For Further Exploration
A selection of books and resources that may offer insight, encouragement, or a new way of understanding your experiences. No single book has all the answers, and reading is not a substitute for therapy. My hope is that something here might give language to what you've been feeling, awaken curiosity, or open a door to further discovery.
Attachment & Relationships
Attached — Amir Levine & Rachel Heller
An accessible introduction to adult attachment patterns, particularly in romantic relationships. Helpful for recognizing how we seek closeness, respond to distance, and experience security.
Wired for Love — Stan Tatkin
Explores how partners can better understand one another's emotional needs and develop greater security and cooperation in their relationships.
How We Love — Milan & Kay Yerkovich
Examines how early relational experiences may shape the ways we love, protect ourselves, and respond to conflict in adulthood. Written from a Christian perspective.
Hold Me Tight — Sue Johnson
An exploration of emotional connection in romantic relationships and the ways couples can recognize and change patterns of disconnection.
Understanding Ourselves
The Drama of the Gifted Child — Alice Miller
A psychoanalytically informed exploration of how children may learn to set aside their authentic emotional experiences to preserve important relationships. Some of its theoretical claims are debated, but it can offer meaningful questions for reflection.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson
Explores the lasting effects of growing up with caregivers who struggled to respond to a child's emotional needs.
No Bad Parts — Richard Schwartz
Introduces Internal Family Systems and a compassionate way of understanding the different parts of ourselves, particularly those that carry fear, shame, or protective responses.
Postpartum & Early Motherhood
Mothering the New Mother — Sally Placksin
Explores the emotional, physical, and relational needs of women during the transition into motherhood.
The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook — Pamela Wiegartz & Kevin Gyoerkoe
Practical exercises and strategies for understanding and managing anxiety during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts — Karen Kleiman
A compassionate, accessible resource addressing intrusive thoughts, anxiety, shame, and the often-unspoken emotional experiences of new mothers.
The Fourth Trimester — Kimberly Ann Johnson
Explores recovery and adjustment after childbirth, with an emphasis on the body and the need for care and support. Some recommendations reflect the author's particular wellness perspective.
Loving the Little Years — Rachel Jankovic
Short, faith-based reflections on the everyday challenges and joys of raising young children, particularly for mothers who appreciate a traditional Christian perspective.
Eating Concerns & Body Image
Body Kindness — Rebecca Scritchfield
Encourages a more compassionate relationship with the body, moving away from shame and rigid expectations.
Intuitive Eating — Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch
Explores how to reconnect with hunger, fullness, and bodily cues while challenging restrictive food rules. Those with active eating disorders may benefit from exploring these ideas alongside specialized care.
Made for More — Hannah Anderson
A Christian reflection on identity, dignity, and what it means to understand ourselves as made in the image of God.
Grief, Loss & Suffering
A Grief Observed — C. S. Lewis
An intimate and unvarnished account of grief, faith, doubt, and the disorientation of profound loss.
It's OK That You're Not OK — Megan Devine
Challenges the expectation that grief should follow a predictable timeline or be resolved through positive thinking.
Holding On to Hope — Nancy Guthrie
A Christian exploration of suffering, loss, and hope through the story of Job.
The Undistracted Widow — Carol Cornish
A faith-centered resource for women navigating widowhood, grief, and the practical and spiritual challenges of life after loss.
Trauma & the Mind-Body Connection
The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk
Explores how traumatic experiences can affect the brain, body, and emotional life. Contains detailed descriptions of trauma that some readers may find distressing.
Try Softer — Aundi Kolber
Integrates Christian faith, emotional awareness, and trauma-informed approaches to cultivating greater compassion toward ourselves.
Healing Trauma — Peter Levine
Introduces body-oriented exercises intended to support awareness of physical sensations and responses to stress. Best approached gently and at a pace that feels manageable.
Boundaries — Henry Cloud & John Townsend
A Christian perspective on responsibility, limits, and maintaining healthy relationships.
Faith, Spiritual Wounds & Healing
The Inner Voice of Love — Henri J. M. Nouwen
A deeply personal collection of spiritual reflections on rejection, belonging, suffering, and the difficult work of receiving love.
The Return of the Prodigal Son — Henri J. M. Nouwen
Explores identity, forgiveness, belonging, and the experience of being loved by God.
When God Becomes a Drug — Leo Booth
Examines how religious experience and spiritual practices can sometimes become entangled with dependency, shame, or avoidance.
The Soul of Shame — Curt Thompson
Explores shame through an integration of Christian spirituality, interpersonal relationships, and neuroscience-informed ideas.
Creativity, Play & Becoming
The Artist's Way — Julia Cameron
Invites readers to reconnect with curiosity, imagination, and creative expression through reflection and practical exercises.
Playing and Reality — D. W. Winnicott
A foundational psychoanalytic work exploring play, creativity, and the development of a sense of self. More theoretical than the other selections, but particularly meaningful for those interested in depth psychology.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being — Rick Rubin
Reflects on creativity as a way of attending to life, rather than something reserved for artists.
These resources reflect a range of clinical, personal, and spiritual perspectives. Their inclusion does not mean that I endorse every idea or recommendation within them. I encourage you to approach what you read with curiosity, taking what is useful and leaving room for your own experience and discernment.
A Few Personal Favorites
These are a few books I've found especially meaningful, both personally and in the way I think about relationships, faith, suffering, and the experience of being human. They come from different traditions and perspectives, but each offers something worth considering.
Counterfeit Gods — Timothy Keller
An exploration of the things we look to for identity, security, and meaning—and what happens when even good things become the foundation of our worth.
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering — Timothy Keller
A thoughtful examination of suffering, faith, and the difficult questions that arise when life does not unfold as we hoped. Keller brings together theology, philosophy, and the lived experience of pain.
Playing and Reality — D. W. Winnicott
A foundational work in psychoanalytic thought that explores the importance of play, creativity, and our capacity to experience life as genuinely our own. A more academic read, but a particularly meaningful one.
The Inner Voice of Love — Henri J. M. Nouwen
An intimate collection of spiritual reflections on loneliness, rejection, belonging, and learning to receive love. A book to return to slowly, rather than necessarily read all at once.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson
An accessible exploration of how our earliest relationships shape our emotional lives, our sense of self, and the ways we relate to others as adults.
Intrusiveness and Intimacy in the Couple — Edited by Stanley Ruszczynski & James Fisher
A psychoanalytic exploration of the complexities of intimacy, including how our longing for closeness can coexist with fears of intrusion, vulnerability, and losing ourselves in relationships. A more academic read, but a fascinating examination of the unconscious dynamics that shape our most intimate connections.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear — Elizabeth Gilbert
An invitation to approach creativity with curiosity, courage, and openness. A reminder that creativity is not reserved for artists, but can be part of how we engage with the world and discover what is possible.