Therapy Book Recommendations

Here are a few therapist recommended books for people who want to learn about themselves, develop healthier relationships or habits, and heal from their past experiences! They’ve all impacted me in my personal life and in how I approach my work with clients.

Quiet by Susan Cain

This is one of my favorite books about introversion. It lays out the benefits and struggles of being an introvert in a world that’s often overstimulating. The author highlights the different strengths of introversion by using both research and personal experience. It’s interesting to read as an introvert or extrovert and totally changed my perspective on how we see personality!

The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

This memoir focuses on trauma, post-traumatic stress, and post-traumatic growth as the author shares her experience in a concentration camp as a young girl. She becomes a therapist later in life and uses her growth and resilience to compassionately guide her own clients through their healing as she learns to make meaning of her struggles at the same time.

The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, PhD

I wish I had read this book sooner! Meg Jay is direct and doesn’t sugar coat her thoughts in this book about being a twenty-something, and she is always gracious and empowering. It balances practical and research backed advice with stories about real people and normalizes the career, relationship, and identity struggles that we so often go through in our twenties.

These are books that provide more in depth knowledge on the topics you might be processing in sessions. Reading can be a helpful way to complement the work you do in therapy, and I have found that diving into books gives me more space to reflect on the topics I’m working through. It makes my overall experience in therapy more beneficial and I’d always recommend the same practice to clients.