It is usually helpful to prepare for therapy, or to increase the effectiveness or efficiency of therapy, by reading. Reading between sessions can help increase one’s focus, and reinforce the gains made in the process of individual, couples, or family therapy. Listed below are a few outstanding books that clients have found to be particularly helpful.

DEPRESSION and ANXIETY
Dennis Greenberger & Christine Padesky. Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel By Changing the Way You Think. Guilford.
Edmund J. Bourne. The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook. New Harbinger Publications.

FAMILIES
John Bradshaw. Bradshaw On: The Family: A New Way of Creating Solid Self-Esteem. Health Communications, Inc.

Stephen R. Covey. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. Golden Books.
John Gottman, and Nan Silver. The Seven Principles for Making Families Work.

MARRIAGE
John Gottman. Why Marriages Succeed or Fail; and How You Can Make Yours Last. Simon & Schuster.

Judith Wallerstein & Sandra Blakeslee. The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts. Houghton Mifflin.

ADOLESCENTS
Michael J. Bradley. Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Harbor Press.

Robert Bayard & Jean Bayard. How to Deal With Your Acting-Up Teenager. M. Evans & Co.

ADDICTION, RECOVERY, CO-DEPENDENCE
James R. Milam & Katherine Ketcham. A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism. Bantam Books.

Claudia Black. It Will Never Happen to Me.
Janet G. Woititz. Adult Children of Alcoholics. Hci.
Melody Beattie. Codependent No More, and Beyond Codependency. Mjf books.

DIVORCE & STEP-FAMILIES
Elizabeth Thayer & Jeffrey Zimmerman. The Co-Parenting Survival Guide: Letting Go of Conflict After a Difficult Divorce. New Harbinger Publications.

Isolina Ricci. Mom’s House, Dad’s House: Making Shared Custody Work. Macmillan Publishing Co.
Emily B. Visher & John S. Visher. Step-Families. Citadel Press.