PhD/PsyD hello! and a request for resources

[mt_marcy]

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Hi all! Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.

I’m a clinical psych postdoc, mostly doing OCD/PTSD/anxiety treatment, but that’s really here nor there for this post. In my free time (which I actually have now!), I do a lot of work for a books-to-prisoners org, and I was wondering if I could crowdsource some resources.

We get a lot of letters from incarcerated people looking for psych resources. Usually, the requests are pretty general: “mental health,” “self-help,” “psychology,” and so on. Once in a while, we get a request for the DSM, and once in a blue moon, we get a request for a specific concern, like PTSD or bipolar disorder. For context: our library is about 90% donated, and we’re an all-volunteer org, top-to-bottom. My fellow volunteers have let me vet most of the psych/mental health books that come in, and they’re also mostly willing to hear me when I go, no that’s pseudoscience; throw it out.

We have bookshop and thriftbooks wishlists, and I’ve cultivated a short wishlist of mental health books and resources – mostly a lot of ACT, mindfulness/MBSR, stuff like Feeling Good, etc. We get some donated psychology 101 textbooks, and I’m on the hunt for these at every little free library I see. But I was wondering if you all had other suggestions for evidence-based books or resources that would be accessible and applicable to people who are incarcerated.

Thanks so much!

 

[R. Matey]

A few good ones I've read lately that I found at my local library and/or the Libby app. I always encourage people to read books for themselves before recommending them to patients.

1. Unwinding Anxiety by Judsen Brewer, MD, PhD.
Behavioral neuroscientist and psychiatrist. I'm not in love with his conceptualization of anxiety as a habit loop, but he does a good job explaining and teaching mindfulness. There's a workbook and...an...app *sigh* but the resource is still pretty good.

2. How to be Yourself and How to be Enough by Ellen Hendriksen, PhD. Great set of books on social anxiety and perfectionism using ACT principles. She works at CARD.

3. This is What your Anxiety Looks Like by David Clark, Ph.D. David Clark needs no introduction, but he wrote a great self-help CBT book for anxiety disorders. It came out two years ago.

4. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain Management by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. A free guided mediation on pain management available as an audiobook. If you didn't know already, MBSR is freely available online, but no idea what internet access is like for inmates.

5. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD. KIDDING! This book sucks.

 

[Justanothergrad]

The psych books most worth reading are all jung.

 

[PsyDr]

I'll assume a high prevalence of antisocial personality disorder, substance use disorder, and maybe domestic violence.

I. Something to direct Antisocial Personalities towards more lucrative activities:
a. Confessions of a Sociopath- M.E. Thomas
b. Snakes in Suits- Hare
c. Freakonomics (specifically the section about how much crack dealers earn)- Gladwell

II. Substance Use Disorder
a. The Easy Way to Quit Smoking- Allan Carr (IDK about the science of it, but patients have raved about it)
b. The Easy Way to Quit Drinking- Allan Carr

III. Domestic Violence (I don't know much about this subject)
a. Why Does He Do That?- Lundy Bancroft


I'm sure you know, but no comb or spiral bound books.

 

[mt_marcy]

A few good ones I've read lately that I found at my local library and/or the Libby app. I always encourage people to read books for themselves before recommending them to patients.

1. Unwinding Anxiety by Judsen Brewer, MD, PhD.
Behavioral neuroscientist and psychiatrist. I'm not in love with his conceptualization of anxiety as a habit loop, but he does a good job explaining and teaching mindfulness. There's a workbook and...an...app *sigh* but the resource is still pretty good.

2. How to be Yourself and How to be Enough by Ellen Hendriksen, PhD. Great set of books on social anxiety and perfectionism using ACT principles. She works at CARD.

3. This is What your Anxiety Looks Like by David Clark, Ph.D. David Clark needs no introduction, but he wrote a great self-help CBT book for anxiety disorders. It came out two years ago.

4. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain Management by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. A free guided mediation on pain management available as an audiobook. If you didn't know already, MBSR is freely available online, but no idea what internet access is like for inmates.

5. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD. KIDDING! This book sucks.

Oh, thanks! I'll check these out.

Internet access is...spotty at best, and it also varies by facility.

Ugh. We get copies of The Body Keeps the Score, and I try to catch and toss them, but sometimes they get through. I was thinking about putting George Bonanno's The End of Trauma on the wishlist instead. I also recently tossed copes of Daniel Amen's books and ranted a little to a co-volunteer, who promptly made a note in our files that "this guy is a grifter" when someone requested him.

I'll assume a high prevalence of antisocial personality disorder, substance use disorder, and maybe domestic violence.

I. Something to direct Antisocial Personalities towards more lucrative activities:
a. Confessions of a Sociopath- M.E. Thomas
b. Snakes in Suits- Hare
c. Freakonomics (specifically the section about how much crack dealers earn)- Gladwell

II. Substance Use Disorder
a. The Easy Way to Quit Smoking- Allan Carr (IDK about the science of it, but patients have raved about it)
b. The Easy Way to Quit Drinking- Allan Carr

III. Domestic Violence (I don't know much about this subject)
a. Why Does He Do That?- Lundy Bancroft


I'm sure you know, but no comb or spiral bound books.

I didn't even think about Freakonomics, etc. We get copies once in a while.

We get some requests for substance use. Mostly requests for AA/NA stuff. Someone recently donated a bunch of copies of SmartRecovery workbooks, which we were really happy about.

Yeah, definitely have to take the spirals out...we usually put in zip ties, but some prisons also restrict those.

To give a sense of scale - we got 10,000 letters last year, and we send out ~3-5 books per letter. And our space is not super big!

 

[R. Matey]

III. Domestic Violence (I don't know much about this subject)
a. Why Does He Do That?- Lundy Bancroft

+1 for this one. Great book.

Ugh. We get copies of The Body Keeps the Score, and I try to catch and toss them, but sometimes they get through. I was thinking about putting George Bonanno's The End of Trauma on the wishlist instead. I also recently tossed copes of Daniel Amen's books and ranted a little to a co-volunteer, who promptly made a note in our files that "this guy is a grifter" when someone requested him.

Yeah, mental health misinformation is like a disease. Stay strong.

I haven't read the end of trauma, but you might be able to find a copy of Stephen Joseph's book on Posttraumatic Growth: What doesn't kill us, which is great for helping patients to understand what is PTSD and what is not. For bipolar disorder, you might be able to find an older copy of the Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide by David Miklowitz, which in now in its 3rd edition though not much has changed from what I can tell (for context, I have the 2nd and 3rd editions). Great resource on what someone can do behaviorally to manage the illness.

@PsyDr made a good point about recovery focused workbooks. I'm not a huge fan of the habit-focused self-help books (e.g., atomic habits, the power of habit) because it's a very simplistic view of behaviorism, but patients have really connected with them. So might be helpful in getting someone to at least self-monitor.

That also got me thinking: there is also that free SAMHSA anger workbook that I've used with court-mandated patients: https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/anger_management_workbook_508_compliant.pdf. The SAMHSA library might be another decent resource for free stuff.

 

[mt_marcy]

I do my best! There's one other volunteer who loves IFS, and I just try not to get into arguments about it - although the last time they brought it up, someone else said, "yeah, my therapist suggested IFS and it looks scammy to me," hurrah.

I have a copy of the SAMHSA book! I didn't know that they had others, but I'll check them out. The Centre for Clinical Interventions (out of Australia) also has some good workbooks, which I've printed out as needed. Our printing budget is minuscule, though. We spend most of our budget on shipping. Will also check out Posttraumatic Growth.

I've also been trying to figure out if there's a way to get more used intro psych textbooks, too, since people sometimes ask for psychology more generally and not necessarily mental health.