Resources

In The Perfectionist’s Handbook, clinical psychologist Jeff Szymanski helps readers navigate their way out of the “perfectionism paradox”: if your intentions are good (wanting to excel) and the outcomes you want are reasonable (to feel competent and satisfied), why would perfectionism backfire and result in unhappiness and stress? Learn when perfectionism will pay off, and when and why it sabotages you. Specific strategies are outlined throughout the book to help readers transform their perfectionism from a liability to an asset.

Dr. John March’s eight-step program has already helped thousands of young people show the disorder that it doesn’t call the shots – they do. This uniquely designed volume is really two books in one. Each chapter begins with a section that helps kids and teens zero in on specific problems and develop skills they can use to tune out obsessions and resist compulsions.

In the engaging, anecdotal style and reassuring tone that won over thousands of readers of her first book, Untangled, Damour starts by addressing the facts about psychological pressure. She explains the surprising and underappreciated value of stress and anxiety: that stress can helpfully stretch us beyond our comfort zones, and anxiety can play a key role in keeping girls safe. When we emphasize the benefits of stress and anxiety, we can help our daughters take them in stride.

Dr. Damour draws on decades of experience and the latest research to reveal the seven distinct—and absolutely normal—developmental transitions that turn girls into grown-ups, including Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself. Providing realistic scenarios and welcome advice on how to engage daughters in smart, constructive ways, Untangled gives parents a broad framework for understanding their daughters while addressing their most common questions.

In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, Elizabeth Lesser offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one – stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world’s great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.

A provocative manifesto that exposes the harms of helicopter parenting and sets forth an alternate philosophy for raising preteens and teens to self-sufficient young adulthood. While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Julie offers practical strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success.

Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. This book is the culmination of Marc’s development of RULER (a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions) and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. Permission to Feel combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don’t have to be. Marc Brackett’s life mission is to reverse this course, and this book can show you how.

A highly acclaimed sociologist and coach at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and the author of Raising Happiness, Dr. Christine Carter melds research – including the latest findings in neuroscience, sociology, and social psychology – with her own real-world experiences as the mother of four teenagers. In this book, find practical guidance for: providing the structure teens need while giving them the autonomy they seek; helping them overcome distractions; teaching them the art of “strategic slacking”; protecting them from anxiety, isolation, and depression; fostering the real-world, face-to-face social connections they desperately need; and effective conversations about tough subjects – including sex, drugs, and money.

The Self-Driven Child offers a combination of cutting-edge brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, and case studies drawn from the thousands of kids and teens Bill and Ned have helped over the years to teach you how to set your child on the real road to success. As parents, we can only drive our kids so far. At some point, they will have to take the wheel and map out their own path. But there is a lot you can do before then to help them tackle the road ahead with resilience and imagination.

With its helpful, hands-on suggestions and tips, Superpowered will be embraced by every kid with insecurities, worries, and anxious thoughts. Renee Jain (founder of GoZen!) and Dr. Shefali Tsabary (New York Times bestselling author and Oprah contributor) make readers the superheroes of their own stories. They introduce a toolkit of easy-to-understand methods for recognizing anxious behaviors, identifying the root causes of worried thinking, and realizing that strength can be found in reclaiming one’s inner superpowers.

This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men— and provides a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions, and live a more joyful life.

Written by pediatric anxiety and OCD specialist, Dr. Aureen Wagner, this picture book helps teach kids struggling with OCD about the disorder and its treatment in a fun and creative way by introducing Casey and the Worry Hill. Both children and adults can learn from Casey’s struggle with OCD and his journey towards hope, acceptance, resolve, and ultimately, victory over OCD. Can be used separately and in conjunction with the parent companion guidebook, What to do When Your Child has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Strategies and Solutions.

A highly accessible and easy to read illustrated guidebook for kids ages 6-12 and parents on effective CBT techniques used to treat OCD. Both children and their parents will learn about OCD’s sticky thoughts and feelings, and how to unstick from them through interactive examples, activities, and step-by-step instructions.

A highly accessible and easy to read illustrated guidebook for kids ages 6-12 and parents on effective CBT techniques used to treat anxiety. Using fun metaphors, visuals, and activities, children and their parents will learn more about the nature of anxiety and skills that help reduce it in an engaging interactive and clear step-by-step process.

Designed for young children ages 5-9, this activity book teaches kids CBT strategies for understanding their emotions and working through anxious situations independently. Guided by Harley the Hedgehog, children and their parents will learn how to be brave and manage anxiety using fun, interactive illustrations and activities (e.g., drawing, crafts, and mindfulness exercises).

An engaging and easy-to-read guidebook for teens that demystifies OCD and teaches evidence-backed ERP and ACT skills to break free from the loud, spiraling OCD thoughts and behaviors that prevent them from living the life they want. With practical strategies and real-life anecdotes from teens who have overcome OCD, this book helps teens and parents approach their OCD treatment in a simple, relatable, and effective way.

Written by leading OCD specialist, Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz, this empowering workbook is designed to give readers the skills to overcome OCD using highly effective, innovative, and practical skills and techniques. Offers a clear, detailed, step-by-step CBT program that helps explain how OCD works and ways to break free from obsessions and compulsions.

This book teaches both anxiety sufferers and their family ways to better understand and communicate with each other when OCD takes over the house. Helps break down myths and misconceptions about OCD alongside simple explanations of how OCD works for great insight into the mind of the OCD sufferer. Also gives an overview of evidence-based treatment (e.g., CBT, ERP, and mindfulness) in plain language.

This book provides methods and skills to address “perfectionism, insomnia, obsessional thinking, shame and guilt, avoidance, bad habits and procrastination.”

As frustrating and hopeless anxiety can make one feel, there are methods to help one break free from the burden anxiety presents. In this book, readers are provided with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Also included is learning “how your mind can trap you” and discovering “ways to nurture your capacity for acceptance, mindfulness, kindness, and compassion, and use these qualities to weaken the power of anxiety and fear.”

This book provides an in-depth look at social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic disorder. With professional advice and an abundance of information on each type of anxiety disorder, parents will be better equipped to help guide their anxious child.

This book provides parents with tools on how to change their own behaviors, which could be promoting their child’s anxiety, with more supportive responses to help their child cope. Included are a variety of worksheets to make this an interactive way of learning the new skills.

In this book, Aureen Wagner introduces her own concept of the “Worry Hill” to help treat children with OCD. With her guidance, parents and children can help overcome OCD and all of the debilitating challenges it presents.

This book helps readers view anxiety in a positive light, and learn how to use it to find success and happiness in their own lives rather than having it consume them.

Based on the idea of the human mind being like a monkey, “constantly chattering, hopping from branch to branch— endlessly moving from fear to safety,” this book uses CBT and ACT skills to help you stop “feeding” the monkey and take control.

Written by Joseph LeDoux, who has been on the forefront of anxiety research, he approaches anxiety as “experiences that we assemble cognitively”. He believes that treatment should include both the conscious and unconscious manifestations of anxiety, and also “explains the science behind fear and anxiety disorders.”

Anxiety can trick our brains into believing there is danger when, in reality, there is none. This creates an exhausting cycle of doubt and frustration. This read provides individuals with the tools to step back from their anxiety and understand the underlying causes of it rather than trying to avoid or control it.

This interactive and easy to follow workbook provides teens with cognitive behavioral exercises and tools to help break their cycle of constant worry.

This read discusses how a variety of neurological issues, such as brain fog, anxiety, depression, and/or lack of motivation, can be traced back to how we fuel our bodies and minds. These symptoms can affect any individual, but can be helped through “lifestyle changes and nutritional therapy,” as presented by Dr. Datis Kharrazian.

This workbook provides an interactive experience for readers, allowing the individual to deeply reflect on their parenting approach, and a guide on implementing the concepts that are discussed. Included are “dozens of clear, practical and age-specific exercises and activities.”

In our fast-pace and busy world today, it is easy to lose touch with yourself and those who you love. This book provides mindfulness strategies that can be done anywhere and by anyone to “spread empathy, emotional awareness, and acceptance within your whole family.”

Parents of adolescents who are in treatment also need to use that time to focus on what they could be doing to further help their child and family succeed. In this book, Krissy Pozatek takes her years of research to provide parents guidance on how to help their child recognize their emotions, set limits, and gain responsibility and independence.

Written by someone who previously struggled with social phobias, this book provides readers with tools on how to take control of their life again. Included to help alleviate pain and work towards one’s goals are “exercises, assignments, and systematic methods” that are proven to help people succeed.

This program outlines the ways “young people” can become “responsible, respectful, and resourceful” individuals. The five criteria included are “Kind and Firm”, “Belonging and Significance”, “Long-term Effectiveness”, “Social and Life Skills”, and “Discovering Ones Own Capabilities”.

This read provides parents with “common anxiety-enhancing patterns” in behaviors and how to correct them to benefit both parent and child. The skills presented in this book challenge the traditional ways of helping our children while providing “principles that foster change.”

Knowing the difference between momentary stress and a full-blown anxiety disorder is a vital tool parents need to help guide and support their child. In this book, Tamar Chansky provides parents with crucial information on how to “help your child back to emotional safety.”

Parenting a teen with intense emotions can be extremely difficult. This much-needed book will give you the tools needed to help your teen regulate his or her emotions. In addition, you’ll learn the skills for managing your own reactions so you can survive these difficult years and help your teen thrive.

This book provides parents with a science-based program to help their child navigate various types of anxiety. Included in this program are how to help your child with “detective thinking”, rationalizing worries, cognitive behavioral therapy skills and more.

This book demystifies troubling intrusive thoughts and the debilitating response to those thoughts.  The authors succeed in making an easy read of a difficult topic by providing psychoeducation, taking the loneliness out of the experience of unwanted intrusive thoughts, and providing a guide for overcoming them.