Recommended Reading & Resources

We usually recommend some form of reading to supplement therapy and facilitate progress.

The following books, podcasts, and resources, curated over many years, have been helpful to many of our clients.

General Resources

Cognitive Therapy

Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, Dennis Greenberger, Ph.D. and Christine Padesky, Ph.D., Second Edition (2015). This cognitive therapy workbook can be used alone or in conjunction with therapy. It includes worksheets and teaches strategies for monitoring mood, challenging dysfunctional thoughts, and building new core beliefs.

Center for Clinical Interventions: These free downloadable Cognitive Therapy workbooks, courtesy of the Australian government, target a variety of problems including depression, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, low self-esteem, procrastination, bipolar disorder, perfectionism, and eating disorders. They can be used alone or in conjunction with therapy. I recommend a number of their InfoPax for specific issues below.

Relaxation, Mindfulness, and Meditation Recordings

UCLA Semel Institute Mindful Awareness Research Center Mindful awareness is a practice that invites us to stop, breathe, observe, and connect with one’s inner experience. This site provides an excellent introduction to mindfulness meditation through instructional MP3s that you can download. The center also provides information about other mindfulness based resources.

Smiling Mind is modern meditation for people of all ages childhood through adult. It is a unique web and App-based program, designed to help bring balance to young lives.

The Center for Mindful Eating offers free mindful eating meditations.

Eating disorder therapist Jennifer Rollin, LCSW has a Body Gratitude Meditation we recommend.

Eating Disorder and Related Resources

For Parents of Children and Teens with Eating Disorders

Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders (F.E.A.S.T.) is an international nonprofit organization of and for parents and caregivers to help loved ones recover from eating disorders by providing information and mutual support, promoting evidence-based treatment, and advocating for research and education to reduce the suffering associated with eating disorders.

Around the Dinner Table is a support forum, run by F.E.A.S.T., for parents and caregivers of anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorder patients.

Maudsley Parents This website for parents of eating-disordered children provides support and a great deal of information about Family-Based Treatment.

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder: Practical Strategies to Support Your Teen With Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating (2018). This book, by Dr. Muhlheim, provides an overview of how parents can implement FBT strategies.

Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder, Second Edition, James Lock, MD, Ph.D. and Daniel Le Grange, Ph.D. (2015). This book for parents includes a comprehensive overview of the Family-Based Treatment approach to treatment, written by the developers of the treatment.

Eating with Your Anorexic: A Mother’s Memoir, Laura Collins (2014). Any parent who is struggling with a child with an eating disorder will find it helpful to read this mother’s account of her daughter’s recovery using Family-Based Treatment.

Brave Girl Eating, Harriet Brown (2010). Brown provides another excellent account of a family’s struggle with anorexia and treatment using Family-Based Treatment.

International Eating Disorder Parent Support is a Facebook support group for adults who care, or have cared for a loved one with an eating disorder. They provide peer-to-peer sharing, support, education, guidance, and encouragement, and to offer HOPE. They are moderated by an international collective of parents whose children have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Video and audio resources:  helping parents to help their child eat and be well:  Parent Eva Musby has created video and audio resources for parents supporting children in recovery from an eating disorder.  She has a 7-minute audio guided compassion meditation for parents that is great to use for getting in a good space to support a child.  Check out her other offerings as well and her book, Anorexia and Other Disorders, which helps parents support their children in the most compassionate way. We highly recommend it!

Medical Consequences of Eating Disorders

Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani has written the go-to resource on the medical complications of eating disorders. In her compassionate bedside manner, she demystifies these confusing disorders and distills into a single source everything that patients, families, and eating disorder providers will want to know.

AED Medical Care Standards Guide Often referred to as, “the purple brochure,” this guide from the Academy for Eating Disorders’ (AED) Medical Care Standards Task Force, is intended as a resource to promote recognition of, and risk management in the care of, those with eating disorders.

Anorexia, malnutrition and your bones Podcast by Jennifer Gaudian, MD, interviewed by Tabitha Farrar. Because the risk to bone health in teens with restrictive eating disorders is so significant and so often misunderstood, we highly recommend listening to this podcast, which is the single best description we’ve found of the issue.

Cognitive Behavioral Approaches to Eating Disorders

Overcoming Disordered Eating – Part A and Part B. These online workbooks, provided by CCI, can be used by patients undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy for eating disorders.

The Body Image Workbook: An Eight-Step Program for Learning to Like Your Looks, Thomas P. Cash, Ph.D. (2008).This workbook specifically targets negative body image issues using a cognitive-behavioral approach.

The Appetite Awareness Workbook: How To Listen to Your Body & Overcome Bingeing, Overeating, & Obsession with Food, Linda W. Craighead, Ph.D (1996). This cognitively-based workbook focuses on strategies to regain normal eating patterns by reducing eating in response to external cues and emotional factors, and increasing awareness of internal hunger and satiety signals.

Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, 4th Ed., Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (2020). This book teaches techniques to develop a healthy relationship with food and replace both dieting and binge eating with “intuitive eating.” This book is extremely helpful for chronic and yo-yo dieters and emotional eaters/binge eaters. The companion website, Intuitive Eating, provides an overview of the principles and other resources.

50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, Susan Albers, Psy.D. (2009). This book draws upon a variety of evidence-based techniques to cope with emotional eating. The techniques are divided into 5 sections: 1) Mindful meditation techniques; 2) Change your thoughts, change your eating; 3) Soothing sensations to calm and relax the body; 4) Soothing yourself with distractions; and 5) Soothing yourself with emotional relationships.

Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food, Jan Chozen Bays, MD (2009). This book and accompanying CD, written by a pediatrician/zen master, provides exercises and meditations to teach mindful eating strategies.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Children, Adolescents, and Adults, Kamryn Eddy, PhD and Jennifer Thomas, PhD (2019). This treatment manual provides an excellent psychoeducational overview of ARFID as well as describes the treatment. A companion workbook is available online. 

Recovery Apps for Self-monitoring

All three of these tools allow for keeping food records on your smartphone as an alternative to paper food records. They offer additional recovery-oriented tools as well–and are not diet- or restriction-focused.

Brighter Bite

Recovery Warriors Rise up

Recovery Record

Health at Every Size® (HAES)

Books

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison. A very well-researched overview of diet culture and an introduction to Health at Every Size (R) and intuitive eating.

Body of Truth by Harriet Brown, a science journalist, presents how research has been manipulated, big pharma’s desire to make money, and what we think we know about health and weight is wrong along with practical suggestions on how to make peace with ourselves.

Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant. This book helps heal body image by examining diet culture and internalized weight stigma and developing self-compassion.

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker is refreshingly honest and funny in her first book on rejecting fat prejudice and embracing body acceptance. She includes a section where she talks about what HAES is.

The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor started as a poem and developed into an online community. It is now a book too! Taylor creates a foundation and handbook on how to practice radical self-love amidst the violence of systems of oppression.

You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar is a super accessible examination of the origins of diet culture and a call to action to fight against it.

Articles

“Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift” by Linda Bacon & Lucy Aphramor published in the Nutrition Journal in 2011 evaluates the evidence that supports using a weight-neutral approach to health rather than the current guidelines of weight loss for “overweight” and “obese” individuals.

“The Weight-Inclusive versus Weight-Normative Approach to Health: Evaluating the Evidence for Prioritizing Well-Being over Weight Loss” by Tracy Tylka et al. in the Journal of Obesity in 2014 reviews two different methods for patient care and public health for providing a non-stigmatizing approach to well-being.

General Eating Disorder Resources

There are several eating disorder organizations and nonprofits that provide support and education to people in diverse bodies. We list and describe these on a separate page.

Academy for Eating Disorders: The AED is the main international scientific body for the study and prevention of eating disorders. It provides professional training to therapists as well as education and information about eating disorders research, prevention, and clinical treatments.

Gurze/Salucore Eating Disorders Resource Catalogue: Eating disorder books, articles, information, resources, and more.

Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too, by Jenni Schaefer and Thom Rutledge. In her recovery, which is summarized in the book, Jenni Schaefer personified the eating disorder as “Ed,” an abusive boyfriend and explains how she broke up with him.

Helping Children to Develop Healthy Body Image and Healthy Eating Habits

There are several books for parents that provide tips and strategies for improving self-esteem and body image in their children. Some of those we recommend to our clients include

Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith. This book helps parents examine their beliefs about weight and food and reduce the impact of diet culture on the next generation.

How to Raise an Intuitive Eater: Raising the Next Generation with Food and Body by Sumner Brooks and Amee Severson. This book helps parents unpack their own issues with food and body to help raise the next generation without these issues.

No Weigh!: A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom by Signe Darpinian, Shelley Aggarwal, & Wendy Sterling. The book is a teen-friendly guide to eating and body image. It covers important related topics like physical changes of puberty, understanding emotions, stress management strategies, and good sleep and exercise habits. It discusses body diversity and acceptance. Most importantly, it presents a non-diet approach to balanced eating in which all foods are allowed. This is such a critical message for teens.

The Full Bloom Podcast Body-positive parenting podcast and other resources by two eating disorder therapists.

Ellyn Satter Institute Ellyn Satter is a registered dietician and therapist and widely-recognized expert who has written extensively on the feeding of children. Her website provides a lot of information and her books are available to order.

Emetophobia

Free Yourself from Emetophobia by Alexandra Keyes and David Veal (2021)

Gag Reflections: Conquering a Fear of Vomit Through Exposure Therapy by Dara Lovitz and David Yusko (2021)

Guts by Raina Telgemeier(2019)–a memoir about her 4th-grade year with Emetophobia.

Eating Disorders in Older Adults

The Diary Healer by June Alexander. June Alexander is a writer who recovered from a long eating disorder in her 60s. Her story and other resources are featured on her website, a podcast, and a book.

Pregnancy and Body Image

Dr. Muhlheim maintains a Pinterest board where she has pinned a number of relevant articles.

Hypothalamic Amenorrhea

No Period, Now What? Rinaldi, Nicola J., Stephanie G. Buckler, & Lisa Sanfilippo Waddell (and accompanying website).

Podcasts

HAES and Intuitive Eating Podcasts

Food Psych with Christy Harrison is a podcast focused on helping you make peace with food and your body. Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN, interviews leaders in the body positivity and Health at Every Size® movements.

The Love, Food Podcast with Julie Duffy Dillon is a podcast for anyone with a complicated relationship with food who wants a different approach. Julie Duffy Dillon, RD, answers a letter each week that a listener has written to food wanting answers.

The Mindful Dietitian with Fiona Sutherland is a podcast predominately for dietitians and nutritionists who want to promote peace with food and bodies while stepping away from diet culture. Fiona Sutherland is an Australian dietitian who teaches other professionals about the non-diet approach and improving body image internationally.

Dietitians Unplugged with Glenys Oyston and Aaron Flores is a podcast exploring the ideas of health wellness from a new perspective that doesn’t shame your body. Glenys and Aaron are dietitians in LA that are down to earth and hilarious.

Fearless Rebelle Radio with Summer Innanen is a podcast dedicated to body positivity, self-worth, and feminism. Summer Innanen is a body image coach in Vancouver, BC who interviews leading experts in the body image and the anti-diet movement.

Body Kindness with Rebecca Scritchfield talks about a wide range of topics centering how to show up with kindness for your body and to change diet culture. Rebecca Scritchfield, RDN, interviews all different types of people, including Bernie Salazar who was the Season 5 At Home winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser and a former chronic dieter.

Do No Harm Podcast is a podcast geared towards educating health care professionals on shifting the focus off of weight. Originally co-created by DeAun Nelson, ND, and Sarah Thompson in Portland, Oregon, they discuss the science behind a weight-neutral approach to health. Now, DeAun produces it solo and interviews leading medical professionals.

Unpacking Weight Science with Fiona Willer is a podcast that teaches you how to critique weight science yourself, and presents weight-neutral research to help you understand how to bust myths about size. Fiona Willer, AdvAPD, is a dietitan currently completely her PhD in Australia.

Heavy Conversation is a podcast by Bruce from Chubstr and Jody from Bear Skn, two plus size men. They discusses the issues ranging from finding clothes that fit, to dating, to the myth that fat people can’t be active.

Maintenance Phase by Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon is a podcast that debunks the junk science behind health and wellness fads.

Men Unscripted by Aaron Flores, RDN is a series about the struggles that men experience as they learn to be more comfortable in their bodies.

Eating Disorder Recovery Podcasts

Eating Disorder Recovery Speakers with Kristen Brunello is a podcast that presents a recovery story one week and then the next week an interview with the person who told their story the previous week. Kristen Brunello is a recovery coach who is also in recovery from an eating disorder.

New Plates – Laura Collins is a podcast to support parents in collaborating with their child’s eating disorder treatment. Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh is a long-time parent advocate and author of Eating with your anorexia: How my child recovered through family-based treatment.

Eating Disorders Recovery Podcast with Tabitha Farrar provides a variety of content including recovery stories, personal stories, and interviews with leading experts in eating disorder treatment. Tabitha Farrar is an eating disorder recovery coach who recovered on her own from anorexia.

ED Matters – Gurze/Salucore is a podcast that provides information for people recovering from an eating disorder, their loved ones, and clincians. Kathy Cortes interviews various experts in the treatment of eating disorders. You can listen to our very own Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD, on this episode!

The Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast with Janean Anderson is a podcast that presents information on recovery, cultural context, and interviews with experts in the eating disorder field. Janean Anderson is a psychologist who is recovered from anorexia.

Recovery Warriors is a podcast for increasing the resilience of those experiencing depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Interviews include everything from body trust and intuitive eating to pregnancy and sports.

Other Mental Health Topics

Assertiveness

CCI provides the online workbook Assert Yourself: Improve Your Assertiveness

Bipolar Disorder

CCI provides the online workbook Keeping Your Balance: Coping with Bipolar Disorder

Depression

CCI provides the online workbook Back from the Bluez: Coping with Depression

Distress Tolerance

CCI provides the online workbook Facing Your Feelings

Generalized Anxiety Disorder/Worry

CBT workbooks I recommend to my clients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder include:

• Mastery of Anxiety and Worry, Michelle Craske, Ph.D. and David Barlow, Ph.D. (2006).
• CCI’s online workbook What? Me Worry?. Online CBT workbook

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Stop Obsessing: How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions, Edna Foa, Ph.D. and Reid Wilson, Ph.D. (2001). This self-help book utilizes evidence-based CBT techniques from the world’s leading experts for overcoming OCD.

Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts, Christine Purdon, Ph.D. and David Clark, Ph.D. (2005). This book focuses on CBT strategies for overcoming obsessive thoughts.

Panic Disorder

CBT workbooks I recommend to my clients with panic disorder include:

• Mastery of Anxiety and Panic, David Barlow and Michelle Craske (2006)
• Overcoming Anxiety and Panic Interactive Guide by Elizabeth McMahon (2019)
• Panic Stations: Coping with Panic Attacks

Perfectionism

CCI provides the online workbook Perfectionism in Perspective: Overcoming Perfectionism

Procrastination

CCI provides the online workbook Put off Procrastination: Overcoming Procrastination

Self-Compassion

CCI provides the online workbook Building Self-Compassion

Self-Esteem

CCI provides the online workbook Improving Self-Esteem: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem

Social Phobia

CCI provides the online workbook Shy No Longer: Coping with Social Anxiety

Trauma

Writing to Heal, James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D. (2004). This book provides guided writing exercises that help explore feelings related to painful experiences.

Other Relationship Issues

General Parenting

How to Give Your Child a Great Self-Image: Proven Techniques to Build Confidence from Infancy to Adolescence, Deborah Phillips and Fred Bernstein (1991). This book provides practical parenting strategies for building self-esteem in children.

Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent’s Guide to the New Teenager, Anthony Wolf, Ph.D. (2002). This is a helpful guidebook for understanding and managing the teenage years.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (1999).This book demonstrates strategies for communication with children and shows how you can respect and respond to your child’s feelings and satisfy your own needs.

Siblings without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (2004). This book teaches the skills and techniques necessary to redirect rivalry into cooperation.

Parenting Teens with Love and Logic: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood, Foster Cline, MD and Jim Fay (2006). This guide for parenting adolescents focuses on helping them to become independent and responsible by holding them accountable for their mistakes.

Parenting with Love and Logic, Foster Cline, MD and Jim Fay (2006). This parenting guide focuses on teaching children responsibility and the logic of life by solving their own problems and providing skills for coping in the real world.

Infidelity

Books I recommend to my clients for understanding and working through infidelity include:

• Surviving Infidelity: Making Decisions, Recovering from the Pain, Rona Subotnik, M.F.C.C. and Gloria Harris, Ph.D. (2005).
• Infidelity: a Survival Guide, Don-David Lusterman, Ph.D. (1998).

Marital Issues

5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, Gary Chapman (2010). Chapman provides strategies for improving your relationship by understanding your partner’s primary“love language.” The companion website, 5 Love Languages , includes quizzes and self-assessments.

The 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work, John M. Gottman, Ph.D. (2000).
This book provides research-based strategies for improving relationships and includes practical questionnaires and exercises. The companion website, Gottman, provides an introduction to the Gottmans’ work and includes some quizzes.

Hold me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, Sue Johnson (2008). Johnson provides strategies for improving your relationship by understanding underlying emotions and attachment needs. The companion website, Hold Me Tight, provides an introduction and preview of the book.

Third Culture Kids/ Expatriation

Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, David C. Pollok and Ruth E. Van Reken (2009). This book is the bible for anyone who has grown up or is living in a cross-cultural community. It should be recommended reading for all parents going on expatriate assignment.

Interaction International. This organization helps prepare Third Culture Kids and internationally mobile families for living and working overseas; supports them while overseas, and assists them in transition and reentry.

All material provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or mental health provider. Direct consultation of a qualified provider should be sought for any specific questions or problems. Use of this website in no way constitutes professional service or advice.