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KEN REID COUNSELLING

Book Shelf

Book Recommendations

The following books are a selection of what has helped us in our counselling practice in giving us the skills to work with clients and the skills necessary to work on our own journey.

Many of these books combine techniques for self-development, self-esteem building, and inner work.

These resources also explore attachment theory, narcissism, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and a range of therapeutic and psychological frameworks for understanding human behaviour and ourselves.

Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying book purchases.

Relationships

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work - John M. Gottman| Ken Reid Coaching

Provides scientifically proven techniques that are guaranteed to help partners work together and make marriage work.

Attached - Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller | Ken Reid Coaching

Explains attachment theory and helps to decode the mysterious and illogical behaviour of people in dating, why people ghost and why we feel needy to people we barely even know.

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A book for men and women who are anxiously attached in love and have a tendency to overgive and under-receive from people in their life.

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A book about how to use emotionally focused therapy techniques in couple's counselling to connect partners of different attachment styles

A deep dark dive into Neil Strauss' recovery from avoidant attachment and sex addiction.

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How to Love (or Leave) a Dismissive Partner: Explains the distinctive characteristics of avoidant attachment in helping to distinguish dismissive avoidance from fearful avoidance.

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Explains sex/ love addiction and how this plays out with the love addicts and love avoidants.

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From various research papers, helps to better understand the defensive behaviours of avoidant attachers.

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A book explaining fearful avoidant attachment/ disorganised attachment and how to navigate and resolve it.

Trauma and Healing

No Bad Parts - Richard C Schwartz | Ken Reid Coaching

This explains Internal Family Systems (IFS) and how we all have multiple personalities inside of us, none of which are bad. It teaches how to love ourselves and to respect all parts of ourselves.

The Way Out - Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains how neuroplastic pain (chronic pain) is not caused by the body but by the brain and the steps to eliminate chronic pain that reduce bodily stress and teaching the body to feel safe.

How To Do The Work - Dr. Nicole LePera | Ken Reid Coaching

This book is written by the Instagram famous, Holistic Psychologist, Dr. Nicole Le Pera and is about her journey, skills and steps on how she healed herself and how to restore our body from survival mode into feeling safe again.

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Discusses the role of the inner child and how to discover and improve your relationship with your inner child.

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Louise Hay's famous book on how to restore the health to your body by working through suppressed emotions.

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A guide to using visualisation and somatic healing to move suppressed emotions in the body.

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How to heal from codependency and reclaim your emotional independence.

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Discusses the journey a woman takes to overcome her trauma and become more awakened to her true self.

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Discusses how Asian immigrants can heal from trauma whilst also retaining their relationship to their culture of origin and adapting to their newfound home.

Describes how emotional suppression and accumulated stress can cause the body to shut down.

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A book on the impact of trauma and how it impacts a person's behaviour.

Therapy and Mental Health

Anxiety - Dr. Mark Cross | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains the spectrum of anxiety and the struggles with combatting this mental health challenge.

Learned Optimism - Martin E. P. Seligman | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains depression and how learned helplessness can cause rumination and victimhood that makes us feel as though we’re never going to feel good about ourselves. It talks about how learned optimism leads us out of depression and makes us feel better about ourselves.

Your Mental Mess - Dr. Caroline Leaf | Ken Reid Coaching

This book is one of my favourites for explaining the technique of metacognition and curing any thought that is causing us pain, frustration, anxiety or depression. It’s a must read for emotional and mental regulation.

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Steps for clinicians on how to work with

avoidant clients.

Discusses ways to communicate and navigate boundaries and relate to a person who has BPD.

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Use of dialectical behavioural therapy to treat individuals with bipolar disorder.

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Describes how emotional incest and family enmeshment can deeply impact a child's attachment style and how to heal from it.

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How to recognise if your parent is emotionally immature and what to do about it.

Narcissism

See What You Made Me Do - Jess Hill | Ken Reid Coaching

This book is about the pathology of sociopaths, narcissists and the victims of domestic abuse, why they stay and why people abuse their partners.

The Narcissist In Your Life - Julie L. Hall | Ken Reid Coaching

This book helps to explain the patterns of behaviour of narcissists and explores the kinds of people in your life that exhibit these disagreeable patterns and how to protect yourself.

Dont You Know Who I Am? - Ramani S. Durvasula | Ken Reid Coaching

This book talks about how to survive in a narcissistic world and how to be aware of the incivility of narcissistic people to better protect your peace of mind.

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A discussion of narcissistic mothers, how to manage the relationship and how to heal.

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A breakdown of covert narcissism and how it differs from grandiose narcissism.

Self and Personal Development

Profit First - Mike Michalowicz | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains easy-to-implement systems for saving and making money work for you. Whilst this is written for entrepreneurs it’s also able to be implemented by anyone.

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz | Ken Reid Coaching

This easy-to-read book is about how to be mindful of the words we choose to accept from others and ourselves and how to keep our promises to ourselves.

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind - Vishen Lakhiani | Ken Reid Coaching

This is one of my most used books for self-development. This book explains how to lead your life and to create something you want for yourself.

The Buddha And The Badass - Vishen Lakhiani | Ken Reid Coaching

The follow-up to The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, Lahkiani’s sequel is about how to create a business using spiritual and marketing strategies to truly create a lasting impact in people’s lives.

Life Leverage - Rob Moore | Ken Reid Coaching

This book is all about how to outsource parts of your life that are outside your zone of genius to save time and focus your energy on what you love.

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey | Ken Reid Coaching

This legendary book by Stephen Covey is about how to build habits that lead to self-responsibility and to focus on the things that truly matter in life.

The 4 Hour Workweek - Timothy Ferriss | Ken Reid Coaching

This famous book explores the possibility of how to create a business that exists outside of the 9-5 and to live a life free from the mundane.

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill | Ken Reid Coaching

The bible of entrepreneurs; this book explains the psychology of how to have an abundant mindset and to find opportunities to make money and by being a specialist in your field.

Grit - Angela Duckworth | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explores the psychology of gritty people who combine their passion, determination and love for what they do to succeed in the things they are drawn to.

Six Pillars of Self-Esteem - Nathaniel Branden | Ken Reid Coaching

One of my most used books, explores how to take charge of your life, raise your self-esteem and lead with integrity.

This famous book by James Clear talks about how habits are formed, created and implemented and the ways you can make habits work for you rather than suffering from procrastination.

The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind - Dr. Joseph Murphy | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explores how your subconscious mind works for and against you based on the information you feed it and how you can change your life by using it to support you.

How To Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie | Ken Reid Coaching

This legendary book explains the ways people operate, how to communicate better and how to give before you receive so you always act out of integrity in your relations with others and network more authentically.

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A guide through Victor Frankl's time in Auschwitz and how he understood the meaning of life.

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How to build a relationship with yourself to improve your self-esteem.

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A deep dive in understanding the road blocks in life and how they lead us to find our true north.

Spirituality

One Love is Real - Brian Weiss | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explores twin flames, soul mates and how we can meet souls from past lifetimes that come to enhance our experiences in our current lifetime.

A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle | Ken Reid Coaching

Eckhart Tolle’s famous book is not only a wonderful guide into understanding ego-death but also the power of mindfulness. This book changed my life and set me on a path to personal freedom and abundance.

You're Not Going Crazy... You're Just Waking Up! - Michael Mirdad | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains how the dark night of the soul, or our rock bottoms, are the start of our spiritual journey that can spark a spiritual awakening that can forever alter and improve our lives.

Gay Books

The Velvet Rage - Alan Downs | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explores the stages gay men go through in their life and how they can go from feeling closeted, internalised homophobia and loneliness to reaching a place of inner peace.

Straight Jacket - Matthew Todd | Ken Reid Coaching

This book explains the harm gay men have face from prejudices, homophobia, bullying and how this contributes to self harm, addictions and codependency and the ways to end these self-destructive patterns of behaviour.

This easy to read book is made for gay men who want to better appreciate the things that are necessary for getting into partnership and how to make it work.

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