Resources

Gaining new perspectives and awakening pieces of yourself that might feel shut down are all essential parts of moving toward a full and meaningful life. 

But it can be loud out there, with all the self-help books, articles, TedTalks, and of course, the #liveyourbestlife content constantly coming at us. 

I curated these resources, as a psychologist and fellow human being, because I feel that each one speaks to our capacity and potential to be nourished and healed—by therapy of course, as well as through connection to art, music, literature, nature, culture, one another, and our own inner world. 

The list is set up in a way that I hope gets you interested and curious about therapy, as well as everything else in life, while hopefully toning down the noise. 

 

Readings about therapy

Books on relationships

  • The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, PhD and Nan Silver
  • Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by John Gottman, PhD, Julie Schwartz Gottman, PhD, Doug Abrams, Rachel Carlton Abrams, MD
  • Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence by Esther Perel
  • The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esther Perel

Books on childhood, upbringing, trauma, and resilience

  • The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller
  • Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love by Robert Karen, PhD
  • The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting by Alice Miller and Andrew Jenkins
  • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk MD

Books on existential meaning, human experience, hope, and love

  • Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  • Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
  • The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
  • All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
  • The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz
  • On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
  • Emergent Strategy by adrienne marie brown
  • Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne marie brown
  • This is Water by David Foster Wallace
  • Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Books on emotional well-being

  • How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
  • Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price, PhD
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  • Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence by Marc Brackett, PhD
  • Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
  • The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han

Fiction

  • The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • The New Me by Halle Butler
  • Circe by Madeline Miller
  • My Struggle: Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  • Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
  • Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
  • Family Life by Akhil Sharma
  • White Teeth by Zadie Smith
  • Severance by Ling Ma
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • The Stranger by Albert Camus
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Nature writings I love

  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
  • The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben
  • Under the Sea-Wind by Rachel Carson
  • On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
  • The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare

Podcasts I love

  • Still Processing - NYTimes, Jenna Wortham & Wesley Morris
  • Code Switch - NPR, Gene Demby & Shereen Marisol Meraji
  • On Being - Krista Tippett
  • Modern Love - NYTimes / NPR, Daniel Jones & Miya Lee
  • Unlocking Us - Brené Brown
  • Where Should We Begin? - Esther Perel
  • Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness - Earwolf, Jonathan Van Ness

Instagrams I love