Man's Search for Meaning, for me, was a profound story following Psychotherapist and Logotherapy creator Viktor Frankl through his experiences in the Concentration Camps of the Holocaust. It is a beautiful but challenging story about faith, love, persistence, survival, and the importance of meaning-making in our lives.

Thinking, Fast, and Slow is an interesting read about the different modes of thinking we naturally engage in and how our use of heuristics can both help and harm us. Kahneman's research on attention and effort allow a deeper understanding to how our brain works to use shortcuts and how these shortcuts can create biases. Thinking, Fast, and Slow allows insight to how we think that is useful on both personal and clinical levels.

Eight Dates is both a great read and a fantastic tool to serve as a base or supplement to improving connection in your romantic relationship. Informed by their research, Eight Dates highlights and guides the reader through eight conversations that couples who don't make it typically don't have. I'd highly recommend picking up two copies, one for you and one for your partner. Even if you are not currently in a relationship, this may serve as a guide to intimate and difficult conversations to come.

Extreme Ownership is a gripping story following Willink' and Babin's experiences as Navy SEALs and the learnings that resulted from their successes and failures. Extreme Ownership offers a look into the importance of responsibility and self-discipline and their impact on leadership and teamwork. 

Jocko Willink has a great TedTalk that serves as an introduction to Extreme Ownership:
Extreme Ownership TedTalk

A Matter of Death and Life is a beautiful and tragic true story written by Irvin and Marilyn Yalom as Marilyn approaches the end of her life. The story follows them trade chapters of personal expression as they tangle with reminiscences of the past, the worries of the future, and the matters of the present. This book is a profound look at how one accomplished couple faces and handles the fact of the end of life, both together and in their own ways. One of the most powerful books I've ever read.

The Art of Loving is a deeply philosophical exploration of what it means to Love. Erich Fromm looks at 'Loving' not as something that we 'fall into', but rather something that we 'stand in'. Fromm explores the social, political, and even religious influences on our idea of Love. If you are someone looking to build, expand on, or question your current conceptions of what Love is, this is a fantastic read.

The Happiness Trap is a more accessible introduction and application to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy skills for daily living. Russ Harris focuses on core components of ACT that can allow us to overcome stress and anxiety and lean into self-compassion.

This is a set of 50 flash cards that can be useful to clients, students, and practitioners of ACT alike. The cards lay out the core components and skills of ACT, with examples and practices on the opposite side. Whether you're a client working on how to apply ACT to your life, or a practitioner working on getting clearer on ACT and having a tangible resource for clients, this card set is well worth its cost.

The Gift of Therapy is easily in my top five books for students and practitioners of psychotherapy and social work. It is an easy-reader with short and concise chapters that helps return us to the basics of what constitutes therapy and what really helps in therapy. This might be a beneficial read to clients of therapy but it shines as an accessible educational tool to the essentials of therapy. If you are aspiring to be a therapist, read this.

This is the second Erich Fromm book that I became interested in, following my reading of The Art of Loving. In this text, Fromm explores the contrast between a state of acquisition and existence, and the influence of modern Capitalism and Consumerism on the push for acquisition as our main way of living. Reading this provided a great way to contextualize the society I am living in and the options for existence that I have.

A Liberated Mind is a great book to grasp the core components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and the impact it can have on your life. It lays out the core Psychological Flexibility skills that serve as the foundation for ACT, so that we can lean into vulnerability and get closer to living the life we desire.

Steven Hayes also presented a beautiful TedTalk on his personal journey towards Psychological Flexibility and ACT:
Psychological Flexibility TedTalk

On Becoming a Person is the personal story of Carl Rogers, including his journey to becoming a Psychotherapist. It highlights his beginnings and experiences that shaped his interest in becoming and perspective as a therapist. Through his storytelling, it becomes clear how he arrived at his style of therapy, which has since served to provide the core skills of Humanistic Therapies since. At baseline, it is a great story, past that it is an enlightening educational tool for aspiring therapists.

Personal description to come soon!
From Amazon Description:
"In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. 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.            

Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives."

Personal description to come soon!
From Amazon Description:
"In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.

Over the past two decades, Brown’s extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as on Brown’s singular skills as a storyteller, to show us how accurately naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power—it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice.

Brown shares, “I want this book to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves.”"

Personal description to come soon!
From Amazon Description:
"“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”—Theodore Roosevelt

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown PhD, LMSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity. She writes: “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.”

Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It’s even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there’s a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena—whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for letting ourselves be seen."

Personal description to come soon!
From Amazon Description:
"For over a decade, Brené Brown has found a special place in our hearts as a gifted mapmaker and a fellow traveler. She is both a social scientist and a kitchen-table friend whom you can always count on to tell the truth, make you laugh, and, on occasion, cry with you. And what’s now become a movement all started with The Gifts of Imperfection, which has sold more than two million copies in thirty-five different languages across the globe.

What transforms this book from words on a page to effective daily practices are the ten guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way.

Brené writes, “This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, ‘My story matters because I matter.’ Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance."