Mental health books can be a fantastic resource and entry way into understanding psychology and the way the brain impacts mood, behaviour, and thoughts. Picking up a book can be helpful no matter what your situation — whether you are working through your own mental health journey, brushing up on your self-care, or generally interested in psychology. And this year, the theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is loneliness.

While these books can provide helpful tools to deal with mental health and stressors, they are not a substitute for therapy.

📚 The Body Keeps the Score – Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

📚 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone – Lori Gottlieb

📚 Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle – Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA

📚 Emotional First Aid – Guy Winch, PhD

📚 It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle – Mark Wolynn

📚 Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love – Amir Levine, M.D and Rachel Heller

📚 The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You – Elaine Aron, PhD

📚 Toxic Childhood Stress – Dr Nadine Burke Harris

📚 What Happened to You? – Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD

📚 How Emotions Are Made – Lisa Feldman Barrett

Check out episode 19 on loneliness: