Many people find it helpful to augment the counseling process with outside reading. Books can offer another voice, a different way of thinking about things, a sense of companionship on your journey. Below are some resources that I have found to be thought-provoking. Be aware that the content of some of the books or movies may be disturbing. Use your best judgment about what is helpful to you at this particular time.
Aging
Pipher, Mary. Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders.
Body Image
Greenfield, Lauren. Girl Culture.
Revealing and disturbing, these photographs and essays capture the essence of contemporary youth culture and the nature of modern femininity.
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia.
A look into the impact of our cultural values on girls and how they kill off parts of themselves to be acceptable and loved, especially by men.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Lawson, Christine Ann. Understanding the Borderline Mother.
Mason, Paul T. Stop Walking on Eggshells.
Depression
Real, Terrence. I Don’t Want to Talk About It.
Solomon, Andrew. Noonday Demon.
Evil
Peck, M. Scott. People of the Lie.
Grief
Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking.
Didion journeys through the strange reality that is grief, after her daughter’s life-threatening illness and her husband’s unexpected death.
Lewis, C.S. A Grief Observed.
Sittser, Gerry. Grace Disguised.
The author lost his wife, mother, and child in a car accident.
Yancey, Philip. Disappointment With God.
Shadowlands
In America
The Fisher King
Healing
Allender, Dan. The Healing Path.
Allender, Dan. To Be Told.
Allender, Dan and Lisa Fann. To Be Told Workbook.
Buechner, Frederick. Telling Secrets.
Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.
Sondheim, Stephen. Into the Woods.
Yalom, Irvin. Love’s Executioner.
A glimpse of therapy through the therapist’s eyes, this book explores how change occurs.
Marriage
Allender, Dan and Tremper Longman. Intimate Allies.
Allender, Dan and Tremper Longman. The Intimate Mystery: Creating Strength and Beauty in Your Marriage
Schnarch, David. Passionate Marriage.
Schnarch, David. Intimacy and Desire: Awaken the Passion in Your Relationship.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Golomb, Elan. Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in Their Struggle for Self.
Parenting
Allender, Dan. How Children Raise Parents.
Kline, Foster and Jim Fay. Parenting With Love and Logic.
Relationships
Allender, Dan. Bold Love.
Buechner, Frederick. Telling Secrets.
Conlon-McIvor, Maura. FBI Girl.
Maclean, Norman. A River Runs Through It.
Peretti, Frank. The Wounded Spirit.
In this autobiographical exploration of bullying, Peretti explores the profound damage done when abuse among kids is overlooked.
Potok, Chaim. My Name Is Asher Lev.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club.
Tzu, Sun. The Art of War.
Sexual Abuse
Allender, Dan. The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse.
Allender, Dan. The Wounded Heart Workbook.
Conroy, Pat. Prince of Tides.
Harpham, Heather. I Went to the Animal Fair: A Journey Through Madness to Meaning.
Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror.
Monsoon Wedding
Moran, Martin. The Tricky Part: One Boy’s Fall From Trespass Into Grace.
Searching for Angela Shelton. (See www.searchingforangelashelton.com)
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things.
Slaughter, Carolyn. Before the Knife: Memories of an African Childhood.
The Tale.
Sexual Addiction
Carnes, Patrick. Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction.
Jarecki, Andrew. Capturing the Friedmans.
This documentary explores the complex case against the Friedmans, a seemingly normal upper-middle-class family convicted of possession of child pornography and multiple counts of rape of young boys.
Schaumburg, Harry. False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction.
Stringer, Jay. Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing.
