FBR: 15+ Books Written For Therapists and Others

Therapists, such as myself, have been recommended numerous books throughout my education. Books that will teach me therapy skills, self-care skills, general psychological knowledge, and even horror stories of worst-case scenario clients. It was certainly rare to get a book that was written for the novice therapist.

I have, over the years, collected the books below through supervisors, friends or random internet searches. This list contains books that are written for people who help other people, therapists and beyond. Books that tell stories of humorous clients, of struggles as a therapist, about therapists going to see their own therapists, and so much more.

Table of Books

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Some are classics from professionals like Carl Rogers and some are by newer authors such as Lori Gottlieb. Two recurring authors, Irvin Yalom and Jeffery Kottlier, have been deemed experts in writing for therapists. I have listed a few of their books below, so if you enjoy them please search for others by them. Last week’s book review was posted late (apologies) so check it out here or any of our other reviews.

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

Description: Lori Gottlieb illustrates a difficult time in both her professional and personal life in this therapist’s memoir. The dual nature of the book enables Gottlieb to show her world as both a therapist and someone receiving therapy.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives — a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to her own therapist.

Review: I received a copy of this book as a gift from my final supervisor during my doctoral program. Of course, I read it instantly and was immediately drawn in. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor. It offers a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds. It provides the rarest of gifts: a revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

With wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. Although on a list of therapist books, I would recommend this book to anyone. This book is a reminder that even therapists aren’t perfect and may need help sometimes.

The Gift of Therapy

Description: The Gift of Therapy is a remarkable and essential guidebook that illustrates through real case studies how patients and therapists alike can get the most out of therapy. The bestselling author of Love’s Executioner shares his uniquely fresh approach and the valuable insights he has gained—presented as eighty-five personal and provocative tips including:

Let the patient matter to you
Acknowledge your errors
Create a new therapy for each patient
Do home visits
(Almost) never make decisions for the patient
Freud was not always wrong

Review: An author recommended by many professors in my past, a few of his books have made this list. I believe this book is a letter from a talented and seasoned professional to all newbies in the field. It is a book aimed at enriching the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors, Yalom’s Gift of Therapy is an entertaining, informative, and insightful read for anyone with an interest in the subject.

The Mummy at the Dining Room Table

Description: A wife pretends to hang herself in the basement so she can time how long it will be before her husband comes to rescue her. . . .a woman whose dead aunt was made into a mummy so the family could better grieve her passing and on occasion dine with her at family gatherings . . . a man wants his nose cut off to escape an annoying smell that haunts him . . . a teenage boy would only come to therapy if he could bring his pet snake.

Collected in this extraordinary book, well known practitioners recount the most memorable case histories of their illustrious careers. Engaging and surprising stories of human behavior are dramatically and often humorously portrayed. Each chapter gives a behind-the-scenes look at how therapists work with clients whose problems and behaviors aren’t found in standard psychology textbooks. The book also shows how these eminent therapists often cure these apparently intractable problems and learn something about themselves in the process.

Review: Some books on this list take a serious view of therapy and a therapist’s life, this one is different. I listened to this book as an audiobook, to and from work. I cannot recount the amount of times it had me laughing in my car or texting my colleagues. It also continuously reminded me of my own case stories that I believe I will never forget.

Therapy is intense, the life of a therapist can be draining, but this book reminds us of all the interesting stories we hear and interesting people we encounter through our career. I believe this book will renew your fascination in the world of psychology and the human mind. Plus, there is always the times where each therapist wishes to be a “fly-on-the-wall” in another therapist’s room just to see how they would handle a difficult situation. This book gives that acceptable voyeuristic experience.

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Description: The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. The author, Andrew Solomon, draws on the history of his own struggle with the illness and interviews a wide range of professionals and suffers in order to gain a larger understanding.

He reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agnoy of the disease, but also illustrates reasons for hope. He confronts the challenge of defining such a complex illness and describes the vast range of available medications and treatments. Most of all, Solomon illustrates the impact the disease has on various demographic populations- around the world and throughout history.

Review: The Noonday Demon can be an overwhelming discovery amongst the books of a psychologist. At nearly 700 pages, this book may intimidate readers, especially those suffering or impacted by depression. However, once you get into this book, I ensure you it will keep your attention. With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, Andrew Solomon created an elegantly written, meticulously researched, empathetic, and enlightened journey into the vast world of depression.

This book illustrates how someone with severe anxiety and depression can find ways to push o even while struggling. For people suffering from depression, I imagine this book would help them feel less alone. I believe this book is essential for those working in any healthcare related field; it could be beneficial for any adult to read.

*Warning: This book may be, at times, triggering for those still in the depths of depression.

On Being a Therapist

Description: Jeffrey Kottler explores many of the challenges that therapists face in their practices today, including pressures from increased technology, economic realities, and advances in theory and technique. He also explores the stress factors that are brought on from managed care bureaucracy, conflicts at work, and clients’ own anxiety and depression.

Review: The last Kottler book discussed above was witty and descriptive in regards to interesting cases faced by well-known therapists. This book is not quite like that. As professionals, we have clients that we dread to see some weeks, clients we get clinically stuck with, and days that just drain everything we have to offer. Sometimes these aspects of the profession are difficult to discuss and admit, but Kottler gives us that opportunity.

On Being a Therapist is a matter-of-fact book that reaches out to individuals just starting their careers. Kottler provides controversial topics, validation, honestly, and overall appreciation for the field of psychology and the work of a therapist. No one is perfect, not even therapists. Kottler illustrates how our flaws can cause discrepancies in our ability to help other. Mental health is a complex field, this book is a clear indicator of that. Highly recommended for all therapists, veterans and novices alike.

Lying on the Couch

Description: Seymour is a therapist of the old school who blurs the boundary of sexual propriety with one of his clients. Marshal, who is haunted by his own obsessive-compulsive behaviors, is troubled by the role money plays in his dealings with his patients. Finally, there is Ernest Lash. Driven by his sincere desire to help and his faith in psychoanalysis, he invents a radically new approach to therapy — a totally open and honest relationship with a patient that threatens to have devastating results.

Exposing the many lies that are told on and off the psychoanalyst’s couch, Lying on the Couch gives readers a tantalizing, almost illicit, glimpse at what their therapists might really be thinking during their sessions. Fascinating, engrossing and relentlessly intelligent, it ultimately moves readers with a denouement of surprising humanity and redemptive faith.

Review: I enjoyed this book, though it is not altogether similar to other works of Yalom. As someone working in mental health, I could imagine others not enjoying fully the subtleties regarding how psychotherapy works. This narrative fleshes out the issues that face modern therapists and detail some of the scenarios possible for any therapist.

Issues of sexual impropriety, gifting, excessive adherence to psychoanalytic method over connection, coaching patients toward their addictions, and fraud are essential themes of this book. The teaching tenets of honesty, propriety, and the impact of therapeutic connection are the goals of this book and characters. Similar to The Mummy at the Dining Room Table, an interesting and recommended read.

Love’s Executioner: & Other Tales of Psychotherapy

Description: In this book, Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. With insight and sympathy, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into the personal desires and motivations of ten of his patients, but also tells his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too-human response with his sensibility as a psychiatrist.

Review: Another of Yalom’s works that will speak to any therapist, those just starting out or those more experienced. An informative and thought-provoking review of the progress of 10 psychotherapy patients. A fascinating story-line for someone who enjoys learning about behaviors, motivations, and personalities. Yalom’s honesty about his own foibles and feelings draw in the reader, offering security in the reliability of the assessments presented.

Any individual who works with patients will find themselves attempting to solve each patient’s mystery alongside Yalom. Readers are free to evaluate Yalom’s process, reactions, and therapeutic relationships throughout this honest recollection. Love’s Executioner has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers already, and promises to inspire generations of readers to come.

Becoming Myself

Description: In this profound memoir, Yalom turns his writing and his therapeutic eye on himself. He opens his story with a nightmare. He is twelve, and is riding his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morning, he calls out, hoping to befriend her, “Hello Measles!” But in his dream, the girl’s father makes Yalom understand that his daily greeting had hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empathy; he would not forget the lesson.

As Becoming Myself unfolds, we see the birth of the insightful thinker whose books have been a beacon to so many. This is not simply a man’s life story, Yalom’s reflections on his life and development are an invitation for us to reflect on the origins of our own selves and the meanings of our lives.

Review: As Yalom’s last intended work, he takes an introspective journey into his past, both personal and professional. Within the memoir, he offers revealing insight into his conceptualization of his many books and the beautiful retreats where he wrote in solitude. There are endless routes that an reviewer can take on this book, from his childhood memories to his relationships with his parents or his patients.

Yalom reviews his life with refreshing candor as we witness his growth into the intellectual psychiatrist and world-renowned writer that many mental health professionals continue to study. I would recommend this book to many, as it opens the conversation on extraordinary topics that aren’t always approachable, but it is definitely a must read for fans of Yalom’s work.

The Secrets of Exceptional Counselors

Description: Master clinicians disclose ingenious methods and practical tips to better serve clients. Discussing techniques that have been mostly kept private until now, they talk about their creative breakthroughs, spiritual transcendences, monumental successes, and their own developmental adjustments over time.

They also reveal some of their most unusual cases, disappointing failures, and disturbing deceptions, and share stories about the clients who have changed them.

Review: This book reminds me of the childhood saying “secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you share them with everyone.” Every profession has trade secrets that are passed on from one generation to the next and counseling is no exception. Any reader will find endless tips, tricks, validation, and better understanding throughout the pages of this book. The content is easy to read, contains humor to keep readers engaged, and has a lot of teachable material.

New practitioners and veterans alike will find innovative ways to remain fresh and engaged with clients. Because of its focus on practical knowledge and useful strategies, this book can be used as a supplemental text in a variety of introductory and advanced courses, or as an inspirational guide for experienced counselors.

Creative Breakthroughs in Therapy: Tales of Transformation and Astonishment

Book cover for creative breakthroughs in therapy

Description: The description of “An invitation to observe and achieve transformative breakthroughs in the therapeutic experience” really tells all. This book brings together nineteen of the world’s prominent and creative therapists and researchers, taking professionals inside each contributor’s creative innovations in theory and technique.

Drawn from real-life cases, contributors share stories of their most creative breakthroughs, demonstrating out-of-the-box thinking that freed them to create alternative ways of meeting their clients needs.

Review: Kottler back at it again, with a similar flair to Secrets of Exceptional Counselors. Creative Breakthroughs in Therapy: Tales of Transformation and Astonishment will motivate you to experiment as an agent of change, exploring new, creative ways to make a difference in people’s lives. Another voyeuristic style of teaching, watch as the prominent psychologists struggle and breakthrough difficult times with creative and innovative solutions.

Designed for all therapists who wish to communicate their therapeutic messages creatively and effectively, the authors invite you to be inspired from the observations of your peers and consider how these approaches might be applied to your own work. Definitely a must read for beginning therapists as a means of understanding how to branch out from the structure taught in gradaute school.

Becoming a Therapist

Description: This practical book guides you in using the helping relationship to improve the lives of others no matter your specific position in the mental health field. The author thoroughly and clearly illustrates the excitement, intensity, anxiety―and, ultimately, the satisfaction―you can expect as a helping professional.

Designed to be a resource that therapist’s can return to in order to recall the reality of what it means to be a beginning therapist. The book covers topics including: self-care, cultural competence, practitioner’s learning triangle, peer relationships, and indispensable qualities of every mental health professional.

Review: I recently read this book, but wish I was able reap it’s benefits in graduate school. Becoming a Therapist: On the Path to Mastery explores the therapeutic career path for new practitioners, painting a vivid portrait of the novice therapist’s journey. Another book that is written similar to a letter passed down through generations of professionals. Skovholt maps out the entire journey that someone in a helping profession will likely take.

As someone that speaks honestly about the profession, Skovholt also includes humor, validation, reassurances, and encouragement throughout his writing. This book is an amazing resource for therapist’s just starting their journey, as a welcome note. Or for those supervising as a reminder of what different level therapists may require in their development.

Inside Therapy : Illuminating Writings about Therapists, Patients, and Psychotherapy

Description: A varied mix of essays, book chapters, case histories, and compelling fiction written by veterans of both sides of “the couch” and representing many schools of thought, Inside Therapy includes: Janet Malcolm’s The Impossible Profession, Mark Epstein’s Thoughts Without a Thinker , Eric Fromm’s The Art of Listening, A. M. Homes’s In a Country of Mothers, Theodore Reik’s The Third Ear, and others.

Review: I was pleasantly surprised by this book and include it for that reason. A few of the essays or other works included were actually independently assigned throughout my graduate school career. For that reason, I was a little hesitant to give this book a chance. I was afraid it would be too academic for what I wanted at the time.

However, no matter who you are, you will find these carefully chosen excerpts to be enlightening and amusing. The authors will have you laughing through their stories while also creating a deep reconsideration for the role of therapy nd the therapeutic relationship. Really anyone with an interest in psychology, mental health or human behavior will find this lively anthology an engrossing read.

On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy

Description: The late Carl Rogers, founder of the humanistic psychology movement, revolutionized psychotherapy with his concept of “client-centered therapy.” His influence has spanned decades, but that influence has become so much a part of mainstream psychology that the ingenious nature of his work has almost been forgotten. With the increasingly popular fixes of pharmaceutical companies, work similar to Rogers’ has quickly been over-written. However, this book brings to light, once again, the importance of the therapeutic relationship.

Review: How could I not include a book by the famous Carl Rogers on this list for therapists? If you have not read a book by Rogers or studied his work, I highly suggest you do. This book is an outstanding supplemental resource for educating students on the humanistic perspective of counseling.

Unlike many writers in this field, Rogers’ is simple, straightforward, clear, and never so arrogant. He is not one to say ‘”the right way” but only ”this is the way I see it”. Rogers will help you to understand personal growth, dealing with difficult emotions, and self-actualization. A classic book that I would recommend having in your arsenal of texts.

The Fear of Doing Nothing: Notes of a Young Therapist

Book cover for the fear of doing nothing

Description: Through ten linked stories, we follow Hazanov as he navigates the maze of psychological theories he’s been taught, facing the alarming dissonance between them and the tragic reality of his patients’ lives. “How does psychotherapy work? And why do people not get any better?”

Frustrated by fancy jargon and unrealistic depictions, Hazanov is on a quest to dispel the myths of psychotherapy and discover its essence. In The Fear of Doing Nothing he illuminates the intimacy, vulnerability and messiness of the therapeutic encounter, providing his answer to the question of what psychotherapy is.

Review: If I had to chose one book for new therapists to read, it would be this one. The other books on this list are important, don’t get me wrong. They will make any counselor feel validated and deepen their level of understanding of the field. This book , however, illustrates how overwhelming the world of psychology can be for someone entering the field. It indicates the internal fear of “imposter syndrome” and concern that we are doing nothing to help our clients improve.

I appreciated the acknowledgement of a professional going through an internal clash between his professional training on identifying a disorder and his ethical attitude of avoiding any labeling of a patient. As someone that works with children, I often have this internal debate regarding professional psychology and real-world compassion. Highly recommend.

Similar to Mikhail Bulgakov’s A Young Doctor’s Notebook and Sandeep Jauhar’s Intern for medical professionals.

On Death and Dying

Description: On Death and Dying grew out of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kübler-Ross first explored the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Through sample interviews and conversations, she gives the reader a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve that patient, and the patient’s family, bringing hope to all who are involved.

Review: Yes, I read this for a class. Yes, it was a required reading and sometimes difficult to get through. As a lot of “required” readings tend to be. Not a typical, must read for pleasure of psychologists, but I beg to differ. I consider myself to be an early-career psychologist, not yet fully formed into the professional I want to be. Yet, I have already been faced with the death of a client. An entirely heart-breaking, non-accidental death of a teenager. A friend of mine, a professor from my graduate program, indicated that I should go back to this book. She’s an avid reader, like myself, and we have similar therapeutic processes for understanding.

This truly is an outstanding book, for any person not just therapists. Though the book describes the end-of-life phase of patients, it also goes into great detail regarding how we all engage in a type of “circle of life” if you will. Addressing death, aspects of dying, and the fragility of life are all important to anyone. They can be especially those in medical or helping professionals. Dr. Kübler-Ross’ reflections to help to the most of life by loving it, loving the people who share it with you and by making the most of your short time here with a positive attitude, regardless of the challenges ahead.

Couch Fiction: A Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy

Description: Perry is able to explain the process of psychotherapy, without dumbing it down, making it as accessible as possible without much jargon in this illustrated graphic novel. It is an introduction to people without psychotherapy experience and even those who have been in therapy for many years.

With omniscient observation, the story lets us into the minds of both the therapist and the client, and shows the interplay between them. It demonstrates how both are human, how both can be petty and generous, helpful and obtrusive, how both hide the truth, but nonetheless, have a genuine intent to help and be helped.

Review: I was intrigued by the notion of a graphic novel approach to the basics of therapy. If you’ve read previous posts, such as this, you know I am a bit nerdy so this caught my interest. Perry has an accessible, clear writing style that lays everything out without dumbing it down, offering the basics so as to give a good idea of what the process of therapy entails. While succinct in its form, Couch Fiction does well in representing a microcosm of successful therapy.

The added footnotes give the effect of a layered account of a typical year of therapy, demonstrating not only how it affects & helps the client, but also the changes & realizations that it evokes in the therapist. In addition, Perry also points out that therapy is at least as much an art as it is a science, and that much depends on the connection (or lack thereof) between therapist & client.

This is fine example of what the graphic novel format can do in illuminating a particular subject, especially one that deals with thoughts, emotions, and concepts, while making the narrative as entertaining as it is informative. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the subject of psychotherapy, interested in seeking therapy, or has a loved one in therapy. It will help you understand the process better, and hopefully with increased compassion.