Book List

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I am a great reader and this page contains books that I have found useful for myself and that I recommend to my clients, colleagues and friends. I have chosen books that have helped me in business and that have helped my own personal development.

“Self-Help” Books

I don’t necessarily like the term “self-help” books but it is the best way to describe this group and I tend to be critical about what I recommend!

“The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene Brown; I have been completely bowled over by this book. The author is a “shame” researcher and in doing that found herself face to face with her own shame/ vulnerability. She discovers the importance of accepting that part of ourselves and provides us with a guide to lead a more wholehearted life.

“The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron; A guide to this well-developed way to discover our creativity, something we all have but many of us don’t know where to look.

“Taming Your Gremlin” by Rick Carson; in the coaching model I use I talk about the saboteur, the voice in our heads that prevent us having the life we want and making the choices we really desire. Rick Carson’s gremlin is the same concept and in this book he describes his method for taming it.

“The Dark Side of the Light Chasers” by Debbie Ford; this book reminds us of our dark side, the bit of us we don’t like and helps us to get to know it better. She even shows how it can help us!

Learning more about Gender Differences and Femininity

“The Essence of Womanhood” by Susie Heath; I love this book because it is clearly saying how important it is for us women to re-engage with our feminine side, the damage we are doing to ourselves by denying it and there are some amazing exercises to help us get back in touch with our femininity.

“Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps” by Allan & Barbara Pease; what I love about this book is that it’s funny and easy to read but it is based on the research evidence that men and women have evolved differently emotionally and physically.

Mindfulness

“Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn; this book enables the reader to adopt mindfulness techniques to manage stress and a wide range of other physical and mental symptoms. His programme has been used in the states with great success.

“The Mindful Way through Depression” by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn; this book is another mindfulness guide helping the reader to use the techniques to gain a sense of hope and to start to feel well again.

“Wherever you go, there you are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn is an introduction to mindfulness, which simplifies the idea of meditation and describes the importance of being fully present in the moment. It also provides us with very simple techniques.

Law of Attraction

“How to Become a Money Magnet” by Marie-Claire Carlyle; A book that helps us think through our attitudes and blocks about money which can prevent us having the wealth we want and deserve and a way to attract more money into our lives.

“The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne; a well-known book about the law of attraction. Worth a read, but, in my view, not all of it to be taken too literally.

Spirituality

“The Garden of The Soul” by Lynn Serrafin; describes Lynn’s journey to understanding spirituality. She writes beautifully and really helped me make sense of the idea of spirituality and the soul.

“Reflections on Spirituality and Health” by Stephen Wright; this book is probably more aimed at health professionals challenging them to take heed of the spiritual needs of patients but also to consider their own. He looks at the idea of burn out and sees it as a spiritual crisis.

Books about Coaching

“Quantum Skills for Coaches” by by Annette Simmons; this contains great ideas for coaches based on ideas from quantum physics ie everything we think and do contributes to the “energy soup” that our world is made up of.

“Coaching with the Brain in Mind” by David Rock and Linda Page; if you’re interested in the impact of coaching on the brain this book is fantastic but contains so much more information. I think it’s a book every coach should have and gives us an evidence base for what we do.

“Introducing NLP” by Joseph O’Connor & John Seymour; again what it says on the tin, this is an introduction to the applied psychology of NLP.

“Co-Active Coaching” by Laura Whitworth, Karen Kimsey-House, Henry Kimsey-House & Phillip Sandahl; the “textbook” for the co-active coaching model in which I was trained. It was reading this book that sold coaching to me and one to which I return again and again.

Theoretical but Interesting

“A Primer of Adlerian Psychology” by Harold Mosak and Michael Maniacci; basically it’s what it says on the tin, an introduction to Adler’s psychological ideas and theories

“The Heartmath Solution” by Doc Childre and Howard Martin; this book describes groundbreaking research into heart intelligence and the amazing difference using it can make to our lives particularly in terms of stress reduction.

“The Wise Fool’s Guide to leadership” by Peter Hawkins; a collection of humorous stories designed to help us look at aspects of leadership in a more creative way. I particularly like the one about failure, very thought provoking!

Positive Psychology

“Positivity” by Barbara Frederickson; this is another great find and gives us the science behind the importance of positive thinking in our lives and provides us with ideas of how we can choose to have more positivity.

“Authentic Happiness” by Martin Seligman; this book is a must for anyone who wants to fund out more about the science of positive psychology and what we need to do to fund real happiness, what I would probably call fulfilment.

Clicking on to the title will take you through to the Amazon website where you can find out more about the book and buy it if you wish.