Mindfulness MP3 Collection
Imported from Live Mindfully, here’s a collection of links to mindfulness MP3s from around the web. Something for every occasion–thinking, breathing, sitting, hearing, worrying, exercising… Try ’em out.
- ACT: Acceptance of Anxiety
- ACT: Acceptance of Thoughts
- ACT: Watching Thoughts Go By
- ACT: Leaves on the Stream
- RMIT: Mindfulness of Thinking
- IHP: Mindful Breathing
- IHP: Mindful Breathing II
- MARC: 5 min Breathing
- MMC: Breath Awareness
- RMIT: Mindful Breathing
- MMC: Mindfulness Exercise
- MMC: 4 min Body Scan
- MMC: 16 min Body Scan
- MARC: 3 min Body and Sound
- UCSD: 20 Min Body Scan
- IHP: Sitting Meditation
- MMC: 15 min Breathing
- RMIT: Sitting Meditation
- UCSD: 20 Min Sitting Mdtn
- IHP: 20 Min Meditation Timer
- MARC: 17 min Metta
- UCSD: 15 Min Loving kindness
- MARC: 12 min with Metta
- MARC: 3 min Metta
- UCSD: 10 Min Wisdom Mdtn
- RMIT: Mindful Eating
- RMIT: Walking Meditation
Therapists’ Favorite Therapy Books
A still-growing list from Where the Client Is collects therapy books recommended by therapists in two categories–for therapists and for everyone. Here are both:
For Therapists
- Shouldn’t I Be Feeling Better Now? Yvonne Bates
- Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond, Judith Beck
- A CBT Practitioners Guide to ACT, Joseph Ciarrochi & Ann Bailey
- Resolving Sexual Abuse, Yvonne Dolan
- Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, Albert Ellis
- The Transforming Power of Affect, Diana Fosha
- Consuming Psychotherapy, Ann France
- Reality Therapy, William Glasser
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change, Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson
- Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erikson, MD, Jay Haley
- Direct Social Work Practice, Hepworth…
- Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence, Judith Herman
- Play Therapy – The Art of the Relationship, Garry Landreth
- Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder, Marsha Linehan
- Where to Start, What to Ask, Susan Lucas
- Psychoanalytic Case Formulation, Nancy McWilliams
- Motivational Interviewing, William Miller and Stephen Rollnick
- Listening with the Third Ear, Theodor Reik
- Don’t Lose Your Patients, Herbert Strean
- The Gift of Therapy, Irvin Yalom
- Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Irvin Yalom
For Everyone
- The Good Divorce, Constance Ahrons
- Dibs in Search of Self, Virginia Axline
- Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach
- Feeling Good, David Burns
- The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, Davis, Eshelman, McKay, and Fanning
- The Complete Single Mother, Andrea Engber & Leah Klungness
- The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety, John Forsyth and Georg Eifert
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
- Trapped in the Mirror, Elan Golomb
- The Seven Principles of Making a Marriage Work, John Gottman
- Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, Hayes
- Getting the Love You Want, Harville Hendrix
- Hold Me Tight, Sue Johnson
- Wherever You Go, There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn
- If You Meet Buddha on the Road, Kill Him, Sheldon Kopp
- The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck
- On Death and Dying, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
- The Dance of Anger, Harriet Lerner
- Today I Will Do One Thing, Tim Mc
- The Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller
- For Your Own Good, Alice Miller
- The Divided Mind, John Sarno
- Passionate Marriage, David Schnarch
- Parenting from the Inside Out, Daniel Siegel and Mary Hartzell
- The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression, Kirk Strosahl and Patricia Robinson
- The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
- After the Honeymoon, Daniel Wile
- Love’s Executioner, Irvin Yalom
The original list is here. My much shorter recommended books lists is here.
How happy are you?
How happy are you? Dr. Martin Seligman wants to know. Check out authentichappiness.com for a big collection of questionnaires (registration required).
Debate over cognitive, traditional mental health therapy
From the L.A. Times:
A mounting pile of research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy can effectively treat anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bulimia and substance abuse problems. The method has performed as well as antidepressant medication in treating depression in recent studies. What’s more, patients receiving cognitive behavioral therapy have shown less likelihood of relapse than their medicated peers because the therapy teaches them how to handle their disorder.
But U.S. therapists have been reluctant to embrace the technique…
Building Your Support System
From my blog on PsychologyToday.com, Crisis Knocks.
Getting help from others is often the first, best step toward getting through a crisis.
But first, a quick introduction, this being my debut post. In addition to my private practice, I work at a 28-day crisis residential facility in California. Clients generally come to the program direct from psychiatric hospitalization. They tend to be homeless and dually diagnosed–that is, struggling with both chronic mental illness and substance abuse. They often own nothing but the clothes they come in with. Their crises are real and ongoing.
The program provides the basics: food and shelter. But also structure: A morning wake-up time, daily chores, meal preparation. We have an MD and nurse on staff. Clients get group and individual therapy. Case managers help with funding and housing. Everything you might need to begin to pull yourself out of crisis.
Which is what I plan to write about on “Crisis Knocks.” Whatever you’re going through right now–crisis or not–my hope is that these posts will be of help.
So, to begin, here’s a worksheet I use regularly with clients in group: My Support System–Today and In the Future. Take a look. The worksheet asks who you have on your team right now–who you can lean on in a time of need. Then it asks who you’d like to have in your support system in the future. What family, friends, professionals, and others might be of help?
For crisis house clients, the first column–current support–is often almost completely empty. Family and friends are all lost, gone. Given histories of frustration and disappointment, people sometimes have a hard time envisioning a future that’s any different. They don’t trust others anymore. They’re used to being loners, and often plan to continue on that way.
We talk about that: “No man is an island”…how having someone to call for help–some emotional support, maybe a couch to sleep on–might have helped them steer clear of their current troubles.
You don’t have to be homeless (or anywhere near homeless) to get something out of this exercise. Who is in your support system right now? Who out there is on your team?
Think about the time your were doing your best. Who did you have around you then? Maybe family, maybe friends. You may have had a doctor you trusted, co-workers to commiserate with, a therapist, classmates, a religious community.
Is that time now? Terrific–something to be grateful for. If not, ask yourself, what’s it going to take to get there? “Who can I lean on in the future and what do I need to do to get them into my life?”
Go here for a growing list of coping skills.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
A strong recommendation for clinicians and clients, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are. This is Mindfulness 101, helping you focus on each moment, on the here-and-now. Good for sessions, good for stress, good for overall mental health.
Neediest Cases
Here’s an annual opportunity to get some perspective on just how bad things could be: The New York Times Neediest Cases.
Therapy Worksheets
Need a handout, worksheet, or mental health infopage? Dozens and dozens are collected and helpfully categorized at Therapy Worksheets.