Employee Assistance Program Book Recommendations: Mental Health

If you are seeking lasting relief from out-of-control anxiety, this is the book for you. It is grounded in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), the proven treatment approach developed and tested over decades by pioneering clinician-researcher Aaron T. Beck. Now Dr. Beck and fellow expert David A. Clark put the tools and techniques of CBT at your fingertips in this compassionate guide. Carefully crafted worksheets (additional copies can be downloaded and printed as needed), exercises, and examples reflect the authors' wealth of experience. Learn practical strategies for identifying anxiety triggers, challenging the thoughts and beliefs that lead to distress, safely facing feared situations, and truly loosening anxiety's grip--one manageable step at a time. Updated throughout, the second edition includes evaluation exercises that help you get to know your anxiety; up-to-date information about panic attacks, social anxiety, and other topics; additional graphics; and new troubleshooting tips and tools for success. Mental health professionals, see also the state-of-the-art clinical reference Exposure Therapy for Anxiety, Second Edition, by Jonathan S. Abramowitz, Brett J. Deacon, and Stephen P. H. Whiteside.

Available in Print
Available in Libby

Free yourself from depression, anxiety, and insecurity, and instead build a rich and meaningful life with the updated and expanded edition of the world's best-selling guide to escaping the "happiness trap." Over 1 million copies sold! In The Happiness Trap, Dr. Russ Harris provides a means to escape the epidemic of stress, anxiety, and depression, unlocking the secrets to a truly fulfilling life.  Updated and expanded in its second edition, this empowering book presents the insights and techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), covering more topics and providing more practical tools than ever before. Learn how to clarify your values, develop self-compassion, and find true satisfaction with this bigger and better guide to:  * Reducing stress and worry  * Handling painful thoughts and feelings more effectively  * Breaking self-defeating habits  * Overcoming insecurity and self-doubt  * Building better relationships  * Improving performance and finding fulfilment at work  The Happiness Trap is for everyone. Whether you're lacking confidence, facing illness, coping with loss, working in a high-stress job, or suffering from anxiety or depression, this book will show you how to build authentic happiness, from the inside out. 

Available in Print

The practice of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is made even more accessible in this fun, easy-to-understand, and illustrated companion to The Happiness Trap   There's this idea going around that we're always supposed to be happy--and it's making us miserable. The good news is, if you can learn to let go of that impossible expectation, your life will be a whole lot happier. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a simple, self-administered therapy that uses mindfulness to enable you to do just that.  In this follow-up to his bestselling The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris shows how you, like millions of other people, can use ACT to start living a life that's far richer, fuller, and more meaningful. You will learn how ACT can help you: * Reduce stress and worry * Handle painful feelings and thoughts more effectively * Break self-defeating habits * Overcome insecurity and self-doubt * Recognize and treasure the whole range of emotions that make up a satisfying life

Available in Print
Available in Libby

n this book, Amit Sood, M.D., M.Sc., a Mayo Clinic specialist in stress and resiliency, reveals how the mind's instinctive restlessness and shortsightedness generate stress and anxiety and presents strategies for living a more peaceful life. Have you ever driven several miles without noticing anything on the road, or read a page in a book without registering any of it? Do the day's worries and disappointments crowd your mind as you're trying to fall asleep at night? Do you feel stressed much of the time and aren't sure how to find peace? This book is based on the highly popular stress management program offered at Mayo Clinic that Dr. Sood developed after two decades of work with tens of thousands of people. Drawing on groundbreaking brain research, Dr. Sood helps you understand the brain's two modes and how an imbalance between them produces unwanted stress. From this basis, you learn skills that will help you: Develop deep and sustained attention Practice gratitude, compassion and acceptance Live a meaningful life Cultivate nurturing relationships Achieve your highest potential All of these concepts are weaved into a practical and fun journey that has been tested in numerous scientific studies, with consistently positive results. Take the first step to discover greater peace and joy for you and your loved ones. "Dr. Sood has put together a simple, secular and structured program that is anchored in science, is free of rituals and dogmas, and is accessible to everyone. This book can change your life." -- Dr. Andrew Weil "An important innovative approach to well-being, one we all should know about." -- Dr. Daniel Goleman

Available in Print
Available in Libby

Happiness is a habit. For some of us, that habit is a natural inclination; for others, it is a learned behavior. The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness combines wisdom from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and spirituality to help you choose contentment. Dr. Amit Sood's actionable ten -- week program has helped tens of thousands of people reduce anxiety and find greater fulfillment in life. Each of the book's four sections is filled with practical insights and easy -- to -- implement exercises. You'll understand why your brain struggles with finding happiness and what real -- world practices can help you to better manage stress and choose peace and contentment instead. Praise for the Stress-Free Living Program: "This book can change your life." -- Dr. Andrew Weil "An important innovative approach to well-being." -- Dr. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

Available in Print

The mental well-being of children and adults is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what we can do. "We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are our children." Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University's Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 years as an emotion scientist, he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults - a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he'd endured. And that was the beginning of Marc's awareness that what he was going through was temporary. He wasn't alone, he wasn't stuck on a timeline, and he wasn't "wrong" to feel scared, isolated, and angry. Now, best of all, he could do something about it. In the decades since, Marc has led large research teams and raised tens of millions of dollars to investigate the roots of emotional well-being. His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers, and schools) is a system called RULER, a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. RULER has been proven to reduce stress and burnout, improve school climate, and enhance academic achievement. This book is the culmination of Marc's development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. It is tested, and it works. This book 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.

Available in Print

Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life. More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients--and Dr. Neff's extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.  

Available in Print.

SMART is an innovative, fun, engaging, and simple approach toward twenty-first-century stress. The program shares with you a set of transformative principles that can help enhance your relationships, make sustained behavior change, improve work experience, enhance health, resilience, and wellbeing, reverse burnout, and find greater happiness. SMART achieves these goals by taking you on a backstage tour of the brain to help you understand some of the brain's automatic mechanisms that generate and multiply stress. In four simple steps, SMART then enables you to take back control of your brain, so you live your days with greater intentionality, courage, hope, and inspiration. In developing SMART, we have synthesized information from tens of thousands of research studies, the experience of hundreds of thousands of patients and learners, and wisdom collected by Dr. Sood in his journey across two continents over three decades. We have tested the resulting approach in over twenty clinical trials. The resulting program has reached over half a million people and adopted by some of the most reputed organizations in the world. SMART is scalable and practical and offers skills that won't crowd your already clogged inbox. In the words of Dr. Sood, "We aren't adding more milk to your already filled cup. We are adding chocolate powder to the milk, so it doesn't increase the volume, but changes the entire flavor!" Dr. Amit Sood is internationally recognized for his work on stress, resilience, mindfulness, happiness, and wellbeing. A Professor of Medicine (Retd.), Dr. Sood serves as the Executive Director of the Global Center for Resiliency and Wellbeing. Resiliencetrainer.com; Resilientoption.com