Self Help Booklist
There are so many popular psychology texts in libraries and shops that it can be difficult to know where to begin. This set of book-lists was compiled by staff of the Cambridge University Counselling Service to respond to students who have asked what they might read on the following various topics.
The selection is not intended to be the 'final word' — there are many other good and helpful books out there; in any case we recognise that what is helpful is very subjective and depends on personal circumstances. Books are listed alphabetically by author.
Disclaimer
The descriptions given are intended to provide a summary of the contents only. They should not be taken to imply that Swan TAFE Client Services endorses the opinions expressed.
The Courage to Heal - A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
Ellen Bass & Laura Davis, Hutchinson Children's books, 1992)
- A guide for sufferers of child sexual abuse. This book offers advice on coming to terms with the past while moving positively into the future. It provides an explanation of the healing process, first person accounts of recovery and practical suggestions derived from the authors' work with hundreds of survivors.
My Father's House
Sylvia Fraser, Virago, 1989
- From the age of seven Sylvia Fraser shared her body with a 'twin' who lived a separate life from her, created to cope with her sexual abuse by her father. As an adult she had no recollection of her abuse but a connection remained. In this memoir, she reveals how she reclaimed her lost self.
Surviving Secrets
Moira Walker, Open University Press, 1992
- An overview of the experience of women and men who were the subject of physical, sexual and psychological abuse in childhood. Includes interviews with survivors of child abuse, and at the same time seeks to understand the context in which abuse takes place.
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Understanding Panic Attacks and Overcoming Fear
Roger Baker, Lion Publishing, 1995
- Dr. Baker deals with the origin of panic attacks and indicates a programme to enable sufferers to conquer them and their associated fears.
Panic Attacks
Sue Breton, Vermilion, 1996
- This text suggests to sufferers of panic attacks how they can overcome their fears by recognising situations and symptoms which trigger an attack. It also describes the different types of attacks and how learning about their personality can help a sufferer to overcome them.
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Susan Jeffers, Vintage/Ebury, 1997
- The author claims that fear prevents people from doing what they really want and need to do in order to grow and achieve a sense of well being. This book aims to offer readers an opportunity to consider their patterns of thinking, in order to confront and overcome their fears.
Managing Anxiety
Helen Kennerley, Oxford University Press, 1995
- Dr. Kennerley sets out to show how to teach patients self-help psychological skills to control their anxiety, hopefully avoiding the need to resort to treatment with tranquillisers. Contains case studies.
Overcoming Anxiety
Helen Kennerley, 1997, Constable Robinson
- A guide to overcoming a range of problem fears and anxieties - from panic attacks and phobias to 'executive' burnout - with the aim of regaining confidence and self-control.
Living With Fear
I.M. Marks, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2001
- A step by step format intended for working with and overcoming fear.
Staying Sane: How to Make Your Mind Work for You
Dr Raj Persaud, Metro Books, 1998
- Aims to bring mental health into focus and help the reader to develop strategies for combating stress and maintaining health and sanity.
Anxiety & Depression - A Practical Guide to Recovery
Robert Priest, Vermilion, 1996
- A self-help guide to recovery from depression and anxiety. Covers methods intended to reduce stress and offers explanations for causes and effects of anxiety and depression.
Overcoming Panic: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques
Derrick Silove and Vijaya Manicavasagar, Constable Robinson, 1997
- Aims to help the reader beat panic attacks and the stresses they cause. Implementing cognitive behavioural techniques, this book attempts to help the reader unlearn bad habits and replace them with healthy ones.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - The Facts
Padmal de Silva & Stanley Rachman, Oxford University Press, 1998
- Contains information about the nature, symptoms, types, causes, treatments and theories of obsessive compulsive disorder. The authors look at the range of theories available and offer advice for those who may need help.
Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions
Frank Tallis, Sheldon Press, 1992
- A guide explaining the principles of anxiety reduction and giving treatment suggestions in accessible language. It covers compulsive checking, washing, hoarding, obsessional thoughts and worry, obsessional personality and depression.
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When Parents Die
Rebecca Abrams, Routledge, 1999
- A book written for young people grieving for a parent. The author's father died when she was 18 and she offers support based on her personal experience and that of other bereaved young people.
Sibling Bereavement - Helping Children Cope with Loss
Ann Farrant, Continuum International Publishing, 1998
- Written from personal experience, the book also has case histories and commentaries intended to help parents understand their own and their children's reactions. Potentially also useful for adults still grieving the death of a sibling in childhood.
No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One
Carla Fine, Anchor Publishing, 1999
- Carla Fine assembles stories of many suicide survivors and relates her own story of losing her husband to suicide. Aims to help the reader to overcome the stigma as well as the trauma of suicide.
The Dead Good Funerals Book
Sue Gill and John Fox, Engineers of the Imagination, 1996
- Step-by-step information on what to do after a death, written by Ken West, manager of the Carlisle woodland burial ground and the pioneer of green burial in the UK.
After Suicide
John Hewett, Westminster Press, 1980
- This book aims to bring solace and comfort to those who have experienced the suicide of a loved one.
On the Death of a Parent
Jane McLoughlin (Ed), Virago Press, 1994
- A collection of 15 essays by contemporary writers including Nina Bawden, Maeve Binchy, Lucy Ellmann, Andrew Motion and Gillian Slovo on the death of a parent and the profound shifts this causes in our mental landscape, forcing us to face our own maturity and mortality.
Remembering My Brother
Ginny Perkins, A & C Black, 1996
- This book sets out to show the importance of talking about grief and loss and remembering with love someone important who has died.
Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One
Ann Smolin, et al., Simon & Schuster, 1993
- The author speaks about the variety of emotions that are felt after the suicide of a loved one and how they might be dealt with.
The Courage to Grieve - Creative Living, Recovery & Growth Through Grief
Judy Tatelbaum, Vermillion, 1997
- An experienced therapist writes about many aspects of grief, including complex situations such as delayed grieving. There is advice on how to help oneself and others to get through the immediate experience of death and the grief that follows.
Facing Grief - Bereavement and the Young Adult
Susan Wallbank, The Lutterworth Press, 1996
- A guide intended for young adults (18-28) which discusses the effects of bereavement and coping with emotions caused by the loss of a loved one. Also offers advice on how to handle practical matters from funeral arrangements to the legal complexities of a will.
A Special Scar - The Experience of People Bereaved by Suicide
Alison Werthheimer, Routledge, 2001
- Draws on experiences of a wide range of people and situations.
Something I've Never Felt Before, How Teenagers Cope With Grief
Doris Zagdanski, Hill of Content, 1992
- In this book the author speaks with young people between the ages of 12 and 21 about death and grief.
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The Highly Sensitive Person
Elaine N. Aron, Thorsons, 1999
- Highly sensitive people often find themselves not fitting in with a society apparently dominated by excess and stress. This book seeks to offer such people solutions for a happy and fulfilling life.
Believing in Yourself - A practical guide to building Self-confidence
Eric Blumenthal, One World Publications, 1997
- Draws on real-life examples, offering strategies intended to help gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and more self-confidence.
Asserting Yourself: How to Feel Confident about Getting More from Life
Cathy Birch, How to Books, 1999
- This book offers a variety of techniques to help transform unhealthy, defensive behaviours into productive and assertive ones.
A Woman In Your Own Right: Assertiveness and You
Anne Dickson, Quartet, 1982
- Dickson defines assertiveness as the art of clear, honest and direct communication. An assertive approach builds self-esteem and strengthens our ability to make our own choices in life, by helping us to manage the anxiety and stress of communicating i n difficult situations.
Creating Confidence
Johnson & Swindney, Element Books, 1999
- Sets out to explain how to build self-esteem. Through examples and exercises, the author aims to help the reader feel more relaxed and more motivated and therefore more likely to behave confidently.
The Dance of Anger
Harriet Lerner, Thorsons, 1998
- A feminist psychotherapist aims to show how all women, regardless of age, background or experience can turn anger into a constructive force. Intended to provide the reader with the skills to begin to use anger to establish a more positive approach to significant relationships.
Self-Esteem
Gael Lindenfield, HarperCollins, 2000
- This book seeks to provide a practical program aimed at making the reader feel more energised and self-reliant.
Managing Anger
Gael Lindenfield, Thorsons, 2000
- Anger can be a dangerous force. It can lead to destructiveness, violence, bitterness, misery and guilt. Lindenfield seeks to explain the effects of anger on our minds and bodies, and suggests ways of dealing both with our own anger and that of other people.
Assert Yourself
Gael Lindenfield, Harper Collins, 2001
- Aims to show readers how to improve their self-esteem and motivation, cope with unfair criticism and exploitation, and set goals for themselves.
Self-Esteem
Chris Mruk, Free Association, 1999
- Dr. Mruk's analysis examines the literature on self-esteem with the intention of establishing practical and reliable treatment methods for both clinicians and researchers.
When I Say No, I Feel Guilty
Manuel J. Smith, Bantam Books, 1975
- This book seeks to teach readers to stand up for themselves and to stop trying to solve other people's problems by giving readers the tools to stop other people from controlling their actions.
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Dealing with Depression
Trevor Barnes, Vermilion , 1996
- Drawing on The Samaritans' 40 years of experience, this book offers self-help strategies for coping with depressive states and aims to bring hope to the lives of the mentally ill and the despairing, as well as their friends and families.
Overcoming Depression - A Practical Self-Help Guide to Prevention and Treatment
Dr R. Gillett, Dorling Kindersley, 1991
- A self-help guide intended to prevent and treat depression.
Mind Over Mood
Dennis Greenberger, et al., Guilford Press, 1996
- This guide seeks to draw on the authors' experience as clinicians and teachers of cognitive therapy to help clients understand and improve their moods.
Down With Gloom
Brice Pitt, Gaskell, 1993
Anxiety & Depression - A Practical Guide to Recovery
Robert Priest, Vermilion, 1996
- A self-help guide to recovery from depression and anxiety. Covers methods intended to reduce stress and offers explanations for causes and effects of anxiety and depression.
Depression -The Way Out of Your Prison
Dorothy Rowe, Routledge, 1996
- Dorothy Rowe offers a potential way of understanding depression, allowing us to take charge of our lives. She suggests that it is not an illness requiring drugs in all cases, but a defence we may use to hold ourselves together when we feel our lives are falling apart.
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Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within
Hilde Bruch, Basic Books, 1979
- Deals with emotional causes and effects of abnormal eating patterns and presents case histories of patients with weight problems.
Anorexia and Bulimia
Julia Buckroyd, Element Books, Inc. 1996
- Focuses on causes and symptoms, suggestions intended to help overcome the effects, advice for sufferers and their families and where to find help.
Eating Your Heart Out
Julia Buckroyd, Vermilion, 1996
- Talking directly to the sufferer, this work examines the different problems brought about by obsessional dieting, compulsive eating, bingeing and vomiting or anorexia. Discusses the emotional meaning behind eating disorders. Contains advice on how to seek help and how the disorder might be overcome.
Anorexia Nervosa and The Wish to Change
A.H. Crisp, N. Joughin, C. Halek & Bowyer, Psychology Press, 1999
- This book is available from the Eating Disorders Association or from St. George's Hospital, London. Gives advice on how to recover from anorexia with a step by step programme.
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia - How to Help
Marilyn Duker & Robert Slade, Open University Press, 1988
- Considers the theories, the issue of control, and perspectives that enable a person to move towards a real sense of self.
Coping with Bulimia
Barbara French, HarperCollins, 1987
- Describes symptoms and warning signs of bulimia, identifies common risk factors, and discusses therapy and recovery programs.
Overcoming Overeating
Hirschmann & Hunter, Ebury Press, 2000
- The authors offer an alternative approach to dealing with chronic overeating, placing eating back into its natural place in life so that food becomes something to be enjoyed rather than feared.
Making Peace with Food: Freeing Yourself from the Diet/Weight Obsession
Susan Kano, Harper Perennial, 1989
- Offers a guide for breaking free from obsessive behaviour regarding food and dieting through the use of cultural and psychological analysis.
Talking About Anorexia: How to Cope with Life without Starving
Maroushka Monroe, Sheldon Press, 1992
- A guide intended to help with the first steps of recovery. Includes information about the stresses that underlie anorexia.
Fat is a Feminist Issue (Books I & II)
Susie Orbach, Arrow, 1998
- Intended to help the reader conquer compulsive eating, showing how the binge-purge cycle might be broken.
Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating
Geneen Roth, Plume Books, 1993
- The author sets out to summarise the experience of compulsive eating.
Getting Better Bit(e) by Bit(e)
Ulrike Schmidt and Janet Treasure, Psychology Press, 1993
- Intended for sufferers from bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder, seeking to enable them to take control of their lives by providing information and advice for dealing with their eating difficulties.
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Family Outing: The guide to coming out for gays, lesbians and their parents
Chastity Bono with Billie Fitzpatrick, Pan Books, 1999
- Seeks to offer helpful advice to those coming to terms with their sexuality. It also attempts to be a guide for parents.
How to Cope with Difficult Parents
Windy Dryden & Jack Gordon, Sheldon Press, 1995
- A guide intended for adults who suffer from problems in their relationships with their parents, yet feel that family links should continue. This book advises how problems might be faced and resolved in a mature way so that cycles of confrontation can be broken. The book deals with emotional blackmail, rejection, manipulation, constant demands, jealousy, and abusive or critical behaviour.
Toxic Parents
Susan Forward, Bantam, 1991
- Dr. Forward writes about the painful legacy left by parents seen as inadequate, and suggests self-help techniques for children who may wish to leave the past behind.
Families and How to Survive Them
Robin Skynner, John Cleese, Arrow, 1994
- Written as a conversation between two people, this book provides a description of how and why we fall in love, how we develop from babies to adolescents to adults, and how during this development we may become stuck in child-like behaviour. Utilising modern experiences of family therapy, the book seeks to show how compatible relationships in families can be made and maintained.
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The Sleep Solution
Nigel Ball and Nick Hough, Vermillion, 1999
- This guide to sleep and sleep problems describes normal sleep rhythms, what can disturb them and how simple adjustments to lifestyle can lead to major improvements in quality of sleep.
Addictions
Deidre Boyd, Element Books, 1998
- This book looks at the nature of addiction and its many forms, including alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, and religion.
Body Foods for Women: Eat your way to good health
Jane Clarke, Orion, 1997
- Seeks to show how to design your own healthy eating plan to suit your lifestyle, based on foods you enjoy, whether you want to become fitter, control weight or to treat and manage specific health problems.
Body Foods For Life
Jane Clarke, Seven Dials, 1999
- A guide to healthy eating.
Abortion and Afterwards
Vanessa Davies, Ashgrove Publishing, 2000
- This book offers advice on the medical, legal and practical aspects of abortion and what to expect in the emotional aftermath.
Women and Alcohol
Elizabeth Ettorre, The Women's Press, 1997
- A book intended for women who think they may have a problem with alcohol. It combines advice and help with an understanding of the particular issues that face women who drink.
Unplanned Pregnancy - Your Choices: a Practical Guide to Pregnancy
Anne Furedi, Oxford Paperbacks, 1996
- This book explains what is involved in adoptions, abortion and motherhood. It is based on interviews with women who have had unplanned pregnancies and the choices they took.
Sleep like a Dream the Drug-Free Way
Rosemary Nicol, Sheldon Press, 1993
- Intended for persons with temporary or long-standing sleep problems, it contains advice about surroundings, noisy neighbours, what you eat and drink, easing anger and tension.
How to Stop Smoking and Stay Stopped for Good
Gillian Riley, Vermilion, 1997
- Seeking to avoid scare tactics and aversion therapy, this text aims to teach the smoker how to control their desire for cigarettes without gaining weight or feeling irritable, depressed, or deprived.
Let's Drink To Your Health
Robertson & Heather, British Psychological Society, 1996
- Intended for those who, due to health or financial reasons, wish to cut down on their drinking. The text aims to give the facts about alcohol and offer advice to enable people to change their drinking patterns. A drinking diary and specific tips for drinking less are included.
Embarrassing Problems
Dr Margaret Stearn, Health Press, 1998
- An A-Z guide from acne to wind - containing advice for coping with a range of problems.
The Little Book of Sleep
Paul Wilson, Penguin, 1999
- Advice intended to achieve a good night's sleep.
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Block - Getting out of Your Own Way
Abigail Lipson & David Perkins, Lyle Stuart, 1990
- Seeks to answer to some common questions such as 'Why can't I get out of bed in the morning?' or 'Why can't I get my work done on time?' This book doesn't offer instant solutions but provides a framework for changing some of the failures of will-power many of us face.
Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman, Bloomsbury, 1996
- In this book, the author argues that our IQ-idolising view of intelligence is far too narrow. He makes the case for self-awareness, altruism, personal motivation, empathy, the ability to love and other emotional attributes as being stronger indicators of human success.
The Nice Factor Book
Jo Ellen Grzyb and Robin Chandler, Pocket Books, 2000
- Explores techniques to help people choose a different way of behaving than they are used to; intended to put them back in control of their lives.
Self-Motivation
Gael Lindenfield, HarperCollins, 2000
- A self-help guide attempting to reveal what it is, how exactly it can help us and why it is so often elusive. Aimed at encouraging the reader not to procrastinate.
Success from Setbacks
Gael Lindenfeld, HarperCollins, 2000
- The author sets out to show how this skill is something that can be developed, and how apparent disasters might be converted into opportunities for success and personal growth.
The Road Less Travelled
M Scott Peck, Vintage/Ebury, 1999
- Suggests ways in which facing our difficulties might enable us to reach a higher level of personal understanding. The author discusses the nature of loving relationships: how one might recognise true compatibility, distinguish dependency from love, and become one's own person.
Life and How to Survive It
Robin Skynner & John Cleese, Hutchinson Children's Books, 1996
- Seeks to act as a 'map' to guide people through their everyday lives and help them retain their individuality while co-operating in joint endeavours. It also explores the nature of competition and sportsmanship, of humour in relation to health, and of change and how to accept it.
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Games People Play
Eric Berne, Penguin Books, 1968
- An analysis of the psychological games we play in order to live with one another.
Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness
Gillian Butler, Constable Robinson, 1999
- Sets out techniques intended to overcome conditions such as panic attacks, depression, anxiety and addictions.
After the Affair: How to build trust and love again
Julia Cole, Vermillion, 2000
- Examines the reasons why people embark on affairs and the effects on the person who has been betrayed.
How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends
Don Gabor, Simon & Schuster, 2001
- Suggests ways to improve anybody's ability to communicate in business and social situations.
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
John Gray, Harper Collins, 1993
- A guide aimed at improving communication and getting what you want in your relationships.
I'm OK, You're OK
Thomas Harris, Arrow Books, 1995
- Seeks to explain how to gain to control of yourself, your relationships and your future - no matter what has happened in the past.
The Dance of Intimacy: A woman's guide to courageous acts of change in key relationships
Harriet Lerner, Harper Collins, 1999
- A guide intended to foster intimacy in all relationships.
The Relate Guide to Better Relationships: Practical ways to make your love last
Sarah Litvinoff, Vermillion, 1998
- The experience of Relate counsellors intended to help relationships to be sustained through honest communication and joint problem-solving.
The Relate Guide to starting Again: How to learn from the past for a better future
Sarah Litvinoff, Vermillion, 1993
- Examines the lessons that might be learnt from a relationship that has ended. Includes self-assessment questionnaires, tasks, and discussion points intended to help reach a greater understanding of yourself and your relationship.
Cracking the Love Code
Janet O'Neal, Piatkus Books, 1999
- A guide to honesty, understanding, communicating and getting what we want and need in a relationship.
You Just Don't Understand: Women and men in conversation
Deborah Tannen, Virago, 1992
- Intended to improve verbal communication between the sexes.
The Good Relationship Guide
Dr Maryon Tysoe, Piatkus Books, 1997
- Written mainly for women, this guide uses psychological research in an attempt to understand and improve relationships. It seeks to explain how we choose partners and gives advice on what to look for during the courtship process. It also suggests techniques to keep the relationship running and revitalised.
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Be Your Own Counsellor
Sheila Dainow, Piatkus Books, 1997
- Step by step guide for exploring the counselling process in a way which may enable people to make the changes they desire in their lives independent of a counsellor. Introduces concepts of the whole self-mind, body and spirit.
Counselling for Toads
Robert De Board, Routledge, 1997
- A sequel to Kenneth Grahame's, 'The Wind in the Willows'. Toad is in a depressed state and, through a counsellor (Heron) using transactional analysis, is taught to analyse his feelings and develop emotional intelligence. This book introduces the field of counselling to a first time client or student as it discusses the potential of psychological growth and development.
Self Counselling
William Stuart, How To Books, 1998
- In this self-help book, William Stuart introduces many self-counselling skills and techniques and uses case-studies and exercises with the intention of developing a deeper self-awareness and the ability to solve problems.
Change for the Better - Self-help through practical psychotherapy
E W McCormick, Cassell, 1996
- Aimed at people who feel they want to change, but find anything beyond superficial change difficult. It suggests ways to identify and map out unhelpful behaviour patterns and set achievable goals for change.
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Family Outing: The guide to coming out for gays, lesbians and their parents
Chastity Bono with Billie Fitzpatrick, Pan Books, 1999
- Seeks to offer helpful advice to those coming to terms with their sexuality. It also attempts to be a guide for parents.
The Joy of Sex
Alex Comfort, Mitchell Beazley, 1996
- Deals with a wide range of topics within the context of heterosexual relationships.
The Mirror Within: A new look at sexuality
Anne Dickson, Quartet, 1985
- Looks at some basic assumptions about women's sexuality and offers information about a frequently misunderstood subject.
Raising Your Sexual Self Esteem: How To Feel Better About Your Sexuality and Yourself
Beverly Engel, Fawcett Columbine
- Intended to help the reader gain confidence, enjoyment and pleasure.
Women Without Sex: The truth about female impotence and other sexual prob