Your friendly neighborhood therapy practice
Book of the Month
Love a good book? So do we! Here's what we're reading this month; just click on the book if you'd like to buy it for yourself. If reading just isn't enough and you'd love to talk about these topics more try our Book Club Group or meet with an individual therapist.
March
Are you your own toughest critic? Learn to be good to yourself with this clear and compassionate guide.
Do you set demanding standards for yourself? If so, a lot likely goes well in your life: You might earn compliments, admiration, or accomplishments. Your high standards and hard work pay off.
But privately, you may feel like you’re falling behind, faking it, or different from everybody else. Your eagle-eyed inner quality control inspector highlights every mistake. You try hard to avoid criticism, but criticize yourself. Trying to get it right is your guiding light, but it has lit the way to a place of dissatisfaction, loneliness, or disconnection. In short, you may look like you’re hitting it out of the park, but you feel like you’re striking out.
This is perfectionism. And for everyone who struggles with it, it’s a misnomer: perfectionism isn’t about striving to be perfect. It’s about never feeling good enough.
May
Drawing from decades of experience helping clients heal themselves and their relationships, It Begins with You introduces the 9 core truths we must accept in order to change our lives:
-
Truth 1: It begins with you.
-
Truth 2: The mind is a battlefield.
-
Truth 3: Lust is not the same thing as love.
-
Truth 4: You have to love yourself.
-
Truth 5: You must speak up and tell the truth.
-
Truth 6: You need to be your best self (even after the honeymoon).
-
Truth 7: You cannot convince someone to love you.
-
Truth 8: No one is coming to save you.
-
Truth 9: You must make peace with your parents.
Blending therapeutic strategies, somatic techniques, client case studies, practical tools, tips, and guiding questions, It Begins with You gives us a roadmap to finally start doing the work needed to love ourselves and find the love we deserve. It's never too late to choose yourself.
July
Whether it’s anxiety about going to the doctor, boiling rage when we’re stuck in traffic, or devastation after a painful break-up, our lives are filled with situations that send us spiraling. But as difficult as our emotions can be, they are also a superpower. Far from being “good” or “bad,” emotions are information. When they’re activated in the right ways & at the right time, they function like an immune system, alerting us to our surroundings, telling us how to react to a situation, & helping us make the right choices.
But how do we make our emotions work for us rather than against us? Acclaimed psychologist Dr. Ethan Kross has devoted his scientific career to answering this question. In Shift, he dispels common myths—for instance, that avoidance is always toxic or that we should always strive to live in the moment—& provides a new framework for shifting our emotions so they don’t take over our lives.
Shift weaves groundbreaking research with riveting stories of people struggling & succeeding to manage their emotions—from a mother whose fear prompted her to make a spur-of-the-moment decision that would save her daughter’s life mid-flight to a nuclear code-carrying Navy SEAL who learned how to embrace both joy & pain during a hellish training activity. Dr. Kross spotlights a wide array of tools that we already have access to—in our bodies & minds, our relationships with other people, & the cultures & physical spaces we inhabit—& shows us how to harness them to be healthier & more successful.
September
In this essential guide, Dr. Julie teaches her millions of readers & clients how to navigate life’s toughest occurrences while they’re happening, rather than moments or years after the fact. What if we can learn to harness our emotions & stay present so we can process & choose how to respond to a situation? Dr. Julie shares the research-backed concepts & powerful skills we can use to weather our most vulnerable moments. Learn how to move through any situation with grace, including:
-
When it’s hard to be with yourself: facing vulnerability alone, dealing with your inner critic, & healing imposter syndrome.
-
When it’s hard to be with other people: dealing with betrayal & knowing what to do when you (or your parents) got it wrong.
-
When it’s hard to be with your feelings: coping with loneliness, fear, & hopelessness
-
When you’re healing from the past: getting out of a trauma response & learning how to stop ruminating about old events.
-
When you’re looking to the future: preventing making the same mistakes, tackling uncertainty, & finding your path.
Open When teaches each of us to find & listen to the positive voice within when we need it most, & to care for our future selves & our mental health.
November
April
In The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins introduces a simple yet powerful concept to help you regain control of your life: "Let Them." By freeing yourself from the opinions, judgments, and expectations of others, Robbins argues you can focus on what truly matters—your happiness and goals. This approach empowers you to stop trying to control everything and instead invest your energy in areas that foster personal growth and fulfillment.
​
Drawing on her expertise in motivation and mindset, Robbins provides a science-backed, practical guide for applying this theory to key areas of life, such as work, relationships, and personal goals. Through relatable stories and insights from experts in psychology and neuroscience, she offers actionable strategies to build resilience, stop comparing yourself to others, and create deeper connections. The Let Them Theory helps readers unlock their full potential, embrace confidence, and cultivate a life of success, happiness, and meaningful relationships.
In The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins introduces a simple yet powerful concept to help you regain control of your life: "Let Them." By freeing yourself from the opinions, judgments, and expectations of others, Robbins argues you can focus on what truly matters—your happiness and goals. This approach empowers you to stop trying to control everything and instead invest your energy in areas that foster personal growth and fulfillment.
​ Drawing on her expertise in motivation and mindset, Robbins provides a science-backed, practical guide for applying this theory to key areas of life, such as work, relationships, and personal goals. Through relatable stories and insights from experts in psychology and neuroscience, she offers actionable strategies to build resilience, stop comparing yourself to others, and create deeper connections. The Let Them Theory helps readers unlock their full potential, embrace confidence, and cultivate a life of success, happiness, and meaningful relationships.
June
Changing how we work can feel overwhelming. Like trying to budge an enormous boulder. We’re stifled by the gravity of the way we’ve always done things. And we spend so much time fighting fires—and fighting colleagues—that we lack the energy to shift direction.
But with the right strategy, we can move the boulder. In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find “leverage points”: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.
Heath weaves together fascinating examples, ranging from a freakishly effective fast-food drive-thru to a simple trick from couples therapy to an inspirational campaign that saved a million cats.
In Reset, you’ll learn:
-Why the feeling of progress can be your secret weapon in accelerating change
-How leaders can uncover and stop wasteful activities
-Why your team’s motivation is often squandered—and how to avoid that mistake
-How you can jumpstart your change efforts by beginning with a “burst”
August
We live in an epidemic of anxiety. Most of us assume that the key to overcoming it is to think our way out. & for a while it works. But there is always something that sends us back into the anxious spiral we’ve been trying to climb out of.
In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you, & likely within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, & joy.
Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology & coaching, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an “anxiety spiral,” a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To climb out, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck provides instructions for engaging the “creativity spiral,” in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning & purpose, & joyful, intimate connection with others—& with the world.
The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life—one that can calm & inspire us as individuals & help us become a source of healing for everything around us.
October
December