You don't have to wait for your therapy session to begin.

BODY, TRAUMA & HEALING:

• When the Body Says No — Gabor Maté

  • The book that named what I was living. Maté explores how suppressed emotion and chronic stress manifest as physical illness. Essential reading for anyone navigating chronic pain or illness who has been told it's "all in their head."

• The Myth of Normal — Gabor Maté & Daniel Maté

  • A broader exploration of how our society makes us sick — and what authentic healing actually requires. Deeply humanising.

• The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk

  • The foundational text on trauma and the body. Dense and sometimes clinical, but genuinely important.

• It Didn't Start With You — Mark Wolynn

  • Accessible and moving introduction to inherited family trauma — for anyone who has ever sensed they are carrying something that isn't entirely theirs.

• Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving — Pete Walker

  • Quietly revolutionary. Speaks directly to those who grew up in environments of chronic emotional neglect or unpredictability. One of the most compassionate books I've encountered on the long aftermath of difficult childhoods.

• My Grandmother's Hands — Resmaa Menakem

  • Somatic abolitionism — understanding racial trauma in the body. Particularly important for racialised clients and practitioners. Includes practices, not just theory.

 

SELF, IDENTITY & INNER WORK:

• How to Do the Work — Dr Nicole LePera

  • Accessible, practice-oriented introduction to inner child work, nervous system regulation, and breaking inherited patterns. Written by a psychologist who did her own unravelling publicly — in the spirit of the wounded healer tradition.

• The Mountain Is You — Brianna Wiest

  • On self-sabotage and the parts of us that resist our own growth. Beautifully written, psychologically grounded without being clinical.

• Beyond the Gender Binary — ALOK (Alok Vaid-Menon)

  • A short, compassionate and fiercely lucid primer on gender from one of the most important queer voices of our time. ALOK — South Asian, gender non-conforming writer and performance artist — deconstructs the binary not as an abstract political argument but as a deeply personal act of survival and love. Drawing on their own experience navigating a world that has never quite had a category for them, they invite readers to understand gender as a flexible, creative, culturally shaped story rather than a fixed biological fact. Brief enough to read in a single sitting, and quietly transformative. Accessible for clients at any stage of exploring gender identity, and for practitioners wanting to deepen their understanding of gender-nonconforming and non-binary experience.

• Femme in Public — ALOK (Alok Vaid-Menon)

  • A collection of spoken-word poetry exploring the experience of being visibly femme, gender non-conforming, and South Asian in public space — navigating violence, beauty, shame, and the radical act of refusing to be made smaller. ALOK writes with extraordinary vulnerability and precision. What feminine part of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in this world? — a question that sits at the heart of much therapeutic work, regardless of a client's gender identity.

• Your Wound / My Garden — ALOK (Alok Vaid-Menon)

  • A poetry collection written during COVID-19 lockdown, grappling with grief, suffering, dignity, and what it means to live and die with care in a world that is so often opposed to it. When we don't process the pain, where does it go? asks ALOK — a question that echoes through every therapy room. Tender, political, and alive. On self-sabotage and the parts of us that resist our own growth. Beautifully written, psychologically grounded without being clinical.

• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson

  • One of the most validating books I know for anyone who grew up feeling unseen, managed, or emotionally alone — even in a family that loved them.

• Set Boundaries, Find Peace — Nedra Tawwab

  • Practical, warm, and written by a Black therapist who centres the racialised experience of boundary-setting. Highly accessible.

• Untamed — Glennon Doyle

  • On learning to hear your own voice above the noise of who you were told to be. Not therapy — memoir — but deeply resonant.

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RELATIONSHIPS, ATTACHMENT & CONNECTION:

• Polysecure — Jessica Fern

  • The most rigorous, psychologically grounded book on attachment in the context of ethical non-monogamy. Essential for ENM and polyamorous clients — and genuinely useful for anyone exploring attachment.

• The Ethical Slut — Dossie Easton & Janet Hardy

  • The foundational text for ethical non-monogamy. Warm, practical, and decades ahead of its time. Now updated and in its third edition.

• The Origins of You — Vienna Pharaon

  • Family of origin work made accessible and compelling. Pharaon writes as a practitioner with humanity and precision.

• All About Love — Bell Hooks

  • A philosophical and personal meditation on what love actually is — and why our culture so often mistakes other things for it. Quietly transformative.

• Come As You Are — Emily Nagoski

  • The most evidence-based, shame-free, and genuinely useful book on sexuality and the body I've encountered. Written for women and people with vulvas but relevant far beyond.

• Nonviolent Communication — Marshall Rosenberg

  • A framework for communicating from needs rather than judgements. Particularly useful for clients navigating relational conflict or learning to voice what they actually feel.

• Secure Love — Julie Menanno

  • On building securely attached relationships as an adult, even when your early history didn't provide the template. Practical and compassionate.

• Before You Grow Up: 300 Wisdom Keys for Teens and Adults Who Care About Them — Walé Oladipo

  • Written by Nigerian-British psychotherapist and founder of MindBodyBreakthrough Ltd, this is a warm, practical collection of short wisdom principles for young people navigating identity, purpose, emotional literacy, and character — and for the adults who walk alongside them. Grounded in both psychological insight and lived experience, it is accessible and culturally affirming in a field that rarely centres non-White voices.​

• The Relationship Wisdom Handbook — Walé Oladipo

  • ​A companion volume to Walé's broader body of work, this handbook offers structured, psychoeducation-informed guidance on the building blocks of healthy relationships — communication, boundaries, emotional regulation, and relational maturity. Practical, clear, and written by a practitioner who understands how trauma, culture, and nervous system dysregulation shape how we love and connect.

 

RACIALISED EXPERIENCE, CULTURE & INTERSECTIONALITY:

• Intersections of Privilege and Otherness in Counselling and Psychotherapy — Dr Dwight Turner

  • Essential reading for practitioners and clients navigating the intersection of racialised identity with psychological work. One of the most important UK voices in this space.

• Working Within Diversity — Myira Khan

  • Written by the founder of the Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network. Deeply practical and much needed.

• Decolonising Therapy — Dr Jennifer Mullan

  • On the ways Western therapy has been built on colonial foundations — and what it might mean to practise otherwise.

• So You Want to Talk About Race — Ijeoma Oluo

  • Accessible, direct, and necessary. Useful for clients navigating experiences of racism and for practitioners doing their own work.

• Me and White Supremacy — Layla F. Saad

  • A workbook for examining internalised White supremacy. Challenging and important.

• Rest Is Resistance — Tricia Hersey

  • On reclaiming rest as a radical act, particularly for Black women and people whose survival has been built on overproduction. Deeply relevant to burnout and the exhaustion of high-functioning survival.

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INDIAN WISDOM, MYTHOLOGY & EMBODIED PHILOSOPHY:

• The Arts of Seduction — Seema Anand

  • London-based mythologist and storyteller Seema Anand reclaims ancient Indian wisdom on intimacy, desire, and the erotic as sacred — drawing on the Kama Sutra, Tantra, and oral traditions. A beautiful corrective to colonial distortions of Indian sexuality and spirituality. (See also her YouTube and Instagram — remarkable resources.)

• The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice — Deborah Adele

  • The author you were thinking of — Deborah Adele. This internationally bestselling book is among the first Western texts devoted entirely to the first two limbs of Patanjali's eight-fold path: the yamas (restraints — nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-excess, non-possessiveness) and niyamas (observances — purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, surrender). Adele writes as a storyteller rather than a scholar, weaving philosophy with everyday examples and offering reflective questions at the close of each chapter. For anyone exploring yogic ethics as a living practice rather than a set of rules, this is a warm and practical companion. (Note: Adele also wrote a companion embodied journal — The Yamas & Niyamas Embodied — if a more practice-based follow-on is useful.)

• The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (trans. Sri Swami Satchidananda — recommended edition)

  • The foundational text of classical yoga — 196 aphorisms mapping the nature of the mind, the causes of suffering, and the path toward liberation. The Satchidananda translation is particularly recommended for its clarity and accessibility. For clients and practitioners alike who want to understand the philosophical roots of yogic practice rather than its physical form. Svadhyaya (self-study) and tapas (disciplined practice) — both core to psychotherapeutic work — find their origin here.

• The Bhagavad Gita (trans. Eknath Easwaran — recommended edition)

  • For those drawn to yogic philosophy — this is the foundational text on dharma, the nature of the self, and how to act with integrity amid chaos. Easwaran's translation and commentary makes the text luminously accessible for contemporary readers.

• Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing — Dr Vasant Lad

  • An accessible introduction to Ayurvedic principles — including the mind-body-spirit framework that predates Western psychology by millennia.

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DISABILITY, NEURODIVERGENCE & CHRONIC DISABILITIES:

• Made Possible — ed. Saba Salman

  • A collection of essays by people with learning disabilities, in their own words, on success, contribution, and what society loses by overlooking them. Edited by award-winning British-South Asian journalist Saba Salman, whose sister has a learning disability. A powerful challenge to pity-based narratives.

• Neuroqueer Heresies — Nick Walker

  • Essays on autism, ADHD, and neurodivergence from an explicitly social-model, anti-pathologising perspective. Challenging and liberating.

• Travel into the ADHD Mind: Strategies for Working with ADHD Clients — Nea Clark

  • A practical guide for therapists, counsellors and coaches who want to better recognise ADHD and develop effective treatment plans. The book introduces key ADHD concepts and a step-by-step treatment framework, covering topics such as attention, procrastination, masking, sensory processing and energy management.

• ADHD Coaching: Inside the Process: Strategy Meets Practice — Nea Clark

  • A clear-sighted, practically grounded guide to the coaching process for ADHD clients, offering frameworks, tools and coaching questions that can be used immediately in sessions. Clark explores how ADHD coaching differs meaningfully from general coaching, and provides structured strategies for working with emotional regulation, motivation, masking and time management. Useful for practitioners, coaches, and ADHD clients who want to understand how skilled, neurodivergent-informed support actually works — and why standard approaches so often fall short.

• ADHD Practitioner's Toolkit: Workbook — Nea Clark

  • A practical workbook designed for professionals working with ADHD clients, packed with templates, worksheets and frameworks for use directly in sessions. Particularly valuable for its attention to the distinction between trauma responses and ADHD presentations — a nuance that matters enormously in clinical work, and one that is frequently overlooked. Helps practitioners apply targeted, confident interventions rather than generic strategies. Recommended both for therapists and for ADHD clients who want to understand the kind of structured, differentiated support they deserve.

• The Power of the Vagus Nerve: A Polyvagal-Informed Handbook for Trauma, Anxiety, PTSD & Neurodiversity — Walé Oladipo

  • An accessible, neuroscience-informed guide to understanding the vagus nerve and polyvagal theory — how our nervous system moves between states of safety, mobilisation, and shutdown, and what this means for trauma, anxiety, PTSD, and neurodivergent experience. Walé's writing consistently translates complex science into practical understanding without oversimplifying. Recommended for anyone wanting to understand why their nervous system responds the way it does — and how to begin working with it rather than against it.

• The Essential Guide to Anxiety & Panic Disorder: Transforming Anxiety and Panic — Walé Oladipo

  • A practical, psychoeducation-led guide to understanding and recovering from anxiety and panic — including the neuroscience of the fear response, Walé's F.E.A.R. model, and structured tools for transformation. Grounded in both clinical research and lived understanding, this is one of the most accessible and compassionate resources on anxiety available from a Black British practitioner.

• Treating Anxiety in ADHD: The Essential Guide for Rebalancing the Anxious and Hyperactive Brain — Walé Oladipo

  • A specialist title addressing the intersection of ADHD and anxiety — two conditions that frequently co-occur and are often poorly understood together. Walé draws on neuroscience, polyvagal theory, and practical regulation tools to offer a framework for understanding how the ADHD brain experiences and amplifies anxiety, and how to begin rebalancing it. Rare and valuable, particularly for neurodivergent clients who have felt their anxiety misunderstood or treated in isolation from their ADHD.

• The F.E.A.R. Model: Treating Intrusive Thoughts and the Inner Critical Voice — Walé Oladipo

  • A structured guide to working with intrusive thoughts and the inner critical voice — one of the most common but least understood aspects of anxiety, OCD, and trauma. Walé's F.E.A.R. model offers a clear, compassionate framework for understanding why intrusive thoughts arise, why fighting them makes them worse, and how to begin transforming your relationship with them. Particularly useful for clients who feel shame or alarm about their own thought patterns.

• Healing Complex PTSD: A Recovery Handbook for Complex Trauma Survivors, Helpers & Therapists — Walé Oladipo

  • A comprehensive resource for anyone navigating complex PTSD — whether as a survivor, a supporter, or a practitioner. Walé covers the neurobiology of complex trauma, why standard PTSD treatments often fall short for CPTSD, and what a trauma-informed recovery pathway actually looks like. Described by course attendees as clarifying why physical symptoms and emotional overwhelm occur, and as genuinely compassionate rather than purely clinical. One of the few accessible CPTSD resources written by a Black British psychotherapist.

• OCD, the Brain & Recovery Handbook — Walé Oladipo

  • A demystifying, neuroscience-informed guide to OCD — one of the most misunderstood mental health conditions, frequently dismissed or minimised. Walé covers the brain mechanisms that drive OCD, why willpower alone cannot resolve it, and what genuinely evidence-informed recovery looks like. Useful both for those living with OCD and for practitioners seeking a clear psychoeducation framework to share with clients.

• Addiction, the Brain & Recovery Handbook — Walé Oladipo

  • Addiction understood through a brain-science and trauma-informed lens rather than a moral one. Walé explores how the brain becomes dependent, why standard willpower-based approaches often fail, and what the neuroscience of recovery and relapse actually shows. Particularly resonant for clients who carry shame about addiction — whether their own or someone close to them — and for practitioners working in this space.

• Vicarious Trauma, Burnout & Resilience Handbook — Walé Oladipo

  • Essential reading for helping professionals, carers, and anyone in a role of sustained emotional labour. Walé addresses the often-invisible cost of holding others' pain — including vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout — and offers both neuroscience-grounded explanation and practical resilience tools. Of particular relevance to trainee therapists, those supporting loved ones through illness or crisis, and professionals in care or advocacy roles.

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GRIEF, LOSS & REPRODUCTIVE EXPERIENCE:

• It's OK That You're Not OK — Megan Devine

  • Not exclusively about reproductive loss — but one of the most honest books about grief that exists. Devine, a therapist who lost her partner suddenly, writes against the cultural imperative to recover quickly or find silver linings. She Doesn't try to fix it or move you through stages. It simply stays with you. Invaluable for anyone navigating the particular disenfranchised grief of pregnancy loss, where others often don't know what to say or minimise the loss entirely.

• We're Going to Need More Wine — Gabrielle Union

  • A frank, funny, and deeply moving essay collection by Black American actress Gabrielle Union, which includes her searingly honest account of eight or nine miscarriages, multiple failed IVF cycles, and eventually building her family through surrogacy. One of the most visible and de-stigmatising accounts of recurrent pregnancy loss by a Black woman in public life. A reminder that this experience is not only common — it is survivable, and you are not alone.

• Infertility Doesn't Care About Your Ethnicity — ed. Sheila Lamb & Yemi Adegbile

  • A vital and often-overlooked anthology of stories from Black women, women of colour, and women from diverse ethnic backgrounds navigating infertility, IVF, miscarriage, stillbirth, donor conception, and life without children after infertility. This book was created precisely because the dominant narrative around infertility remains overwhelmingly White — and because so many cultures hold these experiences as taboo, leaving women isolated and without community. An essential resource for racialised clients and practitioners alike.

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BREATH, SOMA & NERVOUS SYSTEM:

• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art — James Nestor

  • A landmark work of science journalism that travels the world to investigate what humanity has lost by forgetting how to breathe. Nestor weaves together ancient pranayama wisdom, Soviet breathing research, pulmonary science, and his own experimental journey to show how the simple act of breathing — how we do it, through which passages, at what rate — has profound consequences for anxiety, chronic illness, sleep, and mental health. A perfect bridge between ancient yogic knowledge and contemporary neuroscience, and deeply resonant alongside somatic therapeutic work.

• Svadhyaya Breath Journal: A Companion Workbook to Restoring Prana — Robin L. Rothenberg

  • A structured, practice-based workbook companion to Rothenberg's foundational text Restoring Prana, designed for yoga therapists, teachers, and practitioners wishing to deepen their understanding of breath as a healing tool. Each chapter guides the reader through breath tracking, reflection, and experiential practice, weaving Ayurvedic and pranayama wisdom with Western physiology. The word svadhyaya — self-study — names both the method and the spirit of this workbook. Particularly useful for practitioners integrating somatic and breathwork approaches into therapeutic settings.

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FOR PRACTITIONERS & THOSE IN THERAPY TRAINING:

• Contemporary Transactional Analysis Through an Intersectional Lens — Victoria Baskerville (Routledge, forthcoming 2025/2026)

  • The foundational intersectional TA text, by the founder of TA East London Institute. Essential for TA-trained practitioners working within a relational, anti-oppressive framework.

• ​Radical-Relational Perspectives in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy: Oppression, Alienation, Reclamation — Karen Minikin

  • An essential and ground-breaking text by Karen Shireen Minikin — a TA psychotherapist and supervisor of dual heritage, Course Director at Iron Mill College, and co-editor of the Transactional Analyst journal. Minikin brings together radical psychiatry and relational TA in a way that has not been done before, taking alienation — from Steiner et al.'s 1975 formulation — and tracing it across the personal, developmental, intergenerational, social, political, and environmental. She offers a rigorous critique of Eurocentrism in traditional relational perspectives and encourages practitioners to move diversity from the margins to the centre. Drawing on her own experience as a woman of dual heritage and dialogues with Black and Asian colleagues, this is both theoretically rich and deeply human. Described by Dr Isha McKenzie-Mavinga as an essential reader on decolonising psychotherapy. For practitioners and students working within an anti-oppressive, intersectional TA framework — this is required reading.

• Relational Transactional Analysis: Principles in Practice — ed. Fowlie & Sills

  • The core relational TA text — grounding the therapeutic relationship as the primary instrument of change.

• Transactional Analysis: A Relational Perspective — Helena Hargaden & Charlotte Sills

  • The text that formally articulated the relational turn in TA. Dense and important.