate You! - Roni Cohen-Sandler & Michelle Silver
Surviving and thriving during your daughter's teenage years. Gives some sanity to those of us who can't see the end of the tunnel; that is, adulthood for our daughters.
Wonderful Ways to Love a Teen. Even When it Seems Impossible; Judy Ford
Tools to help you relate to your teen. Hints on how to be the parent you wish you'd had or did have. Easy read.