personal development

Mental Health Books to read

October 9, 2021Rabea

Books will always be the best teachers in my opinion. I’ve learned probably just as much from mental health books as I’ve learned in therapy. That’s why I wanted to give you a couple mental health books to read in this post.

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The Body Keeps The Score

by Bessel Van Der Kolk

This book is fairly dense, fairly heavy to read. It’s definitely targeted towards other people working in psychology, but if you have trauma this book will teach you so much about it and how it connects to your body. The book explains research that has been done, the success stories of patients, and gives recovery suggestions based on research. This book definitely got me excited about trying out things like EMDR and internal family systems therapy. You’ll see the world through different eyes after this one.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

by Lindsay Gibson

This one had been recommended all around me for ages before I finally read it. I wish I had picked it up much earlier in life. Maybe at age 16 or 17. This book goes greatly into emotional immaturity, enmeshed family systems, and how disconnect from parents in the slightest bit can really impact your life. The book has little stories of patients throughout it that really help understand everything that’s being sad and almost all the chapters have little exercises you can do. This really helped me grasp my childhood a bit better.

After The Rain

by Alexandra Elle

This book is more of a personal story in chapters, but each chapter ends with a journaling prompt for yourself. This book is not the easiest read if you are a very empathetic person, but it gives a realistic and encouraging view on healing. It helped me realize things I haven’t thought about before and it overall helped start my healing journey. There is also a companion book that is full of more journaling prompts, but I haven’t bought it yet.

**The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck**

by Mark Manson

This had been my favorite psychology-related book for a long time until I read The Body Keeps The Score. This book goes into our mindsets as humans and also talks about non-permanence a lot. It is pretty straightforward and candid. One of the few self-help books I read that doesn’t have much fluff in it. Half of the book has marked text and I still open it and read a chapter every now and then. The author also has a really cool Youtube channel.

Set Boundaries, Find Peace

by Nedra Tawwab

I know boundaries are brought up all the time but really hard to apply to one’s own life without any help. This book goes into what boundaries are, what violated boundaries feel like, and what types of boundaries exist. The author has a successful Instagram page all about the topic of boundaries and general psychology topics that I’ve been following for a long time. I haven’t finished this book yet, but I can already recommend it.

Those are mental health books to read if you haven’t yet. HERE is my first-ever book recommendation post if it interests you. If you wanna learn more about mental health and fulfilling your own needs better, I created a little guide all about identifying your needs that you can get sent right to your inbox: