Recommended Readings

Hope and Recovery: A Twelve-Step Guide for Healing From Compulsive Sexual Behavior

Hazelden, 1990

This was one of the first books to comprehensively describe the application of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to sexual addiction and compulsivity. It also includes a wide range of personal stories in which recovering sexual addicts share their experience, strength and hope.

Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power

by Charlotte Davis Kasl, Ph.D.

This book is a major contribution to the understanding and healing of sex addiction, romance addiction and sexual codependency in women. It is full of wisdom and insight, shedding light on what happens to women in our society, how they survive it, and some roads to self-respect.

Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex and Relationship Addiction

Kelly McDaniel, 2008

In a gentle and respectful manner, Kelly invites any woman to honor her authentic self rather than stay in the shame associated with behaviors that no longer work to relieve emotional pain.

Mending a Shattered Heart: A Guide for Partners of Sex Addicts

by Stefanie Carnes

Experts now know that discovering a loved one’s sex addiction is a traumatic event, requiring specialized guidance. This second edition of Mending a Shattered Heart reframes the therapeutic discussion around how to decide to stay with or leave a sex addict and how to address common questions that partners have.

Your Sexually Addicted Spouse: How Partners Can Cope and Heal

by Barbara Steffens

Sexual addictions and compulsive sexual behavior are growing societal problems, with as many as three to six percent of the world population affected. Your Sexually Addicted Partner shatters the stigma and shame that millions of men and women carry when their partners are sexually addicted. They receive little empathy for their pain, which means they suffer alone, often shocked and isolated by the trauma. Barbara Steffens’ groundbreaking new research shows that partners are not codependents but post-traumatic stress victims, while Marsha Means’ personal experience provides insights, strategies, and critical steps to recognize, deal with, and heal partners of sexually addicted relationships. Firsthand accounts and stories reveal the impact of this addiction on survivors’ lives. Chapters end with “On a Personal Note” questions and propose new paths that lead from trauma to empowerment, health, and hope. Useful appendices list health and mental health care providers and clergy.

Lonely All the Time: Recognizing, Understanding and Overcoming Sex Addiction, for Addicts and Codependents

by Ralph Earle, Ph.D. and Gregory Crow

This book addresses the needs and concerns of all sexual addicts, regardless of their sexual orientation, and also of the addict’s codependent partner. The authors explore the causes and symptoms of sex addiction. They also include a comprehensive and practical approach to recovery for the addict and family.

Answers in the Heart: Daily Meditations

Hazelden Information Education, 1995

The best daily meditation book for sex addicts available. One of the first books sex addicts should purchase.

Always Turned On

by Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT and Jennifer Schneider, M.D., Ph.D.

Today, all forms of sex addiction are technology driven—from porn websites to webcams to casual sex hook-up apps found on smartphones. Sex addicts organize their lives around the pursuit of sexual activity with self or others, spending inordinate amounts of time viewing and masturbating to porn or planning, pursuing, and engaging in sex acts. At the same time, they neglect important relationships, work, and personal responsibilities. Overwhelming feelings of guilt, shame, and remorse invade when the acting out ends. While it’s complicated, recovery is possible. Always Turned On shows readers how to turn those temptations off while providing practical long-term solutions for recovery. This book is coauthored with Dr. Jennifer Schneider.

Untangling the Web: Sex, Porn and Fantasy Obsession in the Internet Age

by Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT

Alyson Publications, 2005The defining new book about the emerging problem of pornography addition and sex on the Internet. A must have for the person wondering if they might have a problem and also for the people who care about them.

Cruise Control: Understanding Sex Addiction in Gay Men

by Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT

Robert Weiss, Founding Director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Santa Monica, California, avoids political and moral arguments and instead focuses on the clinical approach, asking the question, “Is your sexual behavior causing problems in other areas of your life?” Cruise Control leads men to a better understanding of the difference between sexual compulsion and non-addictive sexual behavior within the gay experience, and it explains what resources are available for recovery. A timely and important contribution to the body of recovery literature, Cruise Control provides understanding, empathy and encouragement to gay men seeking healthy sexual expression.

Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction

by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.

This is the landmark book introducing and legitimizing sexual behaviors and sexual fantasies as an addictive disease. Dr. Carnes proposes three levels of sexual addiction, describes the addiction cycle and its progression, and presents the faulty core beliefs of the addict and the coaddict and their healthy counterparts.

Don’t Call It Love: Recovery from Sexual Addiction

by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.

Based on research involving over 1,000 recovering sex addicts and coaddicts, this comprehensive work outlines the stages of recovery and presents advice from the addicts and coaddicts themselves as they work to overcome their compulsive behavior. Recommended both for counselors and for recovering people.

The 12 Steps: A Way Out: A Spiritual Process for Healing

RPI, 1995

A step-by-step writing/journaling book for those wanting help working though the 12 steps. Simplistic for some, helpful to others, this is an effective way to get through the written part of the step process.

From Generation to Generation: Understanding Sexual Attraction to Children

by Anne Stirling Hastings, Ph.D.
Wellness Institute, 2000

A helpful explanation of one of humankind’s most difficult problems by one of the best authorities.

A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps: The Classic Guide for All People in the Process of Recovery

by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.
Hazelden Information Education, 1994

This is the first workbook on the Twelve Steps specifically designed with sex addicts and coaddicts in mind. It offers comprehensive and practical exercises for each of the twelve steps for anyone for anyone working a sexual recovery program.

Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps

by Charlotte Davis Kasl, Ph.D.
Harper Perennial, 1992

From the author of Women, Sex, and Addiction, a timely and controversial second look at 12-step programs, helping all readers to draw on the steps’ underlying wisdom, adapting them to their own experiences, beliefs, and sources of strength.

Recommended for Your Partner

Facing Codependence: What It Is, Where It Comes From, How It Sabotages Our Lives

by Pia MellodyHarper San Francisco, 1989
Harper Perennial, 1992

This is the book that propelled Pia Melody into international prominence as an expert on the family dynamics of addiction. Articulative and reflective, she argues that addicts and family members share the same history and characteristics.

Is It Love or Is It Addiction

by Brenda Schaeffer, Ph.D.

Hazelden Information Education, 1997

Is It Love or Is It Addiction has helped many people find their way from the fear and distrust in poor relationships to the fulfillment in meaningful ones. Psychotherapist Brenda Schaeffer draws on common sense, compassion, and years of experience to provide tools for moving from addictive to healthy love.

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

by Melody Beattie
Hazelden Information Education, 1996

Recovery has begun for millions of individuals with this straightforward guide. Through personal examples and exercises, readers are shown how controlling others forces them to lose sight of their own needs and happiness.

Healing the Shame That Binds You

by John Bradshaw
Health Communications, 1988

John Bradshaw has many talents. One of them is synthesizing complex issues so the average person can make progress. Since shame is a core issue for recovering people, this book has been a marvelous resource for feeling better.

Back From Betrayal: Recovering from His Affairs

by Jennifer Schneider, M.D.
RE Chapin, 2001

Dr. Schneider’s pioneering work is the first written for women whose husbands keep getting involved in affairs. Based on interviews and her own experience, she addresses the anguish and helplessness that codependents feel daily. In clear, compassionate, and informed writing she describes the nature of sexual coaddiction, helps coaddicts understand their own disease and their denial and isolation and outlines a path to recovery.

Sex, Lies & Forgiveness: Couples Speak on Healing from Sex Addiction

by Jennifer Schneider, M.D. and Burt Schneider
Jennifer Schneider, 1999

First-hand information and healing words from couples dealing with the challenges of sex addiction recovery.

Letters To A Sex Addict: The Journey through Grief and Betrayal

by Wendy Conquest
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Surviving Disclosure: A Partner’s Guide for Healing the Betrayal of Intimate Trust

by Jennifer P. Schneider M.D. and M. Deborah Corley Ph.D.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Disclosing Secrets: An Addict’s Guide for When, to Whom, and How Much to Reveal

by M. Deborah Corley Ph.D. and Jennifer P. Schneider M.D
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

General Interest Reading

Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners: Understanding Covert Incest

by Ken Adams, Ph.D.
Health Communications, 1991

A collection of professional journal articles and essays on the treatment of sexual addiction.

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Image Books, 1994

Henri Nouwen has written a number of classics in spiritual growth. This recent book is very helpful. The comparison of the prodigal son to addicts and the eldest son to co-addicts is an obvious one to make. Nouwen says the eldest son is as wounded as the prodigal. A good book for those in recovery for a while.

Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality

by Marvin M. Ellison

Westminster John Knox Press, 1996Over this past year, this book has generated a lot of controversy. The author is a knowledgeable scholar as well as a gay man who is one of the few to critique and take a concrete approach to spirituality and ethics in the sexual realm. He connects all forms of oppression to issues of sexual morality. In doing so, he challenges all of us. For those who think seriously about sex and ethics, it is a must read.

Closer Together, Further Apart

by Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT and Jennifer Schneider, M.D., Ph.D.
Gentle Path Press, 2014

Closer Together, Further Apart offers insight into how digital technology and the Internet have impacted society as a whole, especially interpersonal communications and relationships across generations. As with all forms of technological change, these advances are good for some and bad for others. As Closer Together, Further Apart makes clear, those who evolve with technology, learning to use it in healthy ways, will flourish, and those who don’t probably won’t. This book is coauthored with Dr. Jennifer Schneider.

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis
Harper Perennial, 1994

The classic and definitive self-help guide for women survivors of sexual abuse, The Courage To Heal is a tool for recovery that works.

Your Erroneous Zones

by Wayne W. DyerHarper Mass Market Paperbacks, 1993

A guide to living a fuller, happier life from one of the most widely read authors in the field of self-help.

Craving for Ecstasy: How Our Passions Become Addictions and What We Can Do About Them

by Wayne W. DyerHarper Mass Market Paperbacks, 1993

The authors describe the variety of addictive ways individuals lose control of their lives while striving for pleasure and escape. The biological, chemical, sociological and psychological processes of addiction are explained in understandable terms.

The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Touchstone Books, 1998

One of the great classics in self-help literature, and, perhaps, someday will be regarded as one of the most important works of the century. Still a best-seller, it has proved that the idea of becoming a person of integrity can endure.

Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul

by Mellody Beattie
Harper San Francisco, 1996

Mellody’s new meditation book is really well done. A wise woman who has survived tragedy and continues to help all of us. For recovering people looking for something new this is a good choice.

Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Image Books, 1986

This is the famous Dutch theology classic on developing a spiritual life. Great reading for those seeking more spiritual direction.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

by Stephen R. Covey
Simon & Schuster, 1990

Covey’s book has been helpful to millions and is one of the best guides to living a successful life. For recovering people who wish to go beyond sobriety this book really helps!

People of the Lie: Toward a Psychology of Evil

by M. Scott Peck
Touchstone Books, 1997

This is Scott Peck’s classic work on being around toxic people. It continues the basic themes of The Road Less Traveled and explores what happens when there is no integrity.

The Paradigm Conspiracy: How Our Systems of Government, Church, School, and Culture Violate Our Human Potential

by Denise Breton, Christopher Largent and Steve Lehman
Hazelden Information Education, 1998

One of the most important books from 1996. The authors connect the dots between recovery, feminism, native American spirituality, therapy and ecology. What emerges is looming social change for all of us.

Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

by Julia Cameron
J. P. Tarcher, 2002

A wonderful and helpful book. For addicts, co-dependents and trauma victims, this book helps reclaim vital creativity that has been lost. Good for anyone who has great ideas but has trouble taking them further.

First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy

by Stephen R. Covey
Fireside, 1996

A great book on putting order in your life and achieving what you want to do. His stories and principles make sense. For recovering people, this book serves as a real help after sobriety has been established.

How To Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt & Live Prosperously

by Jerrold Mundis
Bantam Books, 1990

This is the book that started recovery for many members of Debtors Anonymous. Well written, clear and practical, it helps those starting financial recovery.

The Money Drunk: 90 Days to Financial Freedom

by Mark Bryan and Julia Cameron
Ballantine Books, 1999

An extremely insightful book, Bryan and Cameron have helped many people achieve financial viability. The authors do an excellent job of connecting financial disorders with other addictive disorders including sex.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

by Dan Millman
H J Kramer, 2000

A recovery classic. Written in novel form, it is one of the most helpful metaphors for developing balance and perspective.

Emotional Incest Syndrome: What to Do When a Parent’s Love Rules Your Life

by Dr. Patricia Love
Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1991

For adults who are loved “too much” by their parents, this book has been extraordinarily helpful. . Pat Love is an excellent teacher and writer.

What Your Mother Never Told You About Sex

by Hilda Hutcherson, M.D.
Perigee, 2003

An engaging women’s viewpoint answering any and all questions about healthy sexuality.

How Can I Get Through to You: Reconnecting Men and Women

by Terrence Real
Scribner, 2002

In this groundbreaking new book, bestselling author Terrence Real analyzes the crisis in intimate relations and offers a radical new vision of love and the practical tools with which to achieve it.

The Great American Sex Diet: Where the Only Thing You Nibble On… Is Your Partner!

by Laura Corn
William Morrow & Co, 2001

A victim of low sex drive herself, Corn speaks with conviction and empathy about the perils of lust in long-term relationships and cooks up a 28-day plan for committed couples who hunger for the fiery “honeymoon phase” of their relationship.

The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex: The Most Complete Sex Manual Ever Written

by Cathy Winks and Anne Semans
Cleis Press, 20021

A complete guide to a healthy sex life for people of all ages and sexual orientations, written in a friendly, inclusive and nonjudgmental style.

Making Love Again: Hope for Couples Facing Loss of Sexual Intimacy

by Virginia Laken and Keith Laken
North Star Publications, 2002

Virginia and Keith Laken’s eminently readable story details the arguments and the frustration they experienced in dealing with his impotence. At the same time, it also gives readers a great deal of hope.

The 7 Steps to Passionate Love: Why Men Are Not From Mars and Women Are Not From Venus

by William Van Horn, M.D.
Greenleaf Book Group, 2000

A revolutionary guide for people searching to enrich their relationships with a more profound and intimate experience of love.

Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from Birth to Tween

By Melissa Atkins Wardy, Jennifer Siebel Newsom

All-pink aisles in toy stores, popular dolls that resemble pole dancers, ultra sexy Halloween costumes in tween sizes. Many parents are increasingly dismayed at how today’s media, marketers, and manufacturers are sexualizing and stereotyping ever-younger girls but feel powerless to do much about it. Mother of two Melissa Atkins Wardy channeled her feelings of frustration into activism—creating T-shirts with girl-positive messages; blogging and swapping parenting strategies with other concerned families; writing letters to corporate offenders; organizing petitions; and raising awareness through parent workshops and social media.

Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes

By Sharon Lamb

“Every parent who cares about empowering her daughter should own a copy.”
– Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

By Mary Bray; Pipher, Mary Pipher

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

By Naomi Wolf

In today’s world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty.”

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood

By Naomi Wolf

In The Beauty Myth the fearless Naomi Wolf revolutionized the way we think about beauty. In Misconceptions, she demythologizes motherhood and reveals the dangers of common assumptions about childbirth. With uncompromising honesty she describes how hormones eroded her sense of independence, ultrasounds tested her commitment to abortion rights, and the keepers of the OB/GYN establishment lacked compassion. The weeks after her first daughter’s birth taught her how society, employers, and even husbands can manipulate new mothers. She had bewildering post partum depression, but learned that a surprisingly high.percentage of women experience it.
Wolf’s courageous willingness to talk about the unexpected difficulties of childbirth will help every woman become a more knowledgeable planner of her pregnancy and better prepare her for the challenges of balancing a career, freedom, and a growing family. Invaluable in its advice to parents, Misconceptions speaks to anyone connected–personally, medically, or professionally–to a new mother.

Living, Loving, and Learning

By Leo F.Buscaglia

LIVING, LOVING AND LEARNING is a delightful collection of Dr. Buscaglia’s informative and amusing lectures, which were delivered worldwide between 1970 and 1981. This inspirational treasure is for all those eager to accept the challenge of life and to profit from the wonder of love.

Breaking Free: A Recovery Workbook for Facing Codependence

By Pia Mellody

In her pioneering Facing Codependence, Pia Mellody traced the origins of codependence back to childhood and a wide range of emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, and sexual abuses. Now in this innovative new workbook, she presents a step-by-step journal-keeping method for moving toward recovery from codependence. Based on such concepts as the “precious child” and the five core symptoms of codependence, along with the Twelve-Step process of recovery used by Codependents Anonymous, Breaking Free provides strategies and insights for attacking the fundamental problem in codependence–the lack of dependence on self.

Alateen: Hope for Children of Alcoholics

By Al-Anon Family Group Head Inc.

Kids’ Power: Healing Games for Children of Alcoholics

By Jerry Moe, Don Pohlman

Welcome to Kids’ Power. There is hope today for young children of alcoholics. They can and do overcome the smothering effects of an alcoholic home, and they don’t have to wait until adulthood to begin this recovery. One of the most devastating illnesses known to mankind, chemical dependency progressively damages all aspects of the afflicted person: physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. But this only part of the story. Alcoholism and drug addiction have a profound impact on every member of the family.

Up and Down the Mountain: Helping Children Cope with Parental Alcoholism (Let’s Talk)

By Pamela Leib Higgins, Gail Zawacki

Up and Down the Mountain begins on the day of Jenny’s sixth grade graduation as she wonders if her daddy — an alcoholic — will attend.

Alcoholism is a disease which touches many families, especially affecting children, who will often blame themselves for the grief and unhappiness around them. This book shows them it’s not their fault and gives hope.

Wishes and Worries: Coping with a Parent Who Drinks Too Much Alcohol

By Centre For Addiction and Mental Health

Children of parents who drink too much alcohol are affected in many ways. They may experience anger, fear, confusion, and guilt. This reassuring book, written by professionals, offers information in the form of a story about one family’s struggle. When Dad’s drinking ruins a birthday party, everyone wishes that he would just stop. If only wishing could fix the problem!

Wishes and Worries is an excellent way to open a discussion between adult and child. It provides straightforward answers to common questions. Why does my parent drink? Will I drink too much, too? What can I do to help? Is it my fault? The book also includes important information for parents, teachers, and professionals. Wishes and Worries is an excellent resource for children affected by adult problems.

“My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has a Disease” A Child’s View: Living with Addiction

By Claudia Black

The basic premise of this book is that chemical dependency is a disease; the alcoholic/addict is a sick person not a bad person. This disease affects not only the addicted person but those who love that person as well. This is a book that will help others affected by chemical dependency to become well.

My Dad Loves Me My Dad Has A Disease was originally written as a result of Claudia Black’s work with young people who had a parent in treatment for their alcoholism. These children were learning at a very young age that it was not safe for them to openly talk about their family experiences. Art therapy was a wonderful medium for them to find the words and a voice in which to talk honestly. It was also a wonderful tool in which to not only share feelings but to problem solve, lessen denial, and to put words to that which was so confusing.

It Will Never Happen To Me: Growing Up with Addiction As Youngsters, Adolescents, Adults

By Claudia Black Ph.D

First published 20 years ago, It Will Never Happen to Me is the definitive book/workbook for adult children of alcoholics.

With her reassuring and informative approach, Claudia Black expertly identifies common issues faced by children who grew up in alcoholic families-shame, neglect, unreasonable role expectations, and physical abuse. Using narratives and profiles, she describes survival techniques characteristic of children raised in alcoholic families, including the unspoken laws of don’t talk, don’t trust, and don’t feel. First explaining how such learned responses cause difficulties in adulthood, Black carefully guides readers in identifying self-defeating, destructive behaviors and finding a healthier, happier way to live.

Deceived: Facing Sexual Betrayal, Lies, and Secrets

By Claudia Black

Pornography, cybersex, prostitutes, voyeurism, multiple affairs. No matter the ‘drug’ of choice, men who act out sexually leave their partners reeling in fear, rage, incredible shame, and isolation. Deceived was written expressly to help these women better understand what is happening in their lives, garner validation for their experiences, and find a path that offers clarity, direction, and voice.

Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life

By Susan Forward

In this remarkable self-help guide, Dr. Susan Forward draws on case histories and the real-life voices of adult children of toxic parents to help you free yourself from the frustrating patterns of your relationship with your parents — and discover a new world of self-confidence, inner strength, and emotional independence.

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples

By Harville Hendrix

Originally published in 1988, Getting the Love You Want has helped millions of couples attain more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. The 20th anniversary edition contains extensive revisions to this groundbreaking book, with a new chapter, new exercises, and a foreword detailing Dr. Hendrix’s updated philosophy for eliminating all negativity from couples’ daily interactions, allowing readers of the 2008 edition to benefit from his ongoing discoveries during his last two decades of work.

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., in partnership with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD., originated Imago Relationship Therapy, a unique healing process for couples, prospective couples, and parents. Together they have more than thirty years’ experience as educators and therapists and their work has been translated into more than 50 languages, with Imago practiced by two thousand therapists worldwide. Harville and Helen have six children and live in New York and New Mexico.

I Thought It Was Just Me (But it isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I am Enough”

By Brene Brown Ph.D. L.M.S.W.

We spend too much precious time and energy managing perception and creating carefully edited versions of ourselves to show to the world. As hard as we try, we can’t seem to turn off the tapes that fill our heads with messages like “Never good enough!” and “What will people think?”

Why? What fuels this unattainable need to look like we always have it all together? At first glance we might think it’s because we admire perfection, but that’s not the case. We are actually the most attracted to people we consider to be authentic and down-to-earth. We love people who are “real”—we’re drawn to those who both embrace their imperfections and radiate self-acceptance.

The Gift of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

By Brene Brown

In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown, a leading expert on shame, authenticity, and belonging, shares ten guideposts on the power of Wholehearted living—a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.

Each day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead perfect lives, we’d no longer feel inadequate. So most of us perform, please, and perfect, all the while thinking, “What if I can’t keep all of these balls in the air? Why isn’t everyone else working harder and living up to my expectations? What will people think if I fail or give up? When can I stop proving myself?”

The Power of Vulnerability; Teaching on Authenticity, Connection, and Courage

By Brene Brown

Is vulnerability the same as weakness? “In our culture,” teaches Dr. Brené Brown, “we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” On The Power of Vulnerability, Dr. Brown offers an invitation and a promise-that when we dare to drop the armor that protects us from feeling vulnerable, we open ourselves to the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Here she dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and reveals that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead

By Brene Brown

The #1 New York Times bestseller, now in paperback. From thought leader Dr. Brené Brown, a transformative new vision for the way we lead, love, work, parent, and educate that teaches us the power of vulnerability.

Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship

By Christine Ann Lawson

The first love in our lives is our mother. Recognizing her face, her voice, the meaning of her moods, and her facial expressions is crucial to survival. Dr. Christine Ann Lawson vividly describes how mothers who suffer from borderline personality disorder produce children who may flounder in life even as adults, futilely struggling to reach the safety of a parental harbor, unable to recognize that their borderline parent lacks a pier, or even a discernible shore.

Mothers Who Can’t Love: A Healing Guide for Daughters

By Susan Forward

With Mothers Who Can’t Love: A Healing Guide for Daughters, Susan Forward, Ph.D., author of the smash #1 bestseller Toxic Parents, offers a powerful look at the devastating impact unloving mothers have on their daughters—and provides clear, effective techniques for overcoming that painful legacy.

In more than 35 years as a therapist, Forward has worked with large numbers of women struggling to escape the emotional damage inflicted by the women who raised them. Subjected to years of criticism, competition, role-reversal, smothering control, emotional neglect and abuse, these women are plagued by anxiety and depression, relationship problems, lack of confidence and difficulties with trust. They doubt their worth, and even their ability to love.

Surviving a Borderline Parent: How to Heal Your Childhood Wounds and Build Trust, Boundaries, and Self-Esteem

By Kimberlee Roth

Surviving a Borderline Parent is the first step-by-step guide for adult children of parents with borderline personality disorder.

Between 6 and 10 million people in the US suffer from borderline personality disorder. This book teaches adult children how to overcome the devastating effects of growing up with a parent who suffers from BPD.

Although relatively common, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often overlooked or misdiagnosed by therapists and clinicians and denied by those who suffer from it.

The Object of My Affection Is in My Reflection: Coping with Narcissists

By Rokelle Lerner

Does your boss constantly blame you for things you didn’t do? Do you isolate yourself from friends and family to avoid conflict at home? Do you feel anxious when you see a certain ‘friend’s’ name on your cell phone? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you most likely have a narcissist in your life. The Object of My Affection Is in My Reflection will help you understand the complexities of this disorder and arm you with the coping mechanisms to navigate through this type of relationship.

The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family

By Eleanor Payson

Every day headlines are filled with examples of narcissistic individuals in positions of power who are nothing more than impostors plundering and wreaking havoc on the lives of others. From the financial barons of Wall Street to our elected officials in government, we are confronted daily with narcissists and the self-serving systems that enable them. Helping people reclaim their lives from this sinister exploitative force is the mission behind Payson’s book, The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family. Using simple metaphors from the American classic, The Wizard of Oz, Payson illustrates how Dorothy’s journey captures all the seductive illusions and challenges that occur when we encounter the narcissist. Empowering the reader with the ABCs of unhealthy narcissism and the unique problems that occur when a person becomes involved with the narcissist, Payson gives step-by-step practical tools to identify, protect, and heal from these destructive relationships. Largely un-addressed in the psychology and self-help literature, this ground breaking book offers hope and help to those who have been drawn into these devastating relationships. She includes illuminating case studies that identify the problems that occur in the different types of relationships, from co-workers, to friends, to parents, to lovers. Readers employing these insights and skills will find new abilities to identify and protect against the narcissist’s manipulations and take back control of their lives.

The Seat of the Soul

By Gary Zukav

With the same extraordinary skill that he used to demystify scientific abstraction and the new physics, Gary Zukay, the award-winning author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters, here takes us on a brilliant and penetrating exploration of the new phase of evolution we have now entered.

With lucidity and elegance, Zukav explains that we are evolving from a species that pursues power based upon the perceptions of the five senses — external power — into a species that pursues authentic power — power that is based upon the perceptions and values of the spirit. He shows how the pursuit of external power has produced our survival-of-the-fittest understanding of evolution, generated conflict between lovers, communities, and superpowers, and brought us to the edge of destruction.

Using his scientist’s eye and philosopher’s heart, Zukav shows how infusing the activities of life with reverence, compassion, and trust makes them come alive with meaning and purpose. He illustrates how the emerging values of the spirit are changing marriages into spiritual partnerships, psychology into spiritual psychology, and transforming our everyday lives. The Seat of the Soul describes the remarkable journey to the spirit that each of us is on.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltect Wisdom Book)

By Don Miguel Ruiz

Rooted in traditional Toltec wisdom beliefs, four agreements in life are essential steps on the path to personal freedom. As beliefs are transformed through maintaining these agreements, shamanic teacher and healer don Miguel Ruiz asserts lives will “become filled with grace, peace, and unconditional love.”

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

By Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

By Don Miguel Ruiz

It’s no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light.

Facing the Shadow: Starting Sexual and Relationship Recovery

By Patrick Carnes

Facing the Shadow is the innovative workbook that helps readers begin meaningful recovery from an often misunderstood addiction. This book guides readers through the first seven tasks in Dr. Patrick Carnes’ researched-based thirty-task model of treatment—the most respected therapy model available for treating sex addicts.

Recovery Zone, Volume 1: Making Changes that Last – The Internal Tasks

By Patrick Carnes

Recovery Zone, Volume One picks up where Facing the Shadow leaves off, guiding readers to begin working tasks eight through thirteen of Dr. Patrick Carnes’ innovative thirty-task model. This book helps readers understand that true recovery is achieved by learning to cope with difficult situations and emotions.

Facing Heartbreak: Steps to Recovery for Partners of Sex Addicts

By Stefanie Carnes

When you discover that the person you loved and trusted most in the world is hiding a secret life as a sex addict, the result can be devastating. Facing that heartbreak is what this book is all about. The healing process will take time regardless of whether you decide to stay in the relationship or leave.

Facing Heartbreak weaves real life stories with practical therapeutic advice and specific tasks that gently educate, empower, and guide the partner of the sex addict through a process of recovery. Using Dr. Patrick Carnes’ thirty-task sex recovery model, readers will learn to heal from the heartbreak and betrayal as they discover hope and healing.

Comprehensive Psychological Services

Recommended Readings

Hope and Recovery: A Twelve-Step Guide for Healing From Compulsive Sexual Behavior

Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power

Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex and Relationship Addiction

Mending a Shattered Heart: A Guide for Partners of Sex Addicts

Your Sexually Addicted Spouse: How Partners Can Cope and Heal

Lonely All the Time: Recognizing, Understanding and Overcoming Sex Addiction, for Addicts and Codependents

Answers in the Heart: Daily Meditations

Always Turned On

Untangling the Web: Sex, Porn and Fantasy Obsession in the Internet Age

Cruise Control: Understanding Sex Addiction in Gay Men

Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction

Don’t Call It Love: Recovery from Sexual Addiction

The 12 Steps: A Way Out: A Spiritual Process for Healing

From Generation to Generation: Understanding Sexual Attraction to Children

A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps: The Classic Guide for All People in the Process of Recovery

Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps

Recommended for Your Partner

Facing Codependence: What It Is, Where It Comes From, How It Sabotages Our Lives

Is It Love or Is It Addiction

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

Healing the Shame That Binds You

Back From Betrayal: Recovering from His Affairs

Sex, Lies & Forgiveness: Couples Speak on Healing from Sex Addiction

Letters To A Sex Addict: The Journey through Grief and Betrayal

Surviving Disclosure: A Partner’s Guide for Healing the Betrayal of Intimate Trust

Disclosing Secrets: An Addict’s Guide for When, to Whom, and How Much to Reveal

Recommended Reading for the Professional

Treating Addicted Survivors of Trauma

Contrary to Love: Helping the Sexual Addict

Facing the Shadow: Starting Sexual and Relationship Recovery

Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction

Sex Addiction: Case Studies and Management

Sexual Addiction: An Integrated Approach

Sex and the Internet: A Guide Book for Clinicians

Clinical Management of Sex Addiction

General Interest Reading

Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners: Understanding Covert Incest

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality

Closer Together, Further Apart

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Your Erroneous Zones

Craving for Ecstasy: How Our Passions Become Addictions and What We Can Do About Them

The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul

Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

People of the Lie: Toward a Psychology of Evil

The Paradigm Conspiracy: How Our Systems of Government, Church, School, and Culture Violate Our Human Potential

Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy

How To Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt & Live Prosperously

The Money Drunk: 90 Days to Financial Freedom

Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

Emotional Incest Syndrome: What to Do When a Parent’s Love Rules Your Life

What Your Mother Never Told You About Sex

How Can I Get Through to You: Reconnecting Men and Women

The Great American Sex Diet: Where the Only Thing You Nibble On… Is Your Partner!

The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex: The Most Complete Sex Manual Ever Written

Making Love Again: Hope for Couples Facing Loss of Sexual Intimacy

The 7 Steps to Passionate Love: Why Men Are Not From Mars and Women Are Not From Venus

Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from Birth to Tween

Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood

Living, Loving, and Learning

Breaking Free: A Recovery Workbook for Facing Codependence

Alateen: Hope for Children of Alcoholics

Kids’ Power: Healing Games for Children of Alcoholics

Up and Down the Mountain: Helping Children Cope with Parental Alcoholism (Let’s Talk)

Wishes and Worries: Coping with a Parent Who Drinks Too Much Alcohol

“My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has a Disease” A Child’s View: Living with Addiction

It Will Never Happen To Me: Growing Up with Addiction As Youngsters, Adolescents, Adults

Deceived: Facing Sexual Betrayal, Lies, and Secrets

Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples

I Thought It Was Just Me (But it isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I am Enough”