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 41 books
  • Forgiving What You Can't Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again
    • Boundaries
    Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again

    By: Lysa TerKeurst

    Have you ever felt stuck in a cycle of unresolved pain, playing offenses over and over in your mind? You know you can’t go on like this, but you don’t know what to do next. Lysa TerKeurst has wrestled through this journey. But in surprising ways, she’s discovered how to let go of bound-up resentment and overcome the resistance to forgiving people who aren’t willing to make things right.

  • 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.

    • 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.

  • The Set Boundaries Workbook: Practical Exercises for Understanding Your Needs and Setting Healthy Limits
    • Boundaries
    The Set Boundaries Workbook: Practical Exercises for Understanding Your Needs and Setting Healthy Limits

    By: Nedra Glover Tawwab

    We all want to have healthy boundaries. But what does that really mean – and what steps are needed to implement them in our daily lives? Sought-after therapist and relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab presents clear explanations and interactive exercises to help you gain insight and then put it into action.

  • Boundaries in Marriage: Understanding the Choices That Make or Break Loving Relationships
    • Boundaries
    Boundaries in Marriage: Understanding the Choices That Make or Break Loving Relationships

    By: Henry Cloud, John Townsend

    In Boundaries in Marriage, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the New York Times bestseller Boundaries, teach us that healthy boundaries are the property lines that define and protect you and your spouse as individuals. Once you have them in place, a good marriage can become better, and a less-than-satisfying one can even be saved.

  • Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge
    • Boundaries
    Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge

    By: Henry Cloud

    In Boundaries for Leaders, clinical psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud leverages his expertise of human behavior, neuroscience, and business leadership to explain how the best leaders set boundaries within their organizations–with their teams and with themselves–to improve performance and increase employee and customer satisfaction.

  • Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World

    By: Jenn Granneman, Andre Sólo

    Everyone has a sensitive side, but nearly 1 in 3 people have the genes to be more sensitive than others—both physically and emotionally. These are the people who pause before speaking and think before acting; they tune into subtle details and make connections that others miss. They tend to be intelligent, big-hearted, and wonderfully creative; they are wired to go deep, yet society tells them to hide the very sensitivity that makes them this way. These are the world’s “highly sensitive people,” and Sensitive is the book that champions them.

  • Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships
    • Boundaries
    Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships

    By: Nedra Glover Tawwab

    Every family has a story. For some of us, our family of origin is a solid foundation that feeds our confidence and helps us navigate life’s challenges. For others, it’s a source of pain, hurt, and conflict that can feel like a lifelong burden. In this empowering guide, licensed therapist and bestselling relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab offers clear advice for identifying dysfunctional family patterns and choosing the best path to breaking the cycle and moving forward.

  • I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace

    By: Elizabeth Leiba

    I’m Not Yelling is a strategy guide empowering Black businesswomen to combat workplace discrimination, redefine workplace culture, and find their voices in toxic work environments. Navigate corporate America fearlessly. Explore the data and hear the accounts of Black women in business who face, work through, and rise above workplace discrimination. This book offers a blueprint for Black women in business to tackle a toxic work environment and assert their rightful place. Facing obstacles such as imposter syndrome and structural racism, I’m Not Yelling arms you with the knowledge and strategy needed to succeed in the face of adversity.

  • Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations

    By: William Ury

    In Getting Past No, William Ury of Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation offers a proven breakthrough strategy for turning adversaries into negotiating partners.

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • Bring Yourself: How to Negotiate Fearlessly
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Bring Yourself: How to Negotiate Fearlessly

    By: Mori Taheripour

    Contrary to conventional wisdom about what makes a good negotiator – namely, being aggressive and unemotional – in Bring Yourself, Taheripour offers a radically different perspective. In her own life, and in her nearly 20 years of experience teaching negotiation, she’s found that the best negotiators are empathetic, curious, and present. The essence of bargaining isn’t the transaction, but the conversation and human connection. It is when we bring our whole, authentic selves to the table that we can advocate for ourselves fearlessly and find creative solutions that benefit everyone.

  • Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

    By: Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, Bruce Patton

    Getting to Yes offers a proven, step-by-step strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict. Thoroughly updated and revised, it offers readers a straight- forward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting angry-or getting taken.

  • 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.

  • Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World
    • Empowerment & Leadership
    Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World

    By: Anita Moorjani

    In a time when traits like sensitivity, kindness, and compassion are sorely undervalued, Anita Moorjani helps empaths—whether emerging or acknowledged—navigate obstacles they may face and identify what makes them unique. She teaches them how to claim their true powers as empaths and to be their most authentic selves.

  • 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.

  • 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