Mental Health Books

A Gathering of Wisdoms is probably the very best documentation I've ever come across that focuses on the "right way" of working with people, whether they are of the Original People, or if they're non-native. Sterile environments and a counselor's "power" aren't what makes the changes...it's reaching out sincerely, with respect, and the desire to understand. And, this "A Gathering of Wisdoms" is a tremendous help to those who are reaching out to help others from their hearts! Lin

This manual is a godsend -- or Spirit-send. It presents the only clear outline for counseling Native clients available. The text can be used as a manual, workbook, ...whatever. Forms included are easily adapted to your particular agency's needs. Highly recommended by a seasoned drug/alcohol counseling veteran.

This manual is a godsend -- or Spirit-send. It presents the only clear outline for counseling Native clients available. The text can be used as a manual, workbook, ...whatever. Forms included are easily adapted to your particular agency's needs. Highly recommended by a seasoned drug/alcohol counseling veteran.

You cannot go wrong with any book by Drs. Nadeau and Quinn, including this one. It is primarily an in-depth guide for clinicians who treat women with ADHD. But, in my experience, clinicians' guides often provide the most helpful books to read before you begin the search for an ADHD specialist. Once you know the recommended protocols, such guides provide a benchmark by which to judge a potential therapist's or doctor's expertise.

Quinn and Nadeau are highly respected pioneers in the detection and treatment of ADHD in women and girls. And if you've found that most healthcare professionals are undereducated on ADHD in general, wait until you learn how little they know about the unique angle gender takes. ADHD not only might manifest differently in females, but there are also other psychological and physical issues, such as hormonal cycles and pregnancy, to consider. And this information is found literally nowhere else.

I also recommend their other books on this subject, including "Understanding Women with ADHD," "Understanding Girls with ADHD," and "When Moms and Kids have ADD."

That said, their expert knowledge extends well beyond female ADHD into all aspects in both genders and throughout the lifespan. Together or individually, they have contributed many helpful standouts to the ADHD library and are popular speakers at national conferences.

This is a MUST READ for anyone searching for more information on how AD/HD manifests itself in girls and women. This would be an excellent resource for medical doctors to help make them aware that AD/HD in girls and women IS real and not just "in their heads."

This is a great resource for professionals who treat and work with females with AD/HD, females with AD/HD, and parents of females with AD/HD. Though the book may be intended for professionals, the setup of the book is very ADD Friendly and the language is easy to understand.

I think reading this book will be very benefical to women with AD/HD and family members of females with AD/HD. It may put females ahead of the game when they seek treatment for AD/HD. It may give them a better idea of whether the professional who is treating them acutally understands AD/HD.

Females who are currently in treatment for AD/HD should consider asking the professional treating her if he or she has read this book. If the answer if no it may be in her best interest to suggest that he or she does.

An excellent book for anyone searching for hope in a life that can often be painful and isolating. After the death of our son and then the subsequent birth of our daughter diagnosed with Down Syndrome, I was indeed in need of healing and guidance and hope. I devoured many books and found this one particularly...hopeful. I highly recommend it as reading for anyone and everyone.

I first read this book nearly ten years ago and it remains--in its paperback version--tucked among my favorite books in my library. The author writes with a clear capacity to relate to the reader, his words are comforting and poetic. It is the kind of book where you can flip open to any page and come away with wisdom and tender passages. You need not be suffering from some tragedy to find this book useful. It is a wonderful read for anybody who cares about the human condition. I am an author myself (my latest is "How to Say It to Your Kids!")and appreciate good writing. His book is one I will always keep. Do yourself a favor and buy this book.
Dr. Paul Coleman, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Intimacy"

I originally gave this book to my husband four years ago, when he lost both his step-father and his father within a year of each other. Just recently, I also lost my father unexpectedly. This book gives comfort to me when the tears start to flow and words can't express what I am going through. It clearly outlines the stages of grief, and it comforts through the many stories that the author weaves through the book of other's dealings with loss. It is a good book for those who feel overwhelmed with grief or any kind of loss, as you can read one story and put it down and then come back to it when you are ready. We all grieve so differently...

Imagine your mother wandering off from a school softball game. Imagine searching frantically for her for three years. Imagine her remains being found in the woods where she had died. This happened to Marianne Dickerman Caldwell's mother. Stella Mallory Dickerman was an educated woman who had gone back to get her Master's degree after having her children. She was a teacher, an artist, and a world-traveller. She also had Alzheimer's Disease. At age 83, on a September day in 1991, Stella went for a walk, and she was never seen again. Marianne Caldwell's book about this experience is not only a very poignant and personal story, but it also offers comfort and guidance to families who have experienced loss; and assistance for families who are searching for a missing loved one. With those she used for her mother, Marianne gives a sample query letter, missing persons profile, and letter to a medical examiner. She also lists the addresses and phone numbers for the Alzheimer's Association's Safe Return Program and for State Agencies on Aging, as well as other helpful organizations.

The very poignant and personal story of Marianne Caldwell's experience after the disappearance of her mother, Stella Dickerman, explores the primary human emotions involved in the loss of a loved one. The book provides organized assistance for those who may be forced to search for a missing loved one. Ms. Caldwell shares her knowledge that was gleaned over many months of searching for her missing mother, who was a victim of Alzheimer's disease.

As important as the ability to identify and empathize with the emotions outlined in this text over such a tragedy, is the information Ms. Caldwell details on how to interact with governmental agencies when confronted with a disappearance and possible death of a loved one. She clarifies official rules and regulations and outlines the names, addresses, and phone numbers of important and helpful agencies that are in existence to assist people in this unfortunate circumstance. The book offers examples of sample letters to write to the various organizations, and describes how to more assertively demand action in some instances. In addition, there are recommendations of proactive ways to work with patients who have Alzheimer's disease to keep them safe, but still be able to enjoy the life around them.

This book is not just about loss and grief for those who work with home care, and hospice patients, it is beneficial for parents, adult children of aging parents, and other health care professionals. This book is concise, well-written, and outlined in an organized manner for easy retrieval of important information.

T.M. Marrelli's HOME CARE NURSE NEWS. 2/96.

Losing a loved one through a sudden disappearance is one of life's traumatic events affecting families and communities. Caldwell, poignantly reveals the personal journey she took when her 83 year old mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, quietly vanished from a New Hampshire neighborhood schoolyard in 1991. Factual information about Alzheimer's, the grieving process, and the search for missing persons are sensitively combined with a personal life tribute to Stella Dickerman. Caldwell highlight's the pitfalls of the current search process while presenting preventive tips useful in times of crisis. A unique "cookbook" recipe for the search process is provided, complete with sample letters: a missing person profile sample, alert notice sample and medical examiner letter are included. Resource names, resource centers for the Alzheimer'' Association Safe Return Program, and a variety of suggested readings complete this handy volume. An excellent choice for public libraries at an excellent price. --Linda Malone, Library Journal Review 04/05.

This is a lovely book, a very nice read and is highly recommended. I found it enjoyable and thought-provoking. It provides some powerful tools to help those of us who are struggling through difficult times - and who isn't?

The Goodness Experience explains how to deal with "The Nag", that evil, depressing creature in all of us that drags us down and makes us feel bad about our looks, our personality, our very being. Marie's purpose is to show us how to eliminate this demoralizing force from our lives.

Divided into 21 days of progress; with stories, mental and physical exercises, even pages for note taking, plus a Purpose and a Goodness Action, the book is simple yet very effective. Read it!

You will reap rich rewards. I promise.

After reading and working this 21 day program I am able to deal with problems, frustrations and everyday "nags" in a completely different way. I am learning to rely on the GOODNESS that is always with me. I like the Goodness Experience and I'm going to live it.

"The Goodness Experience" is one of the most helpful books I've read. It is about believing in your own Divine Connection; loving and trusting yourself; knowing and understand that you have value and worth. When you love and value yourself, you project these attributes and others respond in kind. It becomes a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. Does this sound too good to be true? It isn't. It also isn't easy, but nothing worth accomplishing and worth having is easy. The old line, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," is fine, but how do you do that? This book gives you a step by step process for turning your life into The Goodness Experience; for turning your life into what your REALLY want it to be. The mantra of The Goodness Exerpience is "Love more deeply, Laugh more fully, Live more freely." This possible for everyone, and we all have the ability to live The Goodness Experience. Thank you, Janice Marie, for helping me to change my life.

The book arrived in great condition and I have really benefited from having purchased it. I would recommend others buy this book in the field of counseling or psychology. It is a great read.

for anyone interested in psychotherapy research. Just great piece of work; critical and balanced summary of meta-analyses and research done so far on psychotherapy effectivity. The book is well organized and the models and methods are explained with clarity. This book is accessible for psychology students as well.

Wampold provides us with an invaluable resource. This book is a remarkable scientific analysis of psychotherapy with significant implications for developments both in this, and related fields. Wampold scrupulously and extensively reviews decades of perplexing and sometimes contradictory research evidence on psychotherapy outcomes. His findings lead him to dispute the fashionable medical model's assumption that the benefits of psychotherapy can be reduced to specific aspects contained in a given treatment: and that it is sufficient or effective to run the 5 D's model of diagnosis, disorder, dysfunction, disease, and deficit against a client's symptoms.

Wampold's review of the literature convincingly argues that successful outcomes depend more upon general therapeutic effects, and is best predicted by a contextual model. It is a much-needed, very extensive reprise of the idea of the primary role of general or common factors in the efficacy of psychotherapeutic outcomes from the work of Saul Rosenzweig who in the 1930s wrote `Some Implicit Common Factors in Diverse Methods of Psychotherapy'. Rosenzweig showed remarkable foresight when he argued that any competition to identify a therapy that was superior to its competitors was fated to end in a tie. He anticipated that the value of any therapy's unique features is secondary to, and much smaller than, the factors that they hold in common. Rosenzweig is most often remembered for his adaptation of Lewis Caroll to provide the (Dodo's) verdict on the therapeutic beauty competition, "Everybody has won and all must have prizes".

More recently, Frank & Frank wrote the interesting Persuasion and Healing (issued 1961 with a revision in 1991). Jerome Frank argues that the weight of development and research findings lead him to question whether "psychotherapy might be more closely allied to rhetoric and its close relative, hermeneutics, than to behavioral science!". Frank poses the provocative question, "Could the fundamental limitation of psychotherapy research be that researchers have been trying to apply to the realm of meanings methods created to elucidate facts?". Wampold's review provides some well-validated answers to this and other crucial questions.

Wampold analyses the literature and research findings on:
· the absolute efficacy of psychotherapy;
· the relative efficacy of treatments;
· the differential elements and ingredients offered in various therapies;
· the effects attributable to common factors such as the therapeutic alliance, therapist allegiance and adherence to treatment protocol;
· the effects produced by different therapists who use the same techniques and methods.
Wampold's analysis of the evidence for each of these lends support to a contextual model and discredits the evidence base for applying the fashionable medical model metaphor to psychotherapy. Wampold offers a very fine discussion of how the contextual and medical models compete on a theoretical level and he details the criteria for the acceptance and presentation of evidence and the appropriateness of meta-analyses. The quality of the reasoning enlists the reader and is both engaging and persuasive: that said, this is not an easy read, and the writing style reaches out more readily to the academic market than a general readership. Nonetheless, the text is useful to a more general audience and should be referenced more widely for its findings that contradict what passes currently for received wisdom in popular discussion.

Wampold's well-validated conclusion from analysing decades of variation in psychotherapy outcomes suggest this partitioning of contribution:
1. General effects (common factors that underlie all psychotherapies: >70%).
2. Specific effects (differential aspects that distinguish a particular treatment: <8%).
3. Unexplained variability (encompasses client differences: 22%).

Wampold's analysis illustrates that the best assessment of therapist competence will always be the quality of therapeutic outcomes. In a challenge to professional associations that insist on the pursuit of CEU's, Wampold demonstrates that clients respond more to the quality of the therapeutic relationship, than show improvement related to innovatory techniques and methods. "The evidence in this book has shown that specific ingredients are not active in and of themselves. Therapists need to realize that the specific ingredients are necessary but active only in the sense that they are a component of the healing context. Slavish adherence to a theoretical protocol and maniacal promotion of a single theoretical approach are utterly in opposition to science. Therapists need to have a healthy sense of humility with regard to the techniques they use."

Recent research indicates that the current dependence on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) may be unfounded or at least unjustifiable in some contexts. Wampold strengthens this when he reports that the distinctive/specific ingredients of CBT for depression and anxiety are not demonstrably responsible for any successful outcome in these conditions. Wampold reports that despite strong official support for the streamlining of therapy to a recommended sequence of procedures administered as if from a manual of Standard Operating Procedures, adherence to treatment protocol is not reliably associated with successful outcomes. Wampold warns us: "Therapy practice is both a science and an art ... Treating clients as if they were medical patients receiving mandated treatments conducted with manuals will stifle the artistry."

This fine book is a resource for psychotherapists and also for those of us engaged in coaching individuals and groups for optimal performance. It is my personality type to be attracted to the new, bright, and shiny; but Wampold has convinced me to resist the siren call of unproven innovations and to focus my time and energy on the client relationship as the crucible for positive change.

As a clinician, group facilitator and human being, I find grief and loss difficult but essential to address.Fran Zamore and Ester Leutenberg provide activities and worksheets that help clients recognize the initial shock, face the reality of loss and rebuild a satisfying, but different life, "The New Normal". Clients are encouraged to experience grief in their own unique ways. The book is a "must" for clinicians: as a resource regarding grief and loss; to use with individuals/families; to promote introspection and interaction among bereavement group members.Homework assignments, "Mourners' Rights, beautiful prose, poetry, quotes in the "Readings" Section, and references for facilitators and participants lead us through the journey to recovery.

This manual is clearly written, well-thought out and a first-rate source of worksheets for grief counselors and other clinicians. I've used some of them and find clients respond well to the format(s) and content. A terrific way to avoid reinventing the wheel! Barbara F. LISW, IMFT

GriefWork: Healing from Loss is a resource that offers helpful information for professionals who offer grief and bereavement counseling and support. Authors Fran Zamore and Ester Leutenberg use their professional and personal knowledge to help therapists, group leaders and grief counselors help grieving people heal from their losses.
Anyone who reads this important, valuable resource will undoubtedly come out all the more empathetic, understanding and supportive to the grief-stricken.

I came across this book about 15 years ago while browsing in a Catholic bookstore. It was sitting on a high shelf -- the top was so dusty, it looked like it had been there for years. Waiting for me, I think. Providentially. For the book proved a true blessing in my life, at a time of great spiritual confusion and psychological depression -- a time when I was trying to rise up, with great difficulty, from years of sowing to the flesh, in order to reclaim, if possible, my Catholic heritage. This was just the book I needed.

Its pages are filled with great wisdom and kindness. Strict orthodoxy presented without undue harshness, but rather with true warmth -- as indeed orthodox Catholicism *is* a warm and good thing, and most consoling to the soul. As I say, it was just the book I needed, in the frazzled, broken frame of mind I was in. Fr. Simon takes the reader back to first principles, guides him or her into the temple of Catholic thought, and shows them the way. He wrote the book for those who do not have access to a spiritual director, and that is how - remarkably enough - the book functions. Reading through it, one is led to diagnose one's spiritual ills, weak points, and shortcomings -- and one is further led to the cure for these things, in thoughtful, illuminating expositions on prayer and the sacraments. Valuable pages, too, are given to the problem of choosing a state in life -- priest, religious, married, single. And the particular problems, advantages and general character of each state, as well as the process of discernment. Finally, there is a summary chapter near the end that provides a succinct, helpful guide to ordering one's spiritual life, starting with the basics.

Fr. Simon was a Jewish convert to the Catholic faith. He was a psychiatrist before his conversion, and became a Trappist monk, eventually the abbot of his monastery. He is a kind writer -- not lacking in firmness where it is necessary to be firm, but never harsh or unkind. I think God blessed him in the writing of this work. And for some souls, it will be a real blessing to discover this book. For myself, I can divide my life into the time before and after I read this book. It put me back on the right path - no small thing.

The title is odd, and not particularly appealing: "Hammer & Fire".

The subtitle is more telling, and perhaps should have been the title: "Way to Contemplative Happiness".

For that is what you will find in this book -- if that is what you are looking for, you *will* find it here.

This ia an amazing book that unites spiritual and emotional health to live fully human and fully alive. It is so easy to seperate our spirital well being from emotional and physical health...a BIG mistake. This book connects all the dots and provides the necessary material to live in harmony and in peace within no matter what situation we may encounter. Jesus desires us to be fully human. Contemplation makes us one in Christ and with one another. This is not a pious work to make us feel good but an invitation to growth in holiness that will reap joy unto life everlasting.

An excellent book which puts meditation and contemplation into the framework of an authentic Christian tradition and makes "clear the goal to which this practice leads, a transformation of the human personality."
" .... to be integrated and mature, to be efeective in our service and undertakings, we need to be transformed into Jesus Christ through a transforming union.... This book is about that transforming union ..."

The author received his M.D. at the University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor). He did psychiatric internships at Bellevue Hospital and Brooklyn State Hospital in New York City.
He joined the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)in approx. 1940.

- The above taken from the back cover of the St. Bede's Publications edition, 1987.

Well-written, engaging and thorough.

I got this book from MBBA (MN bio brain association) library, and the day I got it, I started reading it and did not stop until I finished it. Cover to cover in two days. It was absolutely amazing. I've dealt with hospitalizations and abuses of power in those hospitalizations, and while my mother is convinced my problems are not mental diseases, I think I do differ from Rickie. However, it was so nice to read that I was not alone. That hospitals are not perfect. That I can do it, no matter what people say. That was the powerful message of the book.

This book was an excellent insight to how developmental problems may exist or be overlooked even by the specialists! It is very easy to relate to when you work with children struggling to survive.

As a psychiatrist I was especially moved by the honesty with which Dr. Flach and his daughter Rickie wrote of their struggle against her psychiatric symptoms. He did not hide any of the worst aspects of psychiatry in his recounting of his daughter's treatment, yet it was with such an understanding of the limitations of his profession that there is no sense of anger or blame placed on his colleagues. He was equally open and revealing about his own inner struggles, frailties and ultimate resilience. I also think that Rickie and Dr. Flach's decision to pursue alternative (I prefer the term complementary) treatments and their dramatic success is a crucial lesson for all of us practicing medicine today. I highly recommend this book, but that leads me to the only negative comment on this title: it is no longer available. I hope the publisher decides to republish this text. It is so very timely at this time, even more so than when it was written in 1991. Thank you Dr. Flach and Rickie for an inspiring book.

My spouse and daughter have Scleroderma and Lupus. If you are not aware of these devastating, life altering and disabling diseases, you should learn about them. Living in constant pain, depression, restricted mobility and humiliation takes its toll in addition to the health and wellness affects.
Waverly's book I consider a masterpiece of strong will, determination, focus and an honest open minded approach to a higher quality of life. Her inspirational vision accepting her condition, evaluation her situation, developing a plan and implementing it with consistent dedication using and allowing only positive influences from medications, wellness and holistic treatments to beliefs and idealisms, reminds us all by the end of the book, there is no doubt we all can learn and benefit from her journey.
This book has significantly increased my hope and desire for a better quality of life for my spouse and daughter, I will read it again and certainly recommend it to everyone. It's not just about Lupus.
I found her book at HealingLupusBook.com.

When she says "Healing Lupus: Steps in a Personal Journey" she is giving you the beginning, the end and the subject matter, but the process is one that takes a book to understand. She actually had the idea to try to heal herself from this terrible disease and she did it, not overnight, but she did it. It takes determination, just a little bit, everyday to begin the process. If you can heal yourself from Lupus what more can you do? Her story is inspiring and tells me that if she can do it so can I. My story does not have Lupus but the disability is the same. To heal, just don't give up.

Healing Lupus is riveting reading to me, as a health professional, because it provide an honest, first-hand look at a unique experience of recovery from lupus. The insights here could be applied to other chronic illnesses as well. This book is invaluable to the thousands of lupus sufferers who need the kind of testimonial that this book offers, a hopeful, even miraculous recovery from an illness that Western medicine treats with prescription medications. Those medications begin the journey, but there is a surprise here. The medications are left behind after years of struggle. The mystery of author's healing from a debilitating, sometimes fatal, illness is unraveled through the eyes and unique voice of someone who has walked the walk. The author used emotional release as the key to her physical recovery - this is no mystery to her, only to those of us who have not yet encountered such a story. We walk with her step by step as the journey unfolds.