What we're reading
Books our clinicians loved. Some are clinical, most are not. Read what you need for the season of life you're in.
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Shark Heart
A beautiful allegory about illness, death, loss, and love.
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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
How to stop doing everything and focus on what really counts.
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Atmosphere
An intense romance full of complex characters, set against a NASA backdrop.
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Next Time Will Be Our Turn
A wonderful cross-cultural, multi-generation queer love story.
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Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought
A memoir about a severe expression of OCD.
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Every Time You Hear That Song
A fun scavenger hunt queer romance set in the country music scene.
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The Art of Gathering
A guide to creating transformative experiences, at work and at home. I used it to set the stage for my own wedding planning.
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Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum
A detailed look into the specific experiences of autistic women and girls, who are often left out of society's understanding of what autism can look like.
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All In: How Great Leaders Build Unstoppable Teams
A must-read for entrepreneurs and leaders who want to maximize morale and productivity in their business.
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This Is How It Always Is
A gorgeously written story about a family raising a trans girl. Any parent will see the daily joys and struggles of parenting in it.
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Set Boundaries, Find Peace
The definitive guide to understanding, setting, and reinforcing your limits.
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How Healing Works
A transformative guide to how and why our bodies heal, and how we can use our resources to get and stay well.
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Cleat Cute
Adorable romance set in the world of US women's professional soccer.
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I'm Glad My Mom Died
An unflinching account of growing up under an abusive and controlling parent. The title says it all. Trigger warning: eating disorders and abuse.
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No Bad Parts
An introduction to Internal Family Systems, and the idea that the parts of you that you like least are trying to protect you.
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Attached
This is the book most people mean when they talk about attachment styles. It's a good starting point, though people are less tidy than the categories.
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The State of Affairs
Infidelity examined from a place of neutrality.
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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
A therapist in her own therapy. The closest thing to seeing what happens in the room before you walk into it.
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Lost Connections
An argument that depression is shaped by circumstance more than chemistry. An important caveat: it is strongly anti-medication, because it sets out to debunk the medical model. Medication helps many people. Hold both.
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How to Break Up With Your Phone
A short plan for getting your attention back.
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Get Good With Money
Money as something you can learn rather than something you either are or are not good at. Clear, written with compelling stories and examples, and free of lecturing.
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Untamed
On leaving a life that looked right from the outside.
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
A Hollywood star tells the truth at the end of her life. About the cost of a public self.
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Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud
On women who broke the rules about how much space to take up, and what it cost them.
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Shrill
Funny and furious, on taking up room in a body the world has opinions about.
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Big Magic
On making things without needing them to justify themselves.
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Year of Yes
A year of saying yes to the things she had been declining, written by someone with every reason to stay home.
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The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head
A psychiatrist's case files. Strange, humane, and hard to put down.
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Man's Search for Meaning
Written by a psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps. Short, hopeful, and it stays with you for years.
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Are You Mad At Me?
On the habit of reading every face in the room for signs you have done something wrong, and where that habit starts.
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Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts
This book is excellent for normalizing the scary, intrusive thoughts that occur in 90% of women in the post partum period.
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Mating in Captivity
Helpful for couples who feel that they are in a rut and emphasizes the importance of not placing all of your needs onto your partner!
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The Defining Decade
Aimed at helping 20 somethings who feel aimless and overwhelmed w/ what to do with their lives after school! Great for instilling a sense of meaning and direction at this time in your life.
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Why We Sleep
Explores how sleep impacts nearly every aspect of our lives and gives tangible ideas to improve sleep hygiene!
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The Alchemist
I re-read this book every few years, generally when I am about to undergo a change/life transition! It contains themes of self-discovery, transformation and turning hardships into wisdom :)
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Feel the Fear... and Do It Anyway
Helpful when you feel like you're stuck, helps with understanding your fears, and empowers you to take actionable steps toward your goals.
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The Whole Brain Child
Though this book is geared towards parenting, it gives insight into emotional regulation techniques, strategies to de-escalate conflict, and language to make meaning of the neurological brain development. I find that the language and understanding of brain development can be applied to adults as well.
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Out
Guide for parents to help them understand and support their LGBTQIA+ child's coming out and beyond
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Ace
This book explores sexuality and asexuality from various cultural and societal lenses and helps readers reflect on and understand their own sexuality.
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Being with Busyness
Leans on Buddhism to make sense of burnout, emphasizes mindfulness, rest, and self-compassion. Each chapter feels like you're talking to a friend.
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Calm in the Storm
Leans on Buddhism to make sense of anxiety and emphasizes being present, self-compassion, and inner stability in a world of external pressures.
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Sunburn
A queer coming of age story for a high school young woman in Ireland, looking at aspects of attraction, identity, love and family
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Together Tea
A mother and daughter travel back to Tehran and find they remember the life they left there very differently.
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When Breath Becomes Air
Trigger warning: death A memoir written by a neurosurgeon as he processes his terminal illness
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Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief
Written by a therapist, this book explains the way anxiety comes up in the grieving process
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Two girls fall in love in 1950s San Francisco, where being seen by the wrong person could cost a whole family.
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The Four Agreements
Four short principles about how you speak, what you assume, and what you take personally.
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Real Self-Care
Identifying ways to take care of one's self, without buying more or taking more on
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Books are good for exploration, but they can’t help you process and notice your own patterns.
If you have been reading your way around the same question for a while, our clinicians are here when you want to talk through it in real time.