‘Bodies’ – Susie Orbach

In the past decades, the pressure to perfect and design our bodies has been unprecedented. Men are encouraged to surgically pump up their pecs, breast enhancement is a sweet sixteen birthday present in the suburbs of America, and eating problems – from bulimia to obesity – are growing daily, affecting children as young as six. In China, women are having their legs broken and extended by 5cms. In Iran, behind the Hijab there are 35,000 cosmetic nose reconstructions a year. The body is no longer a given and to possess a flawless one has become the ambition of millions.

In her years of practice as a psychoanalyst, Susie Orbach has come to realise that the way we view our bodies is the mirror of how we view ourselves: our body becomes the measure of our worth. In this book, she raises the fundamental questions about how we arrived here and proposes a new theory on how we became embodied.

‘Hunger strike’ – Susie Orbach

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist arid writer. With Luise Eichenbaum she co- founded The Women’s Therapy Centre in London in 1976 and in 1981 The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute in New York. She lectures extensively in Europe and North America, is a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, and has a practice seeing individuals and couples and consulting to organizations. She is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines, as well as to radio and television programmes. Her other books on eating problems are Fat is a Feminist Issue (1978), Fat is a Feminist Issue II (1982) and On Eating (2002). With Luise Eichenbaum she has written Understanding Women: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Account (1982), What do Women Want (1983) and Between Women (1988). She is also the author of What’s Really Going on Here (1993), Towards Emotional Literacy (1999) and The Impossibility of Sex (1999)

‘Binge Eating Disorder, the journey to recovery and beyond’- Amy Pershing

Binge Eating Disorder, written by a clinician and an advocate who have personally struggled with Binge Eating Disorder (BED), illuminates the experience of BED from the patient perspective while also exploring the disorder’s etiological roots and addressing the components of treatment that are necessary for long-term recovery. Accessible for both treatment providers and patients alike, this unique volume aims to explore BED treatment and recovery from both sides of the process while also providing a resource for structuring treatment and building effective interventions. This practical roadmap to understanding, resilience, and lasting change will be useful for anyone working clinically with or close to individuals suffering from BED, as well as those on the recovery journey.

‘Overcoming Binge Eating’ – Dr Christopher G. Fairburn

This trusted bestseller provides all the information needed to understand binge eating and bring it under control, whether you are working with a therapist or on your own. Clear, step-by-step guidelines show you how to:
*Overcome the urge to binge.
*Gain control over what and when you eat.
*Break free of strict dieting and other habits that may contribute to binges.
*Establish stable, healthy eating patterns.
*Improve your body image and reduce the risk of relapse.

This fully updated second edition incorporates important advances in the understanding and treatment of eating disorders. It features expanded coverage of body image issues and enhanced strategies for achieving–and maintaining–a transformed relationship with food and your body.

‘The body is not an apology’ – Sonya Renee Taylor

Humans are a varied and divergent bunch with all manner of beliefs, morals, and bodies. Systems of oppression thrive off our inability to make peace with difference and injure the relationship we have with our own bodies. The Body Is Not an Apology offers radical self-love as the balm to heal the wounds inflicted by these violent systems. World-renowned activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength. As we awaken to our own indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies. When we act from this truth on a global scale, we usher in the transformative opportunity of radical self-love, which is the opportunity for a more just, equitable, and compassionate world–for us all.

‘Intuitive Eating, a revolutionary anti-diet approach’ – Evelyn Tribole

Since it was first published in 1995, Intuitive Eating has become the go-to book on rebuilding a healthy body image and making peace with food. It shows us that the problem is not us; it's that dieting, with its emphasis on rules and regulations, has stopped us from listening to our bodies. Written by Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., and Elyse Resch – two prominent nutritionists who are the originators of this movement – Intuitive Eating: 4th Edition will teach you: • How to reject diet mentality forever

• How to find satisfaction in your eating

• How to feel your feelings with kindess

• How to honor hunger and feel fullness

• How to follow the ten principles of Intuitive Eating

•How to achieve a new and safe relationship with food and, ultimately, your body

•How to raise an intuitive eater.

‘Body kindness’- Rebecca Scritchfield

This is not a diet book – there are no menu plans or fitness routines here! Body Kindness addresses overall health (with a focus on both food and movement throughout) in four sections: What you do: the choices you make about food and nutrition, including mindful eating and eating with joy how you feel: your emotions, and how to change the voice in your head who you are: identifying your values and choices where you belong: finding your community each section includes inspiration as well as fun, scientifically based activities and exercises that focus on incremental, sustainable change. The exercises lead the emotions to spiral up; giving the reader insight and j rewards for positive change. The author makes a revolutionary yet scientifically proven declaration: You can lose weight only if you stop having weight loss as your goal. When you make choices about your health that are in line with your values, the result is a healthier body that you love. The goal of the book: to resolve the conflict where health and happiness diverge and help reconnect the two.

‘The body keeps the score’ – Bessel Van Der Kolk

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.

‘When the body says no’ – Gabor Mate

Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there such a thing as a cancer personality? Drawing on scientific research and the author’s decades of experience as a practicing physician, this book provides answers to these and other important questions about the effect of the mind-body link on illness and health and the role that stress and ones individual emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases. This book explores the role of the mind-body link in conditions and diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, IBS, and multiple sclerosis. Draws on medical research and the author’s clinical experience as a family physician. Includes The Seven A’s of Healing-principles of healing and the prevention of illness from hidden stress. Shares dozens of enlightening case studies and stories, including those of people such as Lou Gehrig (ALS), Betty Ford (breast cancer), Ronald Reagan (Alzheimers), Gilda Radner (ovarian cancer), and Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer). An international bestseller translated into fifteen languages, When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing, providing transformative insights into how disease can be the body;s way of saying no to what the mind cannot or will not acknowledge.

‘Sick enough’ – Dr Jennifer Gaudiani

Patients with eating disorders frequently feel that they aren’t sick enough to merit treatment, despite medical problems that are both measurable and unmeasurable. They may struggle to accept rest, nutrition, and a team to help them move towards recovery. Sick Enough offers patients, their families, and clinicians a comprehensive, accessible review of the medical issues that arise from eating disorders by bringing relatable case presentations and a scientifically sound, engaging style to the topic. Using metaphor and patient-centered language, Dr. Gaudiani aims to improve medical diagnosis and treatment, motivate recovery, and validate the lived experiences of individuals of all body shapes and sizes, while firmly rejecting dieting culture.

‘The polyvagal theory’ – Deb Dana

Polyvagal Theory offers a neurophysiological framework to consider the reasons why people act in the ways they do. Through a polyvagal lens, we understand that actions are automatic and adaptive, generated by the autonomic nervous system well below the level of conscious awareness. This is not the brain making a cognitive choice, these are autonomic energies moving in patterns of protection and with this new awareness, the door opens to compassion. Out of Stephen Porges’s brilliant work developing Polyvagal Theory continued by amazing people like Deb Dana, a worldwide community of Polyvagal-informed people and systems is developing as we better understand the power of the autonomic nervous system to guide our movements and shape our stories.

‘The power of vulnerability’- Brene Brown

Is vulnerability the same as weakness? “In our culture,” teaches Dr. Brené Brown, “we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” On The Power of Vulnerability, Dr. Brown offers an invitation and a promise – that when we dare to drop the armor that protects us from feeling vulnerable, we open ourselves to the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Here she dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and reveals that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Cultivating shame resilience—the key to developing a sense of worth and belonging. Vulnerability as the origin point for innovation, adaptability, accountability, and visionary leadership. Our emotional armory – how we use perfectionism, numbing, and other tactics to
avoid feeling vulnerable. The myths of vulnerability – common misconceptions about weakness, trust, and self-sufficiency. Discovering your vulnerability armor – recognizing what makes us shut down, and how we can change. The 10 guideposts of wholehearted living – essential skills for becoming fully engaged in life.

‘The happiness trap’- Russ Harris

Build a more satisfying and meaningful life with this best-selling guide to freeing yourself from depression, anxiety, and insecurity through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Are you, like millions of Americans, caught in the happiness trap? Russ Harris explains that the way most of us go about trying to find happiness ends up making us miserable, driving the epidemics of stress, anxiety, and depression. This empowering book presents the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) a revolutionary new psychotherapy based on cutting-edge research in behavioral psychology. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life.

The techniques presented in The Happiness Trap will help readers to:
• Reduce stress and worry
• Handle painful feelings and thoughts more effectively
• Break self-defeating habits
• Overcome insecurity and self-doubt
• Create a rich, full, and meaningful life

‘Radical compassion’- Tara Brach

One of the most beloved and trusted mindfulness teachers in America offers a lifeline for difficult times: the RAIN meditation, which awakens our courage and heart Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever- increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties–stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical book, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Each step in the meditation practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) is brought to life by memorable stories shared by Tara and her students as they deal with feelings of overwhelm, loss, and self-aversion, with painful relationships, and past trauma–and as they discover step-by-step the sources of love, forgiveness, compassion, and deep wisdom alive within all of us.

‘The 8 keys to recovery from an Eating Disorder’- Caroline Costin

This is no ordinary book on how to overcome an eating disorder. The authors bravely share their unique stories of suffering from and eventually overcoming their own severe eating disorders. Interweaving personal narrative with the perspective of their own therapist-client relationship, their insights bring an unparalleled depth of awareness into just what it takes to successfully beat this challenging and seemingly
intractable clinical issue. For anyone who has suffered, their family and friends, and other helping professionals, this book should be by your side. With great compassion and clinical expertise, Costin and Grabb walk readers through the ins and outs of the recovery process, describing what therapy entails, clarifying the common associated emotions such as fear, guilt, and shame, and, most of all, providing motivation to seek help if
you have been discouraged, resistant, or afraid. The authors bring self-disclosure to a level not yet seen in an eating disorder book and offer hope to readers that full recovery is possible

‘Rehabilitate, Rewire, Recover!’ – Tabitha Farrar

Anorexia recovery for the determined adult. Rehabilitate, Rewire, Recover! focuses on:
– Nutritional rehabilitation to heal the body.
– Neural rewiring to shift neural pathways of restriction, exercise compulsions, and anorexia-generated thoughts and behaviours in the brain.
Using experience from her own recovery, and accounts from adults whom she has worked with as a recovery coach, Tabitha Farrar takes you through the process of building your own, personalised, recovery.

As well as non-traditional ideas and concepts, this book delivers a "Toolkit" to help with the neural rewiring process, and action-based ideas to help you eat without restriction.

‘Life hurts’ – Dr Elizabeth Mc Naught

She’s not going anywhere. Her heart is struggling. She’s not stable enough to move.”Lizzie couldn’t believe it. She had just gone to the hospital for a quick check- up and now they told her she could die. The doctors had diagnosed Anorexia and that she must regain weight. Her life closed in around her, but all she wanted was to avoid food.Anyone who lives with an eating disorder fights their own thoughts, their own anxieties, their own self, every second of every minute of every day. For Lizzie this was her reality from the age of 14. However through professional help, the support of her loving family and her faith, she somehow found the hope and strength to overcome. Life Hurts tells Lizzie’s story, reflecting on it from her perspective as a doctor. Her vision is to inspire and encourage other to see that, although eating disorders can be devastating, there is hope for all of us.

‘Emotional resilience’ – Dr Harry Barry

There are many challenges facing our mental health. We are living in the middle of an anxiety epidemic, depression is one of the most significant mental health issues of our time, self-harm is endemic amongst school children and technology and social media are insidiously and pervasively invading our lives leading to toxic stress. In this book, bestselling author and GP Dr Harry Barry reveals how you can unlock your inner emotional resilience reserves, deal with the challenges of life, and protect your mental health. He explores the key skills needed to transform your emotional capacity and reach your full potential.He covers:

Personal skills teaching you how to deal with self-acceptance, perfectionism, frustration, failure and success, the physical symptoms of anxiety, procrastination, problem solving and catastrophising.

Social skills such as how to develop and practice empathy, read social cues and how to deal with anxiety in social and performance situations.

Life skills such as how to deal with the unfairness and discomfort of life, pragmatism and conflict resolution, how to develop a work/life balance and what to do when stress comes calling.

‘Nurturing resilience’ – Kathy L. Kain

Kathy L. Kain and Stephen J. Terrell draw on fifty years of their combined clinical and teaching experience to provide this clear road map for understanding the complexities of early trauma and its related symptoms. Experts in the physiology of trauma, the authors present an introduction to their innovative somatic approach that has evolved to help thousands improve their lives. Synthesizing across disciplines–Attachment, Polyvagal, Neuroscience, Child Development Theory, Trauma, and Somatics–this book provides a new lens through which to understand safety and regulation. It includes the survey used in the groundbreaking ACE Study, which discovered a clear connection between early childhood trauma and chronic health problems. For therapists working with both adults and children and anyone dealing with symptoms that typically arise from early childhood trauma–anxiety, behavioral issues, depression, metabolic disorders, migraine, sleep problems, and more–this book offers fresh hope.