(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best psychology counseling books

I am so very sorry that you are going through this. My husband did the same thing to me six months ago. It was very unexpected and I felt like my whole world was turned upside down (which I would have thought was impossible since it already had been completely altered by the PTSD). He had been my rock throughout it all, and now he is gone.

It sucks so bad to be in the place you are right now. I wish I could hug you through the internet. I am not going to lie to you and say that the pain will go away soon. It is still a raw wound for me. Even so, I still have found happy moments with other friends and family. I have laughed and appreciated beauty and challenged myself to grow in new directions. Despite all the pain, life is still an adventure.

I have learned that I am stronger than I ever realized. I always gave him so much credit for "getting me through." While I am very appreciative for the support he did give me for the past two years of my PTSD crisis, he isn't the one who actually made me survive. I got me through by working hard, committing to health, therapy, and healing from this trauma. I am willing to bet that if you look hard at your progress you can say the same thing. No one can make us get better, so if we are surviving, if we are still here, then it is our strength that allowed us to do so.

Two books that have helped me are listed below. One is for the PTSD, the other is for healing from a divorce. I hope they may provide you with some tools for this difficult time.

Please feel free to PM me if you want to talk. Best wishes for better days ahead.

1. [8 Keys to safe trauma recovery] (http://www.amazon.ca/Keys-To-Safe-Trauma-Recovery/dp/0393706052)
   
   
2. [Rebuilding when your relationship ends] (http://impactpublishers.com/product/43/Rebuilding.html)

I had written a longer post but I think it's better if I just recommend a book that I find really helpful.
Mark Epstein's book that blends Freudian psychology with Buddhist concepts is a very interesting book and I learned a lot about myself from reading it.
You are ok. 18 is the perfect age to start to think about these concepts, you are about a decade more advanced that I was at your age.

Some basic advice that I offer if you have an interest.

Try not to spin out too hard, and be careful how you talk to yourself. I spotted some self judgmental language in your post so you might have that tenancy. Be kind to yourself at every opportunity. There are no black and white answers or right or wrong we are all just figuring it out as we go. Good luck!

I had exactly the same issue for years (and still do, but to a lesser extent). I frequently do presentations at work that generally take about 8 hours to prepare, but I'd procrastinate until a couple of hours before the presentation. This time got shorter and shorter and shorter, sometimes it would be down to literally just a few minutes and I'd have do the presentation entirely off the cuff.

Things are now starting to improve, and I'm back up to perhaps 2 or three hours of preparation. That's still 5 hours of procrastination, but it's a big improvement.

The things that have helped me most are:

• The Adult ADHD Toolkit, or if that's too basic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD: An Integrative Psychosocial and Medical Approach
  
• The Productivity Planner
  
  There's much more to both books that this, but the #1 technique for me from both books was that every night before I go to bed, I write down ONE thing that I will do tomorrow, and then I make sure that I will do it when I said. At first (and still now sometimes), I still procrastinate. For the first few days, I often started the task at about 2am, because I'd been putting it off, but gradually that time has been getting earlier.
  
  I also track my productivity using a number of homegrown metrics. I enjoy doing that, so it's a form of procrastination but it also forces me to be honest about progress (or lack of it) and provides additional motivation as I want to improve in last week's score.

> It's never too old to start with acting.

Reading this made me feel a lot better. Even though I've been acting since high school and just graduated with a BA in theatre performance, I still sometimes feel like I'm way behind in the game because I wasn't into youth theatre or haven't gotten an agent yet. Great inclusion!


Also, if you wanted to add a book that's a great starting point for reading plays, the Norton Anthology of Drama (Shorter Edition) is a great collection of classics leading up to more contemporary plays. It was basically a staple all 4 years at my university. (Kind of expensive, but if you can find a library where you can check it out, it's definitely worth the read! There's also the full sized Norton Anthology of Drama that comes with two volumes and quite a few great plays.)

I would say a single book addressing the topics you are integrating would be difficult to find but either multiple books or a collection of essays and book chapters would be a good approach.

• Crowley and Hawhee's Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students is an introduction and move for historical contextualization and working through the movement of the field. (Classical Rhetoric, Philosophy, and English Composition approach)
  
• Palczewski, Ice, and Fritch's Rhetoric in Civic Life provides some very basic ties to classical rhetoric and looks at the move to rhetorical criticism in contemporary rhetorical studies. (Communication Studies approach) (Link to first edition; the edition this comment is based on)
  
• Miller's The Norton Book of Composition Studies has essays that address the English and Communication Studies divide but situates rhetoric as an important study regardless of the discipline that thinks owns it.
  
• Eyman's Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice gives a broad history of rhetoric and transitions this history into digital humanities. (Publisher's website link that has the full text of this book)
  
• Losh, Alexander, Cannon, & Cannon's Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing provides some significant background for constructing thoughts and arguments and situating what rhetoric is and what it can be.
  
• Dickinson, Blair, and Ott's Places of Public Memory is a fantastic edited collection with essays situating monuments and memorials.
  
• In a similar line to Dickinson et al., you could look at Hariman and Lucaites's No Caption Needed text to examine visual rhetoric as well or even their more recent text The Public Image.
  
  I don't know that any one of these texts would be necessary for students to purchase but a smattering of readings from them may be worth pulling into the course. Additionally, essays from significant scholars or journals (similar to what Miller's book has) that are reasonably up-to-date would probably go further than any textbook can. Although for understanding the Greek tradition or classical rhetoric, some of the tried-and-true texts such as Crowley and Hawhee's are a good place to turn.
  
  edit: added links to make it easier for me to find these things when I return to this post.

For counseling a client I recommend https://www.amazon.com/Synthesis-Counseling-Astrology-Professional-Manual/dp/156718734X

The reason I recommend SCA is because Noel masterfully integrates/synthesizes his astrological wisdom seamlessly with his knowledge of modern psychology. The emphasis is about as much or more of what you know about life than what you need to know about astrology. This is the most helpful book in my library.

Best of luck,

HVA

All of his books are good, but I'd recommend Why Therapy Doesn't Work, first of all, as well as The Nature of Unhappiness since they're both two-books-in-one collections. Power, Interest, and Psychology was his last book, though, and it's his most complete, at least from a theoretical perspective. Taking Care, which is in Why Therapy Doesn't Work, is my personal favorite.

I wrote a brief post of some places to start at /r/psychoanalysis that I hope you might find helpful.

Looking back, I think maybe I should have added a text on intersubjectivity, which is the direction the field seems to be going on. Making Sense Together is a good place to start, and I found pretty user-friendly. Lewis Aron is a current writer in the branch of intersubjectivity who I think is interesting. And Paul Wachtel has written some helpful texts.

Hey!

I am sure that you've done this, but just in case you haven't: make sure to contact the program(s) you're looking at applying to and see what that the prerequisite classes are for each. I got my masters in clinical mental health counseling and my program required a number of basic psychology courses are prereqs.

Aside from that, don't worry too much about what you don't know. If you're looking to get a jump-start you can read through a basic theories textbook (like this one) or some seminal works by notable authors in the counseling/mental health fields like Man's Search for Meaning, Cognitive Behavioral Theory, or Reality Therapy for the 21st Century.

If you don't have a background in psychology then some of these might feel a little abstract, but don't worry! You don't have to understand everything to begin exploring your interests.

I hope this is helpful!

You might like www.emotionallyvague.com, it seems inline with your question.

For more advanced ideas about this look into Bioenergetic Analysis.

Some free documents about that approach can be found here.

Bob Hilton has a nice book available on Kindle about "relational somatic therapy" here

In general somatic therapies like bioenergetics, hakomi, somatic experiencing work with embodied emotional experience. Note that bioenergetics and its descendants such as core energetics and hakomi come from a Freudian psychoanalysis perspective (by way of Wilhelm Reich, in particular his books "Character Analysis" and "The Function of the Orgasm"), while somatic experiencing comes from an ethological neurobiological perspective.

Embodied Cognition is also looking at this from a more cognitive perspective.

Howell's Statistical Methods for Psychology was my univariate stats book. I liked fairly well, and he does get at the things that you're asking about.

The book isn't perfect -- sometimes I think he throws too much out there, and then later references it without really providing a reference to the original equations. If you treat it as a reference, though, it can be a pretty good book.

I have had some success with both, mainly #2 coupled with IF/OMAD. IF/OMAD worked because I found that the end of the day was when I would most want to snack and overeat. My eating window was 4p-8p. Since you're already putting/keeping food at the forefront of your mind, it kind of made me a bit more mindful as I ate.

Even though my binges were not necessarily about the food (ie I wasn't doing it because I was hungry or even because the food was all that satisfying or it made me feel better) the appetite suppressants seemed to help not because they made me less hungry (which I really wasn't anyway), but they made food a bit more unappealing.

Currently I am on antidepressants and I have yet to have a binge during the 4 weeks since I've started. Prior to getting anything prescribed, I took St Johns Wort for a couple months and it helped A LOT, though not as well as the prescription meds, for my depression and anxiety. I then decided to give SAM-e a try, and it works a bit better, but is more expensive.

The antidepressants have quieted my mind and taken away a lot of things that drove me to "cope" through binging. If you happen to have Kindle Unlimited, I highly recommend this book I found it much more helpful than the CBT exercises my therapist was giving me.

Like most have posted already, existentialism wont be a brief experience. You mentioned that clients are seeing the world as meaningless. I would suggest looking at Motivational Interviewing. This would be a brief form of therapy that you can incorporate some existential teachings. I describe existentialism as my cornerstone to therapy but I use CBT/MI as my main voice. There are some good books that will give you some specific means of existential therapy. I have used these:
Skills in Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy: Van Deurzen,
Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice: Van Deurzen,
and dont forget Yalom

There are a lot of existential philosophers that wrote novels like camus and sartre (my favorite) that will help with your understanding of existentialism.

Your abilities to persuade would be much improved if you lost your condescending attitude and didn't commit egregious logical fallicies.

There was no incriminating evidence in your links about the remaining seven states. But, I do appreciate your literacy advocacy.

Regarding the AHA, it's a logical fallacy to agree with something simply because others agree with it; therefore, a counter to the AHA's viewpoint is not a requisite to having an informed opinion that's contrary to it. All that needs to be done is an examination of the evidence. For which, I see no significant historical evidence that indicates that slavery was the predominant factor leading to the Civil War. What I see is State Law vs Federal Law; however, slavery was a contributing factor.

Your attack of my level of expertise is also another logical fallacy. Ad Hominem is the name by which the fallacy is known. The fact that you commit two logical fallacies in one paragraph's response indicates to me that you likely need a lesson in critical thinking and everyday reasoning. I recommend OPEN MINDS AND EVERYDAY REASONING by Zach Seech. I know it's pricy, but it's worth it as I'm sure it will help in your quest. http://www.amazon.com/Minds-Everyday-Reasoning-Zachary-Seech/dp/0534613489/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421024523&sr=1-1&keywords=everyday+reasoning+seech

Edit: I just want to add that I know your heart is in a good place. I simply disagree with your accounting for the history of this matter (and your use of logical fallacies and condescending attitude).

If you're just starting to learn statistics and are looking for something suitable for self-study, Howell is an approachable text written by a psychologist for psychologists.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a lot of theory", but this book is conceptual without being heavily mathematical. It's not a cookbook, but if you're looking for a cookbook you'd be better off leaving the data analysis to somebody else.

If you already know some basics about sampling, experiment design, testing, estimation, etc, you could try the somewhat more advanced Faraway, which is a practical modeling text based on working examples in R. It's also free, which is a plus.

> I won’t ever come to an epiphany

There's no epiphany. 20, 40, 60, 80 it's the same trial and error to find out what works. Happiness comes from working at being happy, as long as your brain works okay.

You could get busy reading a few books on child development and applying them.

https://www.amazon.com/Hold-Your-Kids-Parents-Matter/dp/0375760288/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1510712228&sr=8-2&keywords=attachment+parenting+teens&dpID=5103hwIT8SL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.com/Integrative-Parenting-Strategies-Children-Attachment/dp/0393708179/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510712487&sr=8-14&keywords=attachment+parenting

A teenager isn't a "child" in the strict sense, but generally, those are good books and it's not hard to apply them to teens.

It seems like more is going on. Were you ever assessed for mood disorders?

Full disclosure: I have not read any of these books. They are all in my Amazon Smile wish list :) Also, some are specifically for transgender issues, but some are geared toward the client or LGBTQ community. You can read them and integrate the information to support your practice.

• Gender Quest Workbook
  
  
• Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients
  
  
• Counseling LGBTI Clients
  
  
• Nurturing Queer Youth: Family Therapy Transformed
  
  
• Handbook of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in Counseling and Psychotherapy
  
  
• Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working With Gender-Variant People and Their Families
  
  
• Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community

WELL DONE FOR GETTING THE JOB! And WELL DONE for making it through the first days: a new job is always difficult as you adjust, but you have more adjustment than 'normal'. Remember: you're doing brilliantly! You've come through addiction & escaped the sex trade: give yourself the credit you deserve.

I was in an abusive realtionship for about 6 years. Escaped. Into another one where I nearly got killed. Never got any help. Mental health services don't really focus on trauma in the UK. They want to talk about my patterns of behaviour in relationships instead of healing the wounds. I'm done talking about how I feel, I want to fix myself & be able to have a life, instead of this half life I now have.

I can't afford private therapy, & there's virtually no local MH provision on the NHS. I spoke to a psychologist who's a feminist & specialises in trauma focused care - she reccomended the following 3 texts to help me:

8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery (Rothschild, 2010)

Trauma and Recovery (Herman, 2015)

Complex PTSD (Walker, 2013)

They might be useful for you too?

Take care of yourself - you deserve it.

Texts and Reference Books

Days in the Lives of Social Workers

DSM-5

Child Development, Third Edition: A Practitioner's Guide

Racial and Ethnic Groups

Social Work Documentation: A Guide to Strengthening Your Case Recording

Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond

[Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life]
(https://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Feelings-Harbinger-Self-Help-Workbook/dp/1608822087/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3ZW7PRW5TK2PB0MDR9R3)

Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrative Model

[The Clinical Assessment Workbook: Balancing Strengths and Differential Diagnosis]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534578438/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_38?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARCO1HGQTQFT8)

Helping Abused and Traumatized Children

Essential Research Methods for Social Work

Navigating Human Service Organizations

Privilege: A Reader

Play Therapy with Children in Crisis

The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives

The School Counseling and School Social Work Treatment Planner

Streets of Hope : The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood

Deviant Behavior

Social Work with Older Adults

The Aging Networks: A Guide to Programs and Services

[Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415884810/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

Ethnicity and Family Therapy

Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Perspectives on Development and the Life Course

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work

Generalist Social Work Practice: An Empowering Approach

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook

DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents

DBT Skills Manual

DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets

Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need

Novels

[A People’s History of the United States]
(https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062397346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511070674&sr=1-1&keywords=howard+zinn&dpID=51pps1C9%252BGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)


The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Life For Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Tuesdays with Morrie

The Death Class <- This one is based off of a course I took at my undergrad university

The Quiet Room

Girl, Interrupted

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Flowers for Algernon

Of Mice and Men

A Child Called It

Go Ask Alice

Under the Udala Trees

Prozac Nation

It's Kind of a Funny Story

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Bell Jar

The Outsiders

To Kill a Mockingbird

Someone in this subreddit recommended these books to me when I was looking for advice on recovery from abuse, and they said that a feminist psychologist told them about these. I haven't gotten the chance to check them out, but I figured I'd pass it along:

8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

Why Does He Do That? is also really good. It's straightforward and has a pretty good feminist analysis of where abuse comes from - the book doesn't try to claim that men abuse because they have mental health problems or any other bullshit, but makes it clear that men abuse women because of misogyny and feeling like they "own" women.