The Practice Bookclub: Adults

Mental Health Book Recommendations for Adults
Compassionate reading to support your emotional wellbeing

Think Forward to Thrive, Jennice Vilhauer
Helps people create their future with awareness and choice; is filled with information and step-by-step exercises to help you:

* Overcome negative emotions
* Identify what you want in life
* Transform limiting beliefs
* Take action
* Live ready for success

Emotional Agility, Susan David
(TED Talk also available)
Emotional rigidity to emotional agility; become aware of your true nature, learn to face your emotions with acceptance and generosity, act according to your deepest values, and flourish.

Talking with Bereaved People, Dodie Graves
Practical framework for conversing with bereaved people, either with individuals or in a group setting. The author uses a table of six elements to give guidance to the listener about where they might be in the conversation, and how to move forward with the bereaved person. For each element, suggested techniques that include creative activities and possible open questions to help the bereaved person express and explore their grief, are offered.

Grief Works, Julia Samuels
Compassionate guide that will inform and engage anyone who is grieving, from the 'expected' death of a parent to the sudden unexpected death of a small child, and provide clear advice for those seeking to comfort the bereaved.

The Way to Love, Anthony DeMello
Thirty-one meditations that grapple with the ultimate question of love.

Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, Jennifer Michel Hecht
By examining how people in other times have found powerful reasons to stay alive when suicide seems a tempting choice, she makes a persuasive intellectual and moral case against suicide.

Depressive Illness: Curse of the Strong
Stress Related Illness: Advice for people who give too much
Dying for a Drink - addiction
Author: Tim Cantopher

Games People Play: Eric Berne
Manipulative relationships; understand human basic social interactions and relationships.

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life ,  Spenser Johnson

Be More Pirate, Sam Conniff Allende
Whatever your ambitions, ideas and challenges, this book will revolutionize the way you live, think and work today, and tomorrow.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Laurence Gonzales
How to take control of stress, learn to assess risk, and make better decisions under pressure.

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
This book is about those moments when we 'know' something without knowing why. It shows that honing your instincts could change the way you think about thinking forever.

Examined Life: How we lose and find ourselves, Stephen Grosz

The Gossamer Thread, John Marzallier
Memoir of the author's professional life as a psychologist and psychotherapist.

Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner
 the practical implications and applications of Multiple Intelligences theory-explores the notion that there are separate human capacities, ranging from musical intelligence to the intelligence involved in self-understanding.

The School of Life, Alain de Botton
(also videos online)
This is a book about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity.

Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
Records Bauby’s lonely existence but also the ability to invent a life for oneself in the most appalling of circumstances. The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body.

Courage to be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Advice showing us how to harness our inner power to become the person we would like to be.

Make Your Bed, William McRaven
10 life lessons learned during his Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his long Naval career, but also throughout his life.

The Road Less Travelled, M Scott Peck
ways in which facing our difficulties - and suffering through the changes - can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding.

Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers, Gabor Maté
On the importance of not allowing your children to be brought up by their peers, but they need to be brought up by their parents

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Gabor Maté
Anybody struggling with addiction or anybody has a loved one who’s struggling with addiction helps understand the complexities and nature of the condition

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress, Gabor Maté
The huge impact of stress on the body