To celebrate Mental Health Month, we asked our therapists to give recommendations for books related to mental health. Looking to improve your everyday life? Want to learn more about different mental health issues? Diving deeper into the art of therapy? Healing from trauma or addiction? Raising little ones and want to get them started off on the right foot when it comes to mental health? Our providers have great suggestions for all of that! Here are the mental health books they recommend.
No matter where you are in your mental health journey, there's a book to help you. Choose the route that best suits you by skipping to books focused on:
Daily Routines |
Therapeutic Steps |
Specialized Pathways |
For smaller wanderers: Mental Health Books for Kids
Click on the book cover for more info, and click on the title for the Amazon listing, or check your local bookstore.
Self-Improvement
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Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead A practice and a powerful vision for letting ourselves be seen. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is uncomfortable, but nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, or hurtful as wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step up and be vulnerable. |
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Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself Simple-yet-powerful ways to establish healthy boundaries in all aspects of life. Learn how to end the struggle, speak up for what you need, and experience the freedom of being truly yourself. |
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The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living Most of us go about trying to find happiness in ways that make us miserable, driving the epidemics of stress, anxiety, and depression. This empowering book presents the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) to help you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life. |
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Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love A revolutionary way to see and shape your relationships. The ideas in this book are based on the science of love and the wisdom of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), and walk the reader through seven conversations that can define a love relationship. |
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How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing Introducing six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care—without endless to-do lists. Presented in short, readable chapters, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care. |
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How to Meet Your Self: The Workbook for Self-Discovery In this workbook, you'll learn how to get out of negative patterns, how you can create new core beliefs, how to become more connected to your mind, body, and your true authentic Self, better understanding your emotions, and how to understand your own unique values and how to develop authentic Self expression. |
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The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love A book about radical self-love as the balm to heal wounds inflicted by systems of oppression. Make peace with differences and reconnect with your body and mind. |
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The Four Tendencies People fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so understanding this framework lets us make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress and burnout, and engage more effectively. The Four Tendencies explain why we act and why we don’t act. |
Mindfulness
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Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone Belonging so fully to yourself that you’re willing to stand alone is a wilderness, a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, as sought after as it is feared. We can't control the wilderness, but it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand. |
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The Gifts of Imperfection This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution fueled by freedom found in messy, heartbreaking, grace-filled, and joyful lives. Find the courage to celebrate those intensely joyful moments even though we’ve convinced ourselves that savoring happiness is inviting disaster. Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance. |
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The Empowered Empath: A Simple Guide on Setting Boundaries, Controlling Your Emotions, and Making Life Easier This book delivers to you numerous step by step takes on how you can discover your true potential and what you are meant to do with your amazing life. It can train an unskilled Empath to go from a state of turmoil and frustration, to become comfortable and free in their skin. |
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The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) A simple, effective way to create the life you’ve always wanted, and faster than you ever thought possible. This book will give you the step-by-step process to wake up each day with more energy, motivation, and focus to take your life to the next level. |
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Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life This classic offering maps out a simple path for cultivating mindfulness in one’s own life. Brief, humorful chapters full of stories and poetry, convey the heart and the spirit of mindfulness practice and encourage you to find your own ways to incorporate it into your life. |
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Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness. Don't get stuck in a never-ending thought loop. Stay present and keep your mind off things that don't matter, and never will. |
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It's Okay Not to Be Okay: Moving Forward One Day at a Time In this book, Walsh helps women overcome the same old rut of struggles and pain by changing the way they think about God, themselves, and their everyday lives. She shares practical, doable, daily strategies to help women move forward. |
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101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think A collection of author Brianna Wiest’s most beloved pieces of writing. Her meditations include why you should pursue purpose over passion, embrace negative thinking, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. |
Stories
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Turtles All the Way Down Sixteen-year-old Aza and her best friend, Daisy, investigate the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett. Together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis. Aza is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. |
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Hannah's Gift: Lessons from a Life Fully Lived The mother of a young girl who dies from cancer at age three documents her struggle to come to terms with her daughter's sickness and inevitable death while making changes in her own life. |
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The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog Through the stories of children who recover-physically, mentally, and emotionally-from the most devastating circumstances, Perry shows how simple things like surroundings, affection, language, and touch can deeply impact the developing brain, for better or for worse. |
Therapy
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Notes From Your Therapist For anyone in need of a daily dose of affirmation and empathy, this collection is full of artful and beautifully photographed hand-written insights. These bite-size words of wisdom cover everything from setting boundaries and navigating relationships to how to take good care of yourself. |
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the things I didn't say in therapy A collection of poetry crafted with raw emotions that will pull on the heartstrings of her audience. Follow Logan as she shares her most vulnerable thoughts; because although vulnerability is uncomfortable, it is often profoundly freeing. Poet Logan Duane takes her readers on a journey filled with grief, abuse, love, and perseverance. |
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Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed A disarmingly funny, thought-provoking, and boldly revealing new book that shows us what it means to be human. |
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The Gift of Therapy A remarkable guidebook for successful therapy. From his thirty-five years as a practicing psychiatrist, Yalom's unique wisdom offers insights will help enrich the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors. |
Mental Health Education
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You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder Straightforward, practical advice for taking control of the symptoms, minimizing the disabilities, and maximizing the advantages of adult ADD. This book focuses on the experiences of adults, offering accurate information, practical how-tos, and moral support to help readers deal with ADD. |
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I Hate You, Don't Leave Me Much-needed professional advice, helping people with Borderline Personality Disorder to understand their symptoms, such as mood swings, and cope with this troubling, shockingly widespread affliction. |
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The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness Elyn Saks discusses frankly and movingly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, and the voices in her head insisting she do terrible things, as well as the many obstacles she overcame to become the woman she is today. |
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Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers Based on the idea that stress is episodic for animals. Learn about how stress affects sleep and addiction and gain new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress. |
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Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity An excellent comprehensive overview of autistic life from an autistic perspective. With real life stories including his own, Dr. Price captures the feeling of living in our skin while delivering the facts that are so hard to come by. |
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The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind This pioneering, practical book demystifies meltdowns and aggravation, explaining the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth. |
Trauma & Healing
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A Little Book of Self-Care for Those Who Grieve This book offers a gentle guide for surviving the early days of grief in simple, easy-to-absorb text and soothing illustrations. Those grieving a sudden death or loss will see their grief reflected in these pages. |
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Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents If you grew up with an emotionally immature, unavailable, or selfish parent, you may have lingering feelings of anger, loneliness, betrayal, or abandonment. These wounds can be healed, and you can move forward in your life. |
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Healing Secondary Trauma: Proven Strategies for Caregivers and Professionals to Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Compassion Fatigue A gentle guide to help you identify symptoms, understand overwhelming feelings like anger, sadness, and burnout, and begin the healing process of your own secondary trauma. With interactive exercises and cutting-edge strategies for caregivers and professionals, your journey to recovering from the daily realities of compassion fatigue, stress, and anxiety starts here. |
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How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self "The Holistic Psychologist" shares her manifesto for SelfHealing and an essential guide to creating a more vibrant, authentic, and joyful life. Recognize how adverse experiences and childhood trauma live with us, and learn how to break free from destructive behaviors to reclaim and recreate your life. |
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My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies The first self-discovery book to examine white body supremacy in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. A call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. |
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What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and this book provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. |
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The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma The inspiring story of how a group of therapists and scientists— together with their courageous and memorable patients—has struggled to integrate recent advances in brain science, attachment research, and body awareness into treatments that can free trauma survivors from the tyranny of the past. |
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Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others Written for anyone who is doing work with an intention to make the world more sustainable and hopeful and who, through this work, is exposed to the hardship, pain, crisis, trauma, or suffering of other living beings or the planet itself. |
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It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle Learn how the traumas of our parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents can live in our unexplained depression, anxiety, fears, phobias, obsessive thoughts and physical symptoms—what scientists are now calling “secondary PTSD.” |
Also mentioned: anything by John Gottman or Brené Brown
Mental Health Books for Kids
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A Little SPOT of Emotion This 8 book box set helps parents and educators explain basic emotions. Help little ones identify and navigate happiness, sadness, anger, anxiety, love, confidence, peacefulness, and a mix of it all through a little scribble! |
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Love Makes a Family A book celebrating Rainbow Families, this simple preschool read-aloud demonstrates that what's most important in each family's life is the love the family members share. |
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There Might Be Lobsters This empowering book follows the looping thoughts of a small dog who is scared of lots of things at the beach. Through endearing illustrations and perfectly paced text, this funny and honest read covers how overwhelming the world can be when you're worried, and how empowering it is to overcome your fears when it matters the most. |
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The Rabbit Listened A tender meditation about loss. Whether read in the wake of tragedy or as a primer for comforting others, this is a deeply moving and unforgettable story sure to soothe heartache of all sizes. |
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What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety An interactive self-help book designed to guide 6–12-year-olds and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of generalized anxiety. Metaphors and humorous illustrations make difficult concepts easy to understand, while prompts to draw and write help children to master new skills related to reducing anxiety. |
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The Invisible String Specifically written to address children’s fear of being apart from the ones they love. Though we may be separated from the ones we care for, love binds us all together when life challenges us. |
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The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions The Color Monster doesn't know what's wrong with him. He has made a mess with his emotions and now it is his turn to undo the mess. A simple and fun story that will introduce young and old to the fascinating language of emotions. |
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Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon Molly Lou has to start in a new school and a horrible bully picks on her on the very first day, but Molly Lou Melon knows just what to do about that. Her grandmother has always told her to walk proud, smile big, and sing loud, and she takes that to heart. |
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The Invisible Boy This gentle story shows how small acts of kindness can help children feel included and allow them to flourish. This book sensitively addresses the needs of quieter children. |
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Glad Monster, Sad Monster Monsters of different colors explain what makes them feel glad, sad, loving, worried, silly, and angry. Fold-out masks encourage readers to talk about their feelings. A fun, interactive way to explore the many different ways we feel! |
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The Memory Box: A Book About Grief From the perspective of a young child, Joanna Rowland artfully describes what it is like to remember and grieve a loved one who has died. This book helps children manage the complex and difficult emotions they feel when they lose someone they love, as well as suggestions on how to create their own memory box. |
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The Pigeon Book Series This children's series follows a pigeon's adventures through life and teaches about various challenges and responsibilities. |
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Trying This is a story for anyone who has ever felt like a beginner, or had doubts, or worried they weren't good enough. It's a story for those who have experienced the pain of trying something new and not having it turn out as they had hoped. |
Also mentioned: Julia Cook children's books
