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Jennifer Hoffman

Expand Your Mental Health Toolkit: Recommended Reads for Empowerment and Growth

Updated: Apr 27

If you've been in therapy with me, you know I'm a huge fan of reading and always have a book to recommend (I know, I'm sorry. They are just suggestions). I'm also a huge fan of giving people skills and information to empower them outside of our sessions; so, you leave our time together with new insight to be the best you--without therapy. Knowledge is one thing that can never be taken from us. Here are some of the resources (not comprehensive) that gave me knowledge and insight over the years:


Relationships:

  • The Seven Principles for Making a Marriage Work, Gottman

  • Intimacy and Solitude: The Workbook, Dowrick

  • Mating in Captivity, Perel (she also has an excellent podcast, "Where Should We Begin?"

  • He's Just Not That Into You, Behrendt

  • Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love, Levine

  • Hold Me Tight, Johnson

  • The 5 Love Languages, Chapman (great quiz on his website to find yours)

  • If The Buddha Dated (and If The Buddha Married), Kasl

  • Are You the One for Me?, De Angelis

  • Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, Stone


Growth:

  • Why You're Life Sucks: And What You Can Do About It, Cohen

  • Stop Feeling Like Shit, Owen

  • Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl

  • Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, Neff

  • Gifts of Imperfection, Brown

Trauma:

  • It Didn't Start With You, Wolynn

  • Not the Price of Admission, Brown

  • In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Maté

  • When Rabbit Howls, Chase


Career:

  • Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job, Acuff

  • Do What You Are, Tieger

  • Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, Johnson

  • Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, Burnett


Novels:

  • The Alchemist, Coelho

  • Travels with Charley, Steinbeck

  • Between the World and Me, Coates

  • Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert

  • Under the Tuscan Sun, Mayes

  • Jitterbug Perfume, Robbins

  • Stones from the River, Hegi

  • Les Miserables, Hugo

  • Empire Falls, Russo

  • The Painted Bird, Kosinski


Spiritual:

  • The Four Agreements, Ruiz

  • The Places That Scare You, Chodron

  • When Things Fall Apart, Chodron

  • Falling Upward, Rohr

  • Emotional Rescue, Ponlop


Humor:

  • A Walk in the Woods, Bryson

  • Anything written by Anne Lamott

  • SantaLand Diaries, Sedaris


and so many more...happy reading!


If you're interested in more resources, reach out now.



books lined up on a table

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