Recommended Reading List

At Holistically Divine Counseling (HDC), we believe in the transformative power of knowledge and self-discovery.

This curated selection of books reflects our commitment to supporting you on your journey toward personal growth, healing, and overall well-being. Whether you’re seeking practical techniques to navigate life’s challenges, a deeper understanding of psychological principles, or inspirational stories of resilience, this collection offers diverse resources to meet your needs. Each book has been chosen with care, aiming to provide you with insights, comfort, and the tools necessary to embark on a path of self-improvement and emotional empowerment. We may earn a commission when you purchase a book using the links below.

1-18 of 86 books
  • Peace Is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    Peace Is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life

    By: Morgan Harper Nichols

    Peace Is a Practice invites you to become an active peacemaker in your own life, starting right where you are, and in some of the most unexpected places. When you breathe in all the grace available to you and release everything that is outside of your control, you’ll discover peace that surpasses your circumstances. All it takes is practice.

  • Positive Affirmations for Black Women
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Positive Affirmations for Black Women: Attract Love, Success, Happiness, Wealth and Abundance, Increase Confidence & Self-Love, Improve Your Mindset

    By: Limitless Abundance

    The words we say to ourselves have immense power and impact over our lives. What you think, you become. Affirmations restructure the dynamic of our brains so that we truly begin to think nothing is impossible. This book contains a collection of affirmations written specifically for Black women. Positive affirmations are a great way to combat subconscious thoughts, by allowing you to focus your energy on encouraging positive changes in your life.

  • Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

    By: Judson Brewer

    Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better – no matter how anxious they feel.

  • The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

    By: Elaine N. Aron Ph.D.

    Do you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams? Is time alone each day as essential to you as food and water? Are you noted for your empathy? Your conscientiousness? Do noise and confusion quickly overwhelm you? If your answers are yes, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP) and Dr. Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person is the life-changing guide you’ll want in your toolbox.

  • Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Greatness
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Greatness

    By: Vex King

    How can you learn to truly love yourself? How can you transform negative emotions into positive ones? Is it possible to find lasting happiness? In this book, Instagram guru Vex King answers all of these questions and more.

  • Master Your Emotions: A Practical Guide to Overcome Negativity and Better Manage Your Feelings
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    Master Your Emotions: A Practical Guide to Overcome Negativity and Better Manage Your Feelings

    By: Thibaut Meurisse

    Do you have a bias toward the negative? Understanding how negative feelings and emotions work is the first step. Then we must learn how to reprogram those emotions and turn them around. A happier life is possible if you follow the steps. You’ll love this practical, no frills program, because the results are easy to achieve once you’ve decided to Master Your Emotions.

  • Crazy Faith: It's Only Crazy Until It Happens
    • Faith & Spirituality
    Crazy Faith: It’s Only Crazy Until It Happens

    By: Michael Todd

    There are many things that seem normal or average today that at one point in time seemed absolutely crazy. Smartphones, Wi-Fi, and even the electric light bulb were all groundbreaking, history-making inventions that started out as crazy ideas. Our see-it-to-believe-it generation tends to have a hard time exercising true faith—one that steps out, takes action, and sees mountain-moving results. Many of us would rather play it safe and stand on the sidelines, but it’s crazy faith that helps us see God move and reveals His promises.

  • Safe People: How to Find Relationships that are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't
    • Boundaries
    Safe People: How to Find Relationships that are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren’t

    By: Henry Cloud, John Townsend

    Safe People will help you discover why good people can get tangled in bad relationships, how to avoid repeating your own mistakes, and how to pick safe, healthy people for the friends you make and the company you keep.

  • Bible Promises for Moms: Inspirational Verses of Hope & Encouragement for Christian Mothers
    • Faith & Spirituality
    Bible Promises for Moms: Inspirational Verses of Hope & Encouragement for Christian Mothers

    By: Heidi St. John

    God understands the heart of a mom, as well as the daily cares and worries that can weigh you down. No matter where you are in your mothering journey, God’s mercies and promises are for you. This pocket-size book of Scriptures provides hundreds of Bible promises that are relevant to the needs of every mother, interweaving them with personal reflections from popular author Heidi St. John.

  • Just as I Am
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Just as I Am

    By: Cicely Tyson

    “Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and a mother, a sister and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by his hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson

  • Dare to Lead: Brave Work Tough Conversations Whole Hearts
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

    By: Brené Brown

    Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work.

  • Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

    By: Simon Sinek

    In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. “Officers eat last,” he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What’s symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort–even their own survival–for the good of those in their care.

  • Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids
    • Parenting & Family
    Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids

    By: Hunter Clarke-Fields MSAE, Carla Naumburg PhD

    With this book, you’ll find powerful mindfulness skills for calming your own stress response when difficult emotions arise. You’ll also discover strategies for cultivating respectful communication, effective conflict resolution, and reflective listening. In the process, you’ll learn to examine your own unhelpful patterns and ingrained reactions that reflect the generational habits shaped by your parents, so you can break the cycle and respond to your children in more skillful ways.

  • 100 Days of Believing Bigger: Devotional Journal
    • Faith & Spirituality
    100 Days of Believing Bigger: Devotional Journal

    By: Marshawn Evans Daniels

    Join reinvention strategist and life coach, Marshawn Evans Daniels on a 100 day devotional, journaling, prayer adventure and discover your true identity.

  • The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
    • Parenting & Family
    The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind

    By: Daniel J. J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson

    In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain.

  • The Inclusive Organization: Real Solutions, Impactful Change, and Meaningful Diversity
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    The Inclusive Organization: Real Solutions, Impactful Change, and Meaningful Diversity

    By: Netta Jenkins

    DEI is an 8-billion dollar industry that is not yet accessing its full potential through real solutions and results. However, through a powerful formula of policies and practices that motivate employees to be more socially and self-aware, The Inclusive Organization is a revolutionary yet practical resource for individuals at any stage of their career. Jenkins discusses human behavior, workplace psychology, and shares her DEI-tested framework for success.

  • Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

    By: Brené Brown

    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, MSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage. Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage.

  • The Highly Sensitive Person's Guide to Dealing with Toxic People: How to Reclaim Your Power from Narcissists and Other Manipulators
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    The Highly Sensitive Person’s Guide to Dealing with Toxic People: How to Reclaim Your Power from Narcissists and Other Manipulators

    By: Shahida Arabi MA

    If you’re a highly sensitive person, or identify as an “empath,” you may feel easily overwhelmed by the world around you, suffer from “people-pleasing,” experience extreme anxiety or stress in times of conflict, or even take on the emotions of others. Due to your naturally giving nature, you may also be a target for narcissists and self-centered individuals who seek to exploit others for their own gain. So, how can you protect yourself?