Book Recommendations (Building Professional Library)

[EPPP123]

I'm an early career practitioner. I want to start acquiring books to build a reference library for myself and for clients. I'd greatly appreciate suggestions for your favorite/most valued/most referenced books that deal with your specialty area (specific presenting problems, client population, or broader theoretical orientation), that are useful for your own intervention approach, or that you find useful to lend to or recommend to clients. I would be interested both in books written for the professional audience or for the layperson. If you would like to add why you enjoy the book you are recommending or in what circumstances you find it helpful (e.g. setting goals, case conceptualization, intervention ideas, an accessible resource for clients, etc.), that would be valued as well. Thank you for your recommendations.

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[PsychPhDone]

I'm an early career practitioner. I want to start acquiring books to build a reference library for myself and for clients. I'd greatly appreciate suggestions for your favorite/most valued/most referenced books that deal with your specialty area (specific presenting problems, client population, or broader theoretical orientation), that are useful for your own intervention approach, or that you find useful to lend to or recommend to clients. I would be interested both in books written for the professional audience or for the layperson. If you would like to add why you enjoy the book you are recommending or in what circumstances you find it helpful (e.g. setting goals, case conceptualization, intervention ideas, an accessible resource for clients, etc.), that would be valued as well. Thank you for your recommendations.

Most of my books are highly academic (do you have a subsection for stats? ) but I recommend having a few books that clients can lend to their significant others to better understand their conditions. I also tend to steer people toward this list if I don't have any personal recommendations on a particular topic: ABCT | Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

 

[WisNeuro]

Couple non-book recommendations. Wait til you have a job somewhere with a CME budget. Let someone else pay to build your library. Also, get e-books of the reference books. Your moving budget if you ever decide to will thank you. Also, so easy to ctrl-F in a pdf to get right to where you need to go

 

[EPPP123]

Couple non-book recommendations. Wait til you have a job somewhere with a CME budget. Let someone else pay to build your library. Also, get e-books of the reference books. Your moving budget if you ever decide to will thank you. Also, so easy to ctrl-F in a pdf to get right to where you need to go

Thank you for the practical suggestion...Regardless of format do you have any titles to suggest?

 

[WisNeuro]

Thank you for the practical suggestion...Regardless of format do you have any titles to suggest?

Most of mine would be recs for other neuro specific people. Outside of that "Harvard Medical School Guide to Achieving Optimal Memory" is a decent one that has some sections that I hand out to patients. Stuff that can be good for any kind of memory problems, whether they are objective or subjective.

 

[PsyDr]

I would caution against lending pts books. There are ethical issues regarding transference, money if the book is lost, etc.

"Feeling good the new mood therapy" actually has some evidence for support.

Keep receipts for books for tax time.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I would caution against lending pts books. There are ethical issues regarding transference, money if the book is lost, etc.

"Feeling good the new mood therapy" actually has some evidence for support.

Keep receipts for books for tax time.

Agreed. I don't even like to lend books to friends or family. If I really feel that it is indicated, then I will gift something. Much less likely to do that with patients than family because of the aforementioned issues.

 

[WisNeuro]

Indeed, if they want a book, I can recommend that they buy it themselves. Otherwise, I have a few short excerpts from books that I have photocopied that I hand out. Copyrights be damned!

 

[calimich]

an interesting topic, especially for a Friday afternoon. Here's what's literally at my right hand...

 

[PsyDr]

A different sdn forum helped me learn that copy stores will cut bindings off of books, and then you can scan your own.

 

[ClinicalABA]

I'm fortunate to have lit search and online journal resources, and find that I'm using journal article more than books in my day to day work. Books tend to go out date relatively quickly. That said, I do regularly consult a standard text in my field (i.e., Cooper etc al. ABA text), and find it handy to have a good graduate level stat book around (though web searches tend to be easier- I'm mainly checking on stats from articles that I need a reminder on or- geek alert- I want to check on the assumptions about the distribution). I have a few parent-oriented references (e.g., Latham's The Power of Positive Parenting), as well as some teaching curriculum related books (e.g., Do,Watch, Listen, Say; the PECS manual).

I'd concur with PSYDR on Feeling Good- the New Mood Therapy. Back in my adult outpatient days, I used that quite a bit and found it an accessible presentation for clients.

 

[LETSGONYR]

Most of mine would be recs for other neuro specific people. Outside of that "Harvard Medical School Guide to Achieving Optimal Memory" is a decent one that has some sections that I hand out to patients. Stuff that can be good for any kind of memory problems, whether they are objective or subjective.

Same. Though I think some books (such as "Feedback that Sticks," by Postal & Armstrong) have a lot to offer all clinicians. I love that book, it helps discuss different ways to talk to patients about hard topics, how to break bad news, and how to use analogies to get your point across. The broader concepts are applicable to people who don't do assessment.

I also think having books like "Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases" and the "Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests" (or to a lesser extent, "Neuroscience for the Mental Health Clinician" or "When Psychiatric Problems Mask Medical Disorders") can be really helpful, as generalist clinicians will often be reading neuropsych/medical reports and, perhaps, explaining them to patients to help clear up misunderstandings (e.g., a year or three after the eval).

 

[chicandtoughness]

For some "layperson"/easier reads or things to recommend to others:

• Freud and Beyond (Mitchell & Black) - interesting history of the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic tradition
• Psychotherapy Theories & Techniques: A Reader - process-oriented book about most of the major therapeutic techniques. Lots of vignettes for those who like to see things applied.
• 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology (Lilienfeld et al) - pretty "duh" factor for us, but I like to share this with friends/family so they can understand that I'm not just selling snake oil (and identify those who do...)
• Casebook of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (Markowitz & Weissman) - I might have a therapist crush on Weissman...
• Self and Others (Hamilton) - not gonna lie this is the book that got me interested in object relations. super fast and easy read.
• When Breath Becomes Air (Kalanithi) - not a psychology/therapy book, but a beautiful book nonetheless (tl;dr - neurosurgeon dying of stage 4 cancer reflects on meaning on life)

 

[cara susanna]

Matthew McKay has a DBT workbook that I absolutely love. It's green. I usually pull exercises from it for patients, although you can also suggest that they buy it themselves if they want.

There's also a great workbook for behavioral activation called Overcoming Depression One Step at a Time. I've used that countless times.

 

[foreverbull]

I'm a fan of ACT, so I have several texts related to theory and practice. My favorites are Learning ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Skills-Training Manual for Therapists, the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety, and the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression, the latter of which are great introductions to anxiety/depression for the layperson and have several exercises you can assign clients or do with clients in session.

I have several Gestalt theory books from Perls and Polster in my office from my early interest in it several years ago, but I don't utilize it in application (although pieces of it are woven into Interpersonal approaches, EFT, and ACT quite nicely). Also family therapy texts from Bowen/Kerr, texts on prejudice & Sue & Sue's Counseling the Culturally Diverse, stats books, and Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrated Model (Teyber). I will probably get a few select books from Gottman to supplement my couples' work eventually.

The Great Psychotherapy Debate (Wampold) is a must-have for me as a reminder of the effectiveness and efficacy of approaches/treatments, as well as a refresher of approaches/philosophy toward therapy research and its outcomes.

While we're discussing books, can anyone recommend a good textbook or book for Emotion-Focused Therapy? That seems to be missing from my library.

 

[chicandtoughness]

Ugh I hate such a love/hate with Sue & Sue. Seems like a staple of every therapist's library but some sections make me shudder...

 

[Meteora]

Teyber's Interpersonal Process in Therapy is really useful for a lot of basic client interaction/non-specific stuff.

 

[LadyHalcyon]

I'm a fan of ACT, so I have several texts related to theory and practice. My favorites are Learning ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Skills-Training Manual for Therapists, the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety, and the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression, the latter of which are great introductions to anxiety/depression for the layperson and have several exercises you can assign clients or do with clients in session.

I have several Gestalt theory books from Perls and Polster in my office from my early interest in it several years ago, but I don't utilize it in application (although pieces of it are woven into Interpersonal approaches, EFT, and ACT quite nicely). Also family therapy texts from Bowen/Kerr, texts on prejudice & Sue & Sue's Counseling the Culturally Diverse, stats books, and Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrated Model (Teyber). I will probably get a few select books from Gottman to supplement my couples' work eventually.

The Great Psychotherapy Debate (Wampold) is a must-have for me as a reminder of the effectiveness and efficacy of approaches/treatments, as well as a refresher of approaches/philosophy toward therapy research and its outcomes.

While we're discussing books, can anyone recommend a good textbook or book for Emotion-Focused Therapy? That seems to be missing from my library.

Sure Johnsons emotion focused couples therapy is great.. Noticed you were interested in Gottman



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[dynamicdog]

Anything by Nancy McWilliams, especially PDM. Also Yalom's group therapy book.

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

An awesome new book about doing CBT by Tolin:

Doing CBT: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Behaviors, Thoughts, and Emotions 1st Edition
Amazon product