Self-Help Resources
Counseling Services and SMCM Library have collaborated to make available a selection of recommended self-help resources for the campus community. These books address a wide range of concerns, including self improvement, depression, anxiety, shyness, relationships, and more. To a significant degree the selected books are drawn from a more comprehensive resource, the Authoritative Guide to Self Help Resources in Mental Health, by John C. Norcross and others (revised edition published in 2003). We invite you to visit the library to explore these resources further. You can check out these books and audio cassettes just like any other library items. The library call numbers are with each item for your convenience.
General Self Improvement | Trauma and Abuse | Academic Skills | Anxiety | Eating Concerns and Body Image | GLBT Concerns | Other Mental Issues | Relationships and Communication | Loss | Stress Management
General Self-improvement
Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment
Martin Seligman
The sequel to Learned Optimism.
Library Call Number: BF575.H27S45 2002
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything, Yes, Anything
Albert Ellis
This book gives numerous techniques to rid yourself of irrational thinking patterns.
Library Call Number: RC489.R3E443 1988
Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life Martin Seligman
Martin Seligman, a leading psychologist, describes his ground-breaking research and how developing "learned optimism" can improve many facets of one's life.
Library Call Number: BJ1477.S45 1998b
Self Esteem
Matthew McKay
Offering a step-by-step program for building self-esteem, a self-help book shows how to talk back to the critical inner voice, foster compassion, handle mistakes and criticism, and use hypnosis and visualization for self-acceptance.
Library Call Number: BF697.5.S46M34 1995
The Self-Esteem Companion
Matthew McKay (Editor), Patrick Fanning, Carole Honeychurch, Catharine Sutker
From the authors of "The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook" comes a series of 50 simple exercises designed to help readers challenge their inner critic and celebrate their self worth.
Library Call Number: BF697.5.S46S45 1999
Women and Self Esteem: Understanding and Improving the Way We Think and Feel About Ourselves
Linda Sanford and Mary Ellen Donovan
Library Call Number: HQ1206.S24 1985
Trauma and Abuse
Back On Track: Boys Dealing With Sexual Abuse
Leslie Bailey Wright and Mindy Loiselle
Library Call Number: RJ507.S49W74 1997
I Never Called It Rape: The MS. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape
Robin Warshaw
Not only is this book one of the best self-help books available relating to acquaintance rape, it is also a valuable resource for partners and family members of rape victims, and for educators and counselors.
Library Call Number: HV6561.W38 1994
Shining Through: Pulling it Together After Sexual Abuse
Mindy Loiselle and Leslie Bailey Wright
Library Call Number: HV6570.L65 1997
The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook
Glenn Schiraldi
Provides information on coping mechanisms, emotional triggers, the mental defenses that protect us from further harm, and addresses how the healing process can begin through a variety of medical and non-medical treatment methods.
Library Call Number: RC552.P67S326 2000
Victims No Longer: Men Recovering from Incest and Other Child Abuse
Michael Lew
This book is an essential resource for the otherwise often overlooked men who have suffered abuse in childhood. The book includes helpful personal accounts from men who have survived childhood abuse, and offers a variety of other useful self-help information.
Library Call Number: HV6570.2.L48 2004
Academic Skills
Becoming a Master Student
David Ellis
Library Call Number: LB2343.3.E44 2003
Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood
Edward M. Hallowell & John J. Ratey
This book is a valuable resource that offers a life-span perspective on attention disorders and emphasizes the effect such disorders can have on relationships, education, and careers. The book reviews the diagnosis of attention disorders, co-occurring disorders, and treatment strategies.
Library Call Number: RJ506.H9H345 1994
Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model for Finishing Whatever You Start
Steve Levinson and Pete Freider
This book shines a spotlight into the black hole in inner space where good intentions disappear. It reveals the startling reason why we humans so often fail to follow through on our good intentions and it offers a collection of bold new strategies for finishing whatever you start.
Library Call Number: BF619.5.L46 1998
Anxiety
Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks (Rev. Ed.)
R. Reid Wilson
This book provides a thorough introduction to Panic Disorder, and then offers an empirically supported, cognitive-behaviorally based self-help program for addressing panic attacks.
Library Call Number: RC531.W48 1996
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook (3rd Ed.)
Edmund J. Bourne
The latest edition of this well-known book rounds out its practical, step-by-step offerings of mostly cognitive-behavioral strategies to address anxiety and phobias by including relevant information about medications and herbal supplements.
Library Call Number: RC531.B68 1995
The Hidden Face of Shyness: Understanding and Overcoming Social Anxiety
Franklin Schneier and Lawrence Welkowitz
This book offers a good introduction to the varieties and origins of social anxiety, along with a practical self-help program for addressing the problem.
Library Call Number: BF575.A6S34 1996
Eating Concerns and Body Image
No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits by Making Women Hate Their Bodies - and How to Fight Back
Terry Poulton
Library Call Number: RM222.2.P67 1997
The Body Image Workbook: An 8-step Program for Learning to Like Your Looks
Thomas F. Cash
An internationally recognized authority on body image shows readers how to combat destructive and unhealthy attitudes towards their physical appearance. The eight-step program developed by Thomas Cash shows readers how to evaluate a negative body image, change self-defeating "private body talk", and create a more pleasurable, affirming relationship with the body. Illustrations, charts and tables.
Library Call Number: BF697.5.B63C37 1997
GLBT Concerns
Coming Out to Parents: A Two Way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men and Their Parent
Mary Borhek
Library Call Number: HQ75.5.B68 1993
Other Mental Issues
Contagious Emotions: Staying Well When Your Loved One is Depressed
Ronald Podell
Podell is the co-founder of the Center for Mood Disorders in Los Angeles. The friends and family of depressed people are emotionally at risk themselves, for they can become "fused" with the depressed person--that is, become locked in a mutually harmful cycle. This book helps you identify and set healthy boundaries.
Library Call Number: RC537.P62 1992
Stop Obsessing! How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions (Rev. Ed.)
Edna B. Foa & Reid Wilson
Psychologist Edna Foa is a leading researcher in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. This authoritative book offers a clear introduction to the disorder and its origins, and provides empirically supported, cognitive-behaviorally based strategies for addressing the disorder.
Library Call Number: RC533.F6 2001
The Scarred Soul: Understanding and Ending Self-Inflicted Violence
Tracy Alderman
Explores the reasons behind this behavior and shows how to overcome the psychological traps that lead to self-destructive acts.
Library Call Number: RC569.5.S48A43 1997
Relationships and Communication
The Dance of Intimacy: A Woman's Guide to Courageous Acts of Change in Key Relationships
Harriet Goldher Lerner
In The Dance of Intimacy, the bestselling author of The Dance of Anger outlines the steps to take so that good relationships can be strengthened and difficult ones can be healed.
Library Call Number: HQ1206.L446 1989
Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay: A step by step guide to help you decide whether to stay in or get out of your relationship
Mira Kirshenbaum
This book will help readers sort out ambivalent feelings about relationships.
Library Call Number: HQ801.K57 1996
When Anger Hurts: Quieting the Storm Within
Matthew McKay
This book is a complete, step-by-step guide to changing habitual anger-generating thoughts while developing healthier, more effective ways of meeting your needs. Find out how to recognize pre-existing stress-producing conditions that often lead to angry moments without directly causing them, and create your own personal intervention strategy for controlling angry impulses.
Library Call Number: BF575.A5M37 1989
Your Family, Your Self: How to analyze your family system to understand yourself and achieve more satisfying relationships with your loved ones
William Blevins
This is the best book we've seen on helping to make sense of your family and the role you play in it.
Library Call Number: RC488.53.B58 1993
Your Perfect Right: Assertiveness and Equality in Your Life and Relationships (8th Ed.)
Robert E. Alberti & Michael L. Emmons
A classic in the field, this book emphasizes the use of effective communication in becoming appropriately assertive.
Library Call Number: RC489.A77A53 2001
Loss
Coming Apart: Why Relationships End and How to Live through the Ending of Yours
Daphne Rose Kingma
Most people who have been in love have been on the outs as well. The end of an affair is a trauma that few books address. Here, marriage and family therapist Kingma explains why it happens and how to survive it.
Library Call Number: HQ801.K555 2000
How to Survive the Loss of a Parent: A Guide for Adults
Lois Aker
Therapist Lois Akner explains why the loss of a parent is different from other losses and, using examples from her experience, shows how it is possible to work through the grief.
Library Call Number: BF575.G7A46 1993
Stress Management
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook (5th Ed.)
Martha Davis, Elizabeth R. Eshelman, & Matthew McKay
This popular book provides a wide variety of sensible, straightforward, and effective strategies for addressing everyday stress.
Library Call Number: RA785.D38 1995
Who Moved my Cheese?
Spencer Johnson
This is a brief tale of two mice and two humans who live in a maze and one day are faced with change: someone moves their cheese. Reactions vary from quick adjustment to waiting for the situation to change by itself to suit their needs. This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work.
Library Call Number: BF637.C4J64 1998
