Book Recommendations

Here are a few books that have shaped my ideas of mental health and healing.

Reading from right sources can promote self-reflection, self-awareness and build insight. These insights can be taken to therapy sessions and can be processed with your therapist to facilitate therapy outcomes.

Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb

This is the perfect book to pick up when one is curious about what happens inside the therapy room. It narrates the beauty of the therapy process and also depicts the humanness of the therapist- her struggles, her vulnerabilities and her journey as a person and as a professional.

The Wisdom of Anxiety by Sheryl Paul

I am grateful that I came across this book at a time when I was experiencing anxiety. For me, the book was a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day. It is gently written and encourages you to embrace anxiety instead of looking for ways to get rid of it. I agree that sitting with anxiety and actually being with it is hard - this is the beauty of this book- It provides sufficient acknowledgment for this difficulty and at the same time provides ways in which we can overcome this difficulty. It is loaded with exercises and questions for self- reflection. In the post above, I am sharing a few excerpts from the book that really aligned with me. I hope this book helps you!

And How Do You Feel About That? by Aruna Gopakumar and Yashodhara Lal

As a therapist who uses Transactional Analysis (TA), I am always on a lookout for books in the field that explains the concepts of TA with ease and shows evidence/outcome of its successful use. This is the book that perfectly fits my need and the best part is that it is written by Indian therapists, working in Indian context and with Indian population. I emphasise on the Indian context here because very few Indian transactional analysts and therapists have published about their experience with clients and hence this books adds to the much needed literature of psychotherapy in India.

As a reader, I enjoyed the storytelling in the book. With short and crisp chapters on breakthroughs in therapy, it helps the readers to be a fly in the wall of a therapy room and witness the power of therapeutic work and the transition that follows.