Here is a list of different books that I want to read this year on different topics related to my work. Some are in English and others in Spanish. Most of the psychotherapy books you will find are from DBT and ACT, two of the models I work with. There is also a book on the Socratic method, which I want to learn to use better; a book about self-care (last year I was left with a lot of hip and back pain from not taking care of myself in my job as a therapist); books on the neurosciences of emotions; the newly published book by Viktor Frankl (which I am very curious to read) and a book about the myth that personality is permanent.
Most of these books will be part of the Premium Members Book Club. So if you are interested in any of them and want to read them with us, I suggest you join so you can participate.
Let’s start with the list:
Mindfulness of Two
Description:
Mindfulness for Two is a practical and theoretical guide to the role mindfulness plays in psychotherapy, specifically acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). In the book, author Kelly Wilson carefully defines mindfulness from the perspective of ACT and explores its relationship to the six processes of ACT and to the therapeutic relationship itself. With unprecedented clarity, she explains the principles that anchor the ACT model to basic behavioral science. The second half of the book is a practical guide to observing and encouraging mindfulness in your clients and yourself.
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Description:
This book offers information for the internal practice of self-validation, including fostering self-acceptance, reshaping personal boundaries, and caring for one’s inner resources, vitality, and resilience, all of which allows us to be more present and patient with others. the rest. Thus we are able to respond with empathy, understand others deeply, open our hearts with compassion, and communicate in validating ways that are not possible if we are afraid or angry.
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When Life Hits Hard
Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or a job, the end of a relationship, a pandemic or a natural disaster, nothing really prepares us for those moments when life hits hard and turns our world upside down. The good news is that you can move forward. There are tools you can use to find your way back from despair and live a fulfilled life.
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Values in Therapy
Description:
With an emphasis on cultivating meaning and vitality in clients’ lives, the values component of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is what attracts many therapists to the treatment model. However, until now, there were no practical guides available on values-based practice written from an ACT perspective. And although values work may seem deceptively simple, it is often difficult to carry out effectively in practice. That’s where this comprehensive guide comes into play.
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Chain Analysis in Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Description:
Filled with detailed clinical examples, this book expertly breaks down the process of behavioral chain analysis, the fundamental foundation for assessment and problem solving in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Shireen L. Rizvi, an experienced DBT clinician and trainer, provides knowledge and skills to effectively drive chains and overcome obstacles. She presents DBT principles, questions to ask, strategies for engaging clients and addressing difficult-to-assess problems, and ways to avoid common mistakes. She also describes how to incorporate other essential DBT strategies (such as validation) into chain analysis, as well as how to conduct chains in the context of individual therapy, group skills training, telephone training, and team consultation.
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The Socratic Method: A Practitioner’s Handbook
About 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a series of dialogues depicting Socrates in conversation. The way Socrates asks questions, and the reasons why, amounts to an entire way of thinking. This is the Socratic method, one of the great achievements of humanity. More than a technique, the method is an ethic of patience, inquiry, humility and doubt. It is an aid to better thinking and a remedy for bad mental habits, whether in law, politics, the classroom, or addressing life’s big questions at the kitchen table. Based on hundreds of quotes, This book explains what the Socratic method is and how to use it.
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Changing Behavior in DBT: Problem Solving in Action
Description:
This book delves into problem solving, one of the core components of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). This resource delves into the principles of change therapy and uses case examples to illustrate how to apply them effectively. The book also pays special attention to common pitfalls that therapists encounter when analyzing target behaviors, such as suicide, binge eating, and purging, and how to implement appropriate solutions. Additionally, the book also includes guidelines for successfully implementing DBT problem-solving strategies, including skills training, stimulus control and exposure, cognitive restructuring, and contingency management.
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Functional analysis of human behavior
This work provides a complete overview of the functional analysis of human behavior, from its birth within the experimental analysis of behavior to its applications in the clinical field. The book addresses in depth the controversial philosophical issues that support the different conceptualizations of behavior and the mental and defends an essentially psychological model that addresses each and every aspect of human behavior in its complexity. Likewise, the process to functionally analyze any behavior is explained extensively and in detail, including the learning concepts essential to carry it out.
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Personality Isn’t Permanent: Break Free from Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story
Dr. Benjamin Hardy draws on psychological research to demolish the popular misconception that personality (a person’s consistent attitudes and behaviors) is innate and immutable. Hardy frees us from the limiting belief that our “true self” must be discovered, and shows how we can intentionally create our desired selves and achieve amazing goals instead.
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The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for Counselors, Therapists, Teachers, and Health Professionals
Therapists and other helping professionals, such as teachers, doctors and nurses, social workers, and clergy, work in very demanding fields and can suffer from burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary stress. This happens when they pay more attention to the well-being of their clients than to their own. Both students and professionals in these fields will find this book an essential guide to achieving an optimal balance between self-care and the care of others. The authors describe the joys and dangers of the job, the long road from novice to seasoned professional, the essence of burnout, ways to maintain the professional and personal self, methods experts use to maintain vitality, and a plan of action for personal care.
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Add to love
Description:
Most of the skills you will find in this book are based on DBT and that has a good explanation. The authors’ intention is to share some content that may be useful to improve interpersonal relationships with people who suffer from emotional dysregulation and find better ways to help them have a life worth living.
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How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
The science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the long-held belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and programmed in different regions of the brain. Instead, Barrett shows that we construct each instance of emotion through a unique interaction of brain, body, and culture.
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Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything
Eleven months after being liberated from the Nazi concentration camps, Viktor E. Frankl held a series of public lectures in Vienna. The soon-to-be world-famous psychiatrist explained his core thoughts on meaning, resilience, and the importance of embracing life even in the face of great adversity. Frankl’s words, published here for the first time in English, resonate as strongly today, as the world faces a coronavirus pandemic, social isolation and great economic uncertainty, as they did in 1946. They offer an insightful exploration of the maxim “ Live as if you were living for the second time”, and displays his basic conviction that every crisis contains an opportunity. Despite the unspeakable horrors of the camps, Frankl learned from the strength of his fellow prisoners that it is always possible to “say yes to life,” a profound and timeless lesson for us all.
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Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Human beings are capable of horrific aggression, dehumanization, destruction and, at the same time, they are capable of inspiring altruism, compassion and forgiveness. Drawing on a staggering array of evidence from every subfield within biology, neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology, Robert M. Sapolsky explains how people come to display these behaviors. Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and in this book he tracks the behaviors, events in the brain, body, environment, and culture that precede an action on time scales ranging from seconds to thousands of years. This book is a great choice for those looking for a nonfiction book recommendation and for those committed to understanding how to harness the best of human behavior.