LePera, Nicole (2021). How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past and Create Your Self (also available in audio formats)
Are you tired of finding yourself in the same dysfunctional relationships?
This is a book that can lead you forward on a path to positive growth. It is a guide to help anyone build a better understanding of one’s self.
Dr. Nicole LePera is a clinical psychologist who trained at Cornell University and the New School for Social Research and has studied at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis. How to Do the Work offers readers ways to move forward amid life’s changes.
What I love about this book is how it applies to all types of relationships, from family to small groups, to personal relationships of all types (romantic, workplace, friendships, etc.). As a clinical psychologist in private practice, LePera often found herself frustrated by limitations in traditional psychotherapy. She wanted more—for herself and her patients—so she began a journey to develop a united philosophy for mental, physical, and spiritual health. LePara’s book is a guide to creating a more vibrant, authentic, and joyful life.
Based on research from a wide range of scientific fields and healing modalities, this book helps us recognize how adverse experiences and trauma in childhood live with us, resulting in whole-body dysfunction that activates harmful stress responses. These responses can form patterns of destructive behavior—including feeling stuck in patterns of codependency, emotional immaturity, and trauma bonds. [Whole-body dysfunction and body memory are also discussed in van der Kolk’s book below.]
This book is a celebration of empowerment that will forever change the way we approach mental wellness and self-care.
Frankl, Viktor (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning (also available in audio formats)
Victor Frankl is an Austrian Holocaust survivor whose post-World War II book takes readers on his life’s journey to personal awareness as a witness to horrific actions and evil. Dr. Frankl explains how mental determination helped him find personal meaning and a purpose to his existence. Frankl earned an M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Vienna, and later became a Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at its medical school.
Frankl is the founder of Logotherapy, which the author writes about in the second section of his book. The concept of logotherapy is to pursue whatever is most meaningful in your life and, in choosing to do so, you reinforce your sense of purpose to live a meaningful personal life.
Frankl writes how meaning can also be found in suffering, and tells about his life in four different Nazi death camps. He lost his entire family, including his wife, while he developed the conscious choices and purposeful decisions to cope with your life’s best moments and worst.
Man’s Search for Meaning, originally written in German, was translated to English in 1959. The book continues to offer us hope.
Neff, Kristin (2011). Self-Compassion Step by Step: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (also available in audio formats)
Kristin Neff is an associate professor in educational psychology and human development at the University of Texas at Austin, who writes about self-compassion — what it is and what it is not. In a world of endless comparisons, it becomes easy to judge yourself unfairly. Dr. Neff encourages a balance of self-acceptance and writes about the destructive nature of self-criticism, its effect on day-to-day living and your decisions, and ways to replace debilitating thoughts with self-encouragement.
In her book, Neff offers a step-by-step guide to attain a life of balanced self-compassion in order to live the life you wish for.
van der Kolk, Bessel (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma (also available in audio formats)
Dr. van der Kolk’s psychiatric research focuses on human responses to traumatic experiences. He has studied adults and children (often referred to as civilians) to understand how trauma-induced changes in the brain and the body actually decrease a victim’s ability to accept and enjoy pleasure, positive social interactions, self-control, or the foundation to all relationships — trust.
There are numerous ways in which the world’s trauma experts approach and treat individuals, and van der Kolk addresses them. At the core of van der Kolk’s work is the belief that our relationships hold incredible power to reshape our mind and body. Both have the ability to store trauma, and the aftereffects and presence of trauma in our lives can become a source for physical illness, depression and/or anxiety.
The book’s title sums it up: Our bodies are keeping score.
I love when individuals make positive changes in their lives.
If you’d like to talk about living a value-filled life that focuses on what’s important to you, please contact me.
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