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 52 books
  • Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

    By: James Clear

    No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

  • How to Listen with Intention: The Foundation of True Connection, Communication, and Relationships
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    How to Listen with Intention: The Foundation of True Connection, Communication, and Relationships (How to be More Likable and Charismatic)

    By: Patrick King

    How to Listen with Intention is ultimately a book about relationships. A relationship must be give-and-take – are you taking more than you are giving? Are you making people feel comfortable opening up to you? Are you listening well, or unwittingly being a conversational/relationship narcissist?It’s time to ask these difficult questions and learn the skills to not only help people in times of need, but create new friendships with just about anyone — after all, who doesn’t like to be heard?

  • 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?

    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom

    By: Tabitha Brown

    Before Tabitha Brown was one of the most popular personalities in the world, sharing her delicious vegan home cooking and compassionate wisdom with millions of followers across social media, she was an aspiring actress who in 2016 began struggling with undiagnosed chronic autoimmune pain. Her condition made her believe she wouldn’t live to see forty–until she started listening to what her soul and her body truly needed. Now, in this life-changing book, Tabitha shares the wisdom she gained from her own journey, showing readers how to make a life for themselves that is rooted in nonjudgmental kindness and love, both for themselves and for others.

  • 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.

  • Unfuck Your Brain: Getting Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers with science
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Unfuck Your Brain: Getting Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers with science (5-Minute Therapy)

    By: Ph.D. Harper, Faith

    A no-nonsense and helpful guide on how to cope with a slew of mental-health issues that are hellbent on ruining the lives of millions of people worldwide.

  • The Gifts of Imperfection
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    The Gifts of Imperfection

    By: Brené Brown

    What transforms this book from words on a page to effective daily practices are the ten guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way.

  • 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.

  • The Awakened Family: How to Raise Empowered, Resilient, and Conscious Children
    • Parenting & Family
    The Awakened Family: How to Raise Empowered, Resilient, and Conscious Children

    By: Shefali Tsabary Ph.D.

    We all have the capacity to raise children who are highly resilient and emotionally connected. However, many of us are unable to because we are blinded by modern misconceptions of parenting and our own inner limitations. In The Awakened Family, I show you how you can cultivate a relationship with your children so they can thrive; moreover, you can be transformed to a state of greater calm, compassion and wisdom as well.

  • 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 Highly Sensitive Person's Guide to Stop People-Pleasing: Finally, Put Yourself First, Set Boundaries with Confidence, and Release the Negativity in Saying NO!
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    The Highly Sensitive Person’s Guide to Stop People-Pleasing: Finally, Put Yourself First, Set Boundaries with Confidence, and Release the Negativity in Saying NO!

    By: C. Jeffrey

    If you struggle to say “no” to others, usually at the expense of your own needs, know that there’s a way out. This guide was specially written for highly sensitive people like you, whose empathetic nature can sometimes be used against them. You’ll see that it’s possible to utilize the power of your heightened sensitivity while overcoming your people-pleasing and self-defeating tendencies at the same time.

  • How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving

    By: David Richo, Kathlyn Hendricks

    This beloved book has touched hundreds of thousands of lives with its profound and actionable advice. Retaining the core message of becoming more mindful in our relationships, this edition includes new and revised material that addresses how we live and love today.

  • Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help YouFind - and Keep - Love
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help YouFind – and Keep – Love

    By: Amir Levine, Rachel Heller

    We already rely on science to tell us what to eat, when to exercise, and how long to sleep. Why not use science to help us improve our relationships? In this revolutionary book, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller scientifically explain why why some people seem to navigate relationships effortlessly, while others struggle.

  • Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

    By: Tricia Hersey

    In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.

  • Calm Your Thoughts: Stop Overthinking, Stop Stressing, Stop Spiraling, and Start Living
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Calm Your Thoughts: Stop Overthinking, Stop Stressing, Stop Spiraling, and Start Living (The Path to Calm)

    By: Nick Trenton

    Calm Your Thoughts is a book that understands where you’ve been through,the exhausting situation you’ve put yourself into, and how you lose your mind in the trap of anxiety and stress. Acclaimed author Nick Trenton will walk you through the obstacles with detailed and proven techniques to help you rewire your brain, control your thoughts, and change your mental habits.

  • Let That Sh*t Go: A Journal for Leaving Your Bullsh*t Behind and Creating a Happy Life
    • Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence
    Let That Sh*t Go: A Journal for Leaving Your Bullsh*t Behind and Creating a Happy Life

    By: Monica Sweeney

    With Let That Sh*t Go, you’ll find moments of profanity-laced catharsis and joy through journaling activities and inspirations that are positive as f*ck. Within these truly charming pages, you’ll find ways to let go of the bullsh*t and lift your spirit a little f*cking higher.

  • Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks

    By: Barry McDonagh

    If you’re tired of just managing your anxiety and want a powerful natural solution, then apply the ‘Dare’ technique as explained in Barry McDonagh’s latest book. Based on hard science and over 10 years helping people who suffer from anxiety, Barry McDonagh shares his most effective technique in this new book. The DARE technique can be used by everyone, regardless of age or background, to live a life free from anxiety or panic attacks

  • Don't Feed the Monkey Mind: How to Stop the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear, and Worry
    • Anxiety & Depression
    Don’t Feed the Monkey Mind: How to Stop the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear, and Worry

    By: Jennifer Shannon LMFT, Doug Shannon, Michael A. Tompkins PhD ABPP

    Written by psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon, this book shows you how to stop anxious thoughts from taking over using proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness techniques, as well as fun illustrations. By following the exercises in this book, you’ll learn to identify your own anxious thoughts, question those thoughts, and uncover the core fears at play.