Psychology

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments--from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga--that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal--and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

You are stronger than your anxiety! In this important workbook, best-selling authors Matthew McKay, Patrick Fanning, and Michelle Skeen offer a breakthrough anxiety solution based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you understand and overcome your fears and worries, rather than try to avoid them.

If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, you may try to avoid situations that cause you to feel worry, fear, or panic. You may even believe that terrible things will happen to you if you face the things that make you anxious. But avoidance isn't a long-term solution, and in the end it may result in more anxiety. This book shows you how the simple belief that you can endure your worries and fears--both mentally and physically--can be an extremely powerful treatment.

Using a breakthrough approach combining proven-effective CBT and exposure therapy, this workbook helps you understand how worry and rumination drive anxiety, and offers practical exercises to help you adopt new habits of observing your thoughts, rather than accepting them as the "ultimate truth." You'll also develop mindfulness and self-soothing coping skills to help you manage anxiety in the moment, rather than avoid it. Over time these practices will show you that you are more powerful than your anxiety.

If you've been stuck in a cycle of anxiety and avoidance, this workbook will help you make the changes you need to get your life back.

This book has been selected as an Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Book Recommendation--an honor bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."--Theodore Roosevelt

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown PhD, LMSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity. She writes: "When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives."

Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It's about courage. In a world where "never enough" dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It's even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there's a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena--whether it's a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for letting ourselves be seen.

There is a particular kind of insanity running rampant in the world that compels most women to stuff down, ignore, or hide parts of ourselves in order to be acceptable, attractive, or taken seriously.

Which doesn't work. It actually ensures we remain unfulfilled, miserable, and at war with ourselves--and that is a war no woman can win.

So now comes the good news: There is a path to help you become the woman you are aching to become.

This path is unruly, messy, a wee bit naughty, and audaciously asks you trust the very parts of you that you previously warred against. While this path has no script, map, or blueprint, you'll learn to use your sensuous, desirous, wildly feeling female body as a steadfast and trustworthy compass.

This is the path of Feminine Genius.

To get you started, you'll have the best of guides: women's life coach LiYana Silver. "One of the most enduringly inspiring things in my life," says LiYana, "is to watch a woman slip the Gordian knot of self-loathing, people-pleasing, and over-achieving and become simply and fully herself."

Partly an irreverently reverent feminist treatise and partly a non-denominational devotional hymnal to the Sacred Feminine, Feminine Genius just might change forever what you know about your body, soul, sexuality, intuition, and power. In these pages, LiYana invites you to:

Go deep and reconnect with the powerful parts of yourself you've hidden away
- Meet your innate genius: the wild, creative, and infallible wisdom of your body
- Brighten your everyday with hands-on practices
- Tap into your inner knowing so you can stop second-guessing yourself and get clear about your next steps
- Learn how to embrace your sexuality, emotions, desires, and cycles so you can achieve enormous effectiveness and fulfillment in life
- Navigate your "dark" and work with painful, difficult experiences in healthy ways
- Learn how you overuse your "masculine" strengths to the point of personal, cultural, and global breakdown
- Discover why your "feminine" isn't weak, but is one of the strongest and most trustworthy parts of you
- Explore the history, physics, and biology of a universe built for harmony between "masculine" and "feminine"
- Look in the mirror and see the face of the Goddess gazing back at you
If you found a dusty bottle on a shelf of your cellar, there would be only one way to know if it contained an all-knowing genie with the power to actualize your deepest desires: open, and look inside.

Feminine Genius is a provocative wake-up call, nudging you to uncork that fabulous flask and find out just how much magic you've been hiding. Because you do have a genie in your bottle--and genius in your body.

Are you ready to open, and look inside?