Bookshelf: S > Z
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Grief Works
By Julia Samuel
A British grief psychotherapist’s collection of case studies from twenty-five years of clinical practice, showing what grief actually looks like rather than how it’s expected to.
Recommended on: Grief that comes in waves
The Cancer Whisperer
By Sophie Sabbage
A British writer’s candid account of receiving a late-stage cancer diagnosis at 48, written with unusual honesty about fear, anger and grief rather than forced positivity.
Recommended on: A serious diagnosis
Musicophilia
By Oliver Sacks
Accessible, story-driven, and full of genuinely strange cases of music and the brain, from the beloved neurologist and writer.
Recommended on: Music
Goodbye, Things
By Fumio Sasaki
Less a method than a quiet, personal account of one ordinary person’s route to minimalism.
Recommended on: Decluttering & simplicity
Guided Imagery for Groups
By Andrew E. Schwartz
Fifty ready-to-use visualisation scripts covering relaxation, problem-solving, creativity and wellbeing, drawn from decades of use in therapeutic and group settings.
Recommended on: Safe place visualisation
The Paradox of Choice
By Barry Schwartz
A psychologist’s case, backed by research, that beyond a certain point more options make people less satisfied and less able to choose at all.
Recommended on: Decision paralysis
No Bad Parts
By Richard Schwartz
The clearest account of Internal Family Systems from the psychologist who developed it – the origin of the approach, in the founder’s own words.
Recommended on: Working with your parts
Getting Past Your Past
By Francine Shapiro
An accessible account of EMDR from the therapy’s own founder, including the safe-place work described above – the origin of the technique, from the person who developed it.
Recommended on: Safe place visualisation
Trick or Treatment
By Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst
A rigorous, fair-minded look at what does and doesn’t hold up across alternative medicine broadly, from a science writer and the world’s first professor of complementary medicine.
Recommended on: Alternative therapies
Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice
By Mark Singleton
A scholarly history tracing how today’s posture-led yoga took shape in the 20th century, drawing on gymnastics and physical culture alongside older traditions.
Recommended on: Yoga
Winter Swimming
By Susanna Søberg
From a metabolic scientist who has led some of the field’s most cited studies on cold and heat exposure.
Recommended on: Cold exposure
Talking the Tough Stuff with Teens
By Fiona Spargo-Mabbs
A practical guide to difficult conversations with teenagers – mental health, risk-taking, and substances – from the UK charity founder who started this work after her own son’s death.
Recommended on: Supporting a child or teenager
The Well-Gardened Mind
By Sue Stuart-Smith
A psychiatrist’s deeper, more personal exploration of why gardening helps – drawing on literature, psychology and her own patients’ stories.
Recommended on: Gardening & tending
Searching for Normal
By Sami Timimi
A child psychiatrist’s fuller case against overdiagnosis, looking at the cultural and economic forces behind the current surge in psychiatric labels.
Recommended on: The age of de-diagnosis
Deep Medicine
By Eric Topol
A physician’s case for AI restoring human connection in healthcare rather than replacing it, covering mental health among other areas.
Recommended on: AI-guided therapy
Alone Together
By Sherry Turkle
The foundational, still-relevant account of how sociable technology reshapes human relationships, from an MIT researcher.
Recommended on: AI companions
Why Losing Your Job Could Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You
By Eleanor Tweddell
A structured five-step plan that treats the emotional fallout of redundancy – anger, guilt, shame – as seriously as the practical next steps, rather than rushing past one to get to the other.
Recommended on: Redundancy and job loss
The Body Keeps the Score
By Bessel van der Kolk
The definitive account of why body-based techniques like this one matter – the clinical thinking behind the tool, from one of trauma therapy’s leading figures.
Recommended on: Grounding techniques
Suggestible You
By Erik Vance
An accessible, engaging tour through the science of the placebo effect and the mind’s ability to shape the body.
Recommended on: The placebo effect
The Good Life
By Robert Waldinger & Marc Schulz
Draws on the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the world’s longest-running study of what actually makes a life go well.
Recommended on: Close relationships
The Invisible Woman
By Helen Walmsley-Johnson
A former Guardian columnist’s funny, frank account of reaching midlife and being treated as though she’d quietly disappeared – and her refusal to go along with it.
Recommended on: The body changing with age
Why We Sleep
By Matthew Walker
The book most responsible for the current wave of public interest in sleep science – ambitious and wide-ranging, though some of its more striking claims have been disputed since.
Recommended on: Sleep & rest
Recovering from Redundancy: A Guide to Surviving a Layoff
By Adrian Warner
Writes candidly about the emotional side of job loss from a male author’s perspective, alongside genuinely practical guidance drawn from having gone through redundancy twice himself.
Recommended on: Redundancy and job loss
Money: A User’s Guide
By Laura Whateley
A clear, practical guide to personal finance written by a British journalist, aimed at the everyday anxieties around money rather than investment theory.
Recommended on: Financial insecurity
The PTSD Workbook
By Mary Beth Williams & Soili Poijula
A practical, accessible guide that includes imagery-based techniques for trauma and nightmares within its wider toolkit – exercise-based rather than theoretical.
Recommended on: Imagery rescripting
The Nature Fix
By Florence Williams
An engaging, well-researched tour through the science of nature and the mind – attention restoration theory and shinrin-yoku both covered in full.
Recommended on: Walking in nature
Tender
By Penny Wincer
A memoir and practical guide on the imperfect, ongoing work of caring for someone else, from a UK writer drawing on her own experience.
Recommended on: When someone refuses help
Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety
By Sally M. Winston and Martin N. Seif
A CBT guide focused specifically on catastrophic thinking, chronic indecisiveness and avoidance – the wider family this pattern belongs to.
Recommended on: Catastrophising
The Sleep Solution
By W. Chris Winter
Practical, unhurried advice from a practising sleep doctor – gentle conditions rather than effort, in the same spirit as this page.
Recommended on: Sleep & rest
Therapy 101
By Jeffrey C. Wood & Minnie Wood
A plain-English walk through the different kinds of therapy and mental health professionals, written for general readers rather than clinicians.
Recommended on: Understanding therapy options
The Nightmare and Sleep Disorder Toolkit
By Courtney Worley, Michael Nadorff & Brigitte Holzinger
A current, evidence-based workbook built specifically around imagery rehearsal therapy, from a board-certified sleep psychologist and co-authors.
Recommended on: Imagery rescripting
Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
By Dimitris Xygalatas
An anthropologist’s accessible tour through why seemingly senseless acts matter so much to us, drawing on research across cultures.
Recommended on: Personal rituals
Staring at the Sun
By Irvin Yalom
A psychiatrist’s compassionate, direct engagement with the fear of death, and how facing it can loosen its grip.
Recommended on: Facing death
Reinventing Your Life
By Jeffrey Young
Schema therapy explained for a general reader, by the psychologist who developed it – the origin of the approach, in plain language.
Recommended on: Positive data logs
The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women
By Valerie Young
A foundational, research-based account of imposter syndrome, identifying distinct “competence types” that explain why the feeling shows up differently from person to person.
Recommended on: Imposter syndrome