Best Self-Help Books: Most Recommended by David Yarian PhD

Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping You Decide Whether to Stay In or Get Out of Your Relationship
Mira Kirsenbaum

This self-help book offers a focused way to deal with the agonizing decision about staying in, or getting out of a troubled relationship -- one critical issue at a time. The book is sympathetic and filled with anecdotes that show how other people have responded to similar problems. 1997, Plume Books

Love Without Hurt: Turn Your Resentful, Angry, or Emotionally Abusive Relationship into a Compassionate, Loving One
Steve Stosny

If you're always walking on eggshells around your partner, Stosny is writing for you. The CompassionPower founder and relationship expert draws examples and exercises from his experience working with couples as he discusses core values, anger management, resentment, power struggles, and reconstruction. 2008, Da CapoPress

A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps: The Classic Guide for All People in the Process of Recovery
Patrick Carnes

An excellent and practical self-help book for people in the process of healing from addiction. It is in workbook form and provides structured exercises to help recovering people integrate the twelve steps into their lives. 1994, Hazelden

Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol
Patt Denning, Jeannie Little, Adina Glickman

This guide, an alternative to abstinence-only programs, offers solace, support, information, and the skills you need to understand harm reduction and use it to make positive changes in your life. 2003, The Guilford Press

The Anger Control Workbook
Matthew McKay and Peter Rogers

The ever-escalating costs of anger are well documented: sabotaging careers, alienating friends and family, triggering illness, causing bodily harm. Written bytwo well-regarded experts in the field, The Anger Control Workbook introduces a new and radically simplified approachto anger control. Step-by-step exercises will aid the reader in identifying, understanding, responding to and ultimately coping with their hostile feelings. 2000, New Harbinger

Angry All The Time: An Emergency Guide To Anger Control
Ronald T. Potter-Efron

This major update of the best-selling self-help classic on anger management teaches readers to understand and manage episodes of uncontrolled anger. The book gives clear and concrete direction for things a person can do to begin to bring anger under control. 2005, New Harbinger Publications; 2nd edition

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
Edmund Bourne

Bourne teaches specific self-help skills for overcoming problems with panic, anxiety and phobias. There is information on the appropriateuse of medications and herbal supplements. This is a practical and highly regarded self-help resource on thetreatment of anxiety. 2015, New Harbinger, 6th edition, revised

Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You From Anxiety, Fear and Panic
Jeffrey Brantley and Jon Kabat-Zinn

This compassionate self-help book teaches the principle of mindfulness to relieve a wide range of stress-related conditions. Mindfulness is receptive, non-judgmental, present- moment awareness, a state of focusing attention only on the here and now. The book teaches skills for calming and relaxing the mind and body. 2007, New Harbinger

The Depression Workbook: A Guide for Living with Depression and Manic Depression
Mary Ellen Copeland

This best-selling self-help workbook provides interactive exercises that help readers take responsibility for their own wellness. It teaches essential coping skills, such as tracking and controlling moods, building a support system, increasing self-confidence and self-esteem, avoiding conditions that can exacerbate mood swings, and using relaxation, diet and exercise to stabilize moods. Included is a step-by-step process to help readers develop their own plan for managing symptoms and staying well. 2002, New Harbinger

Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner
Julie A. Fast, John D. Preston

This is a ground-breaking self-help book for couples who want to prevent manic-depressive disorder from hijacking their relationship. Once medication has been prescribed, the key is studying the specific ways your partner is affected. This allows couples to develop proactive strategies for treating and stabilizing mood swings and symptoms, before they develop into full-blown crises. This book is an oasis of relief and hope. 2012, New Harbinger, Second Edition

Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology to Overcome Depression
John McQuaid and Paula Carmona

The authors write, "a life shaken by depression is also a life open to the possibility of deep transformation." This self-help book recommends a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and meditation. CBT teaches you to track your thoughts, observe behaviors, and notice how these affect depression. By changing thoughts and behaviors you learn how to change your emotions and mood. Meditation trains you to observe your life and thoughts. Both approaches help you identify and then change core beliefs that influence depression, thereby resulting in new core beliefs based on your values. 2004, New Harbinger

Children of the Self-Absorbed: A Grown-Up's Guide to Getting over Narcissistic Parents
Nina W. Brown

Millions of adults grew up with immature, self-absorbed parents who made their children responsible for their physical and emotional well-being, expected admiration and constant attention, and reacted with criticism and blame when their slightest need went unmet. In this accessible >self-help book, Brown helps grown children come to terms with the results of such an upbringing, including tendencies to overcomply to others needs,withdraw when someone needs nurturing and lack self-esteem. 2008, New Harbinger

Brain Lock: Free Yourself From Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior
Jeffrey Schwartz and Beverly Beyette

This self-help book presents a simple and effective four-step method for overcoming OCD. This method does not rely on medication but has been proven by brain imaging tests to actually alter the brain's chemistry. Cognitive self-therapy and behavior modification are used to develop new patterns of response to obsessions. 1997, Regan Books

Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts: How to Gain Control of Your OCD
Christine Purdon, David A. Clark

More than fifty percent of OCD sufferers experience agressive, religious, or sexual obsessive thoughts. This self-help book offers safe and effective exposure exercises readers can use to limit the effect that obsessive thoughts have on their lives. 2005, New Harbinger

The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Mary Beth Williams and Soili Poijula

This self-help workbook offers the most effective tools and strategies to help readers conquer trauma-related symptoms such as flashbacks, recurring memories, nightmares, frightening thoughts, emotional numbness, sleep disturbances, poor concentration, depression, anxiety, and irritability or outbursts of anger. Assessment tools help readers determine the type of trauma they experienced, identify their symptoms, and learn the most effective techniques and interventions they can use to overcome them. 2002, New Harbinger

Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval
James W. Pennebaker

This self-help book takes readers through a series of guided writing exercises that help them explore their feelings about difficult experiences. The approach is based upon the field of expressive emotions therapy (EET), developed by the author. The book stresses thoughout the healing power that lies in story-telling, whether through fiction, dance, or art. The reader is left with a strong sense of their value in the world. 2004, New Harbinger

The Courage to Heal
Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

This self-help book is a classic resource for women who were sexually abused as children. Clearly written and filled with writing exercises and self-assessments, it is a reliable guide to the healing process from childhood sexual abuse. Many survivors' stories are woven into the text. 2008, Harper Paperbacks, 20th Anniversary Edition

The Courage to Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
Laura Davis

This is an inspiring self-help book for all women healing from the effects of child sexual abuse. It is in a workbook format, and includes checklists, writing and art projects, open-ended questions and activities which serve to guide the survivor through the healing process. 1990, Perennial Currents

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
Elaine N. Aaron

Author Elaine Aron says that highly sensitive persons make up 15-20% of the population. Because society rewards the out-going personality and treats shyness and sensitivity as problems to be overcome, sensitive people often struggle with self-esteem and self-confidence. This self-help book helps the sensitive person to recognize his or her strengths and to learn strategies for coping with social discomfort. 1999, Replica Books

The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook: Proven Techniques for Overcoming Your Fears
Martin Anthony and Richard Swinson

Social anxiety disorder is the fear of situations that involve interaction with other people, ranging from anxiety before a scheduled public appearance to shyness that leads to withdrawal from contact at a casual social event. This self-help workbook is designed to help the reader overcome these paralyzing social phobias and provides skill-building exercises for improvement of communication, public speaking, and general anxiety. 2008, New Harbinger