Resources
Books can be helpful in learning about mental health and during recovery from mental illness. Below is a list of some of Dr. Larson's most recommended books, organized by category.
Know of any books you think should be on the list? Or wish there were some books listed about your topic of interest?
Send us a message we would love to add to the collection.
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Books Every Parent Should Read
Parenting Infants and Toddlers
Parenting from the Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel & Mary Hartzell
This book guides parents through creating the necessary foundations for loving and secure relationships with their children.
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The Childhood roots of adult happiness
By Edward Hallowell
Insightful book linking childhood experiences to adult happiness and well-being, emphasizing the importance of early emotional development, resilience, and nurturing relationships for a fulfilling life.
Never Enough by Jennifer Breheny Wallace
Packed with memorable stories and offering a powerful toolkit for positive change, Never Enough offers an urgent, humane view of the crisis plaguing today’s teens and a practical framework for how to help.
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How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber & Julie King
This user-friendly guide will empower parents and caregivers of young children to forge rewarding and joyful relationships.
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Your Defiant Child by Russell A. Barkley & Christine M. Benton
Discover a way to end constant power struggles with the help of leading child psychologist Russell A. Barkley. Dr. Barkley's approach is research based, practical, and doable--and leads to lasting behavior change.
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Why Will No One Play With Me by Caroline Maguire
A practical guide for parents, educators, clinicians and adults to learn HOW TO overcome chronic social exclusion or disruption that targets specific social skills deficits.
Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Provides practical communication strategies to help parents reduce friction and foster cooperation between children and teach parents how to move away from constant refereeing by focusing on individuality rather than "equal" treatment and encouraging children to solve their own conflicts
The Explosive Child by Ross Greene
Dr. Greene’s Collaborative Problem Solving model promotes working with explosive children to solve the problems that precipitate explosive episodes, and teaching these kids the skills they lack.
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Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Dr. Laura Markham
Discover the practical tools you need to transform your parenting in a positive, proven way.
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Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen
Playful Parenting argues that joining children in their world of play is the most effective way to build deep emotional connections and resolve behavioral struggles. Lawrence Cohen demonstrates how activities like roughhousing and role-playing help "fill a child’s emotional cup," fostering confidence and cooperation through laughter and joy.
Tech Generation by Mike Brooks & Jon Lasser
Brooks and Lasser provide strategies for preventing technology from becoming problematic in the first place; steps for addressing problems when they arise; and ways of intervening when problems are out of control.
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The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
The book investigates why adolescent mental health plummeted in the early 2010s and offers a roadmap for recovery.
Your Defiant Teen by Russell A. Barkley &
Arthur L. Robin
If life with your teen has become a battleground, it's time to take action. This empathic book shows how.
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Touchpoints by T Berrry Brazelton, M.D.
Dr. Brazelton addresses new insights on prematurity, sleep patterns, early communication, toilet training, co-sleeping, play and learning, SIDS, cognitive development and signs of developmental delay, childcare, asthma, a child's immune system, and safety.
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Becoming Attached by Robert Karen, Ph.D.
Becoming Attached a voyage of discovery in child emotional development and its pertinence to adult life. It is impossible to read this book without reflecting on one's own life as a child, a parent, and an intimate partner in love or marriage.
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No Cry No Sleep
Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
The classic, best-selling no-tears guide to making sure your baby—and you—get a full night’s sleep has been updated – it is now easier to use and has been expanded to include more solutions plus critical new safety information.
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How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber
This user-friendly guide will empower parents and caregivers of young children to forge rewarding, joyful relationships.
Against Depression by Peter Kramer, M.D.
Thought-provoking and enlightening, Against Depression provides a bold revision of our understanding of mood disorder and promises hope to the millions who suffer from it.
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Feeling Good by David D. Burns, M.D.
In Feeling Good, eminent psychiatrist, David D. Burns, M.D., outlines the remarkable, scientifically proven techniques that will immediately lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life.
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Parenting Kids with OCD by Bonnie Zucker
Parenting Kids With OCD provides parents with a comprehensive understanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder, its symptoms, types, and presentation in children and teens.
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Smart but Scattered by Peg Dawson & Richard Guare
Easy-to-follow steps to identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses, use activities and techniques proven to boost specific skills, and problem-solve daily routines. Small changes can add up to big improvements--this book shows how.
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The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents by Nancy Ratey
A practical guide designed to help adults with ADHD manage their lives through specialized coaching strategies.
Mindsight by Daniel Siegel, Ph.D.
A book as inspiring as it is informative, Mindsight offers exciting new proof that we aren't hardwired to behave in certain ways, but instead have the ability to harness the power of our minds to re-sculpt the neural pathways of our brains in ways that will be life-transforming.
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The Happiness Diet by Tyler Graham & Drew Ramsey, M.D.
For the first time in history, too much food is making us sick. Graham and Ramsey guide you through the steps to fix the Modern American Diet and reclaim our minds and waistlines.
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The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Written in a voice that is timeless in its message of understanding, The Road Less Traveled continues to help us explore the very nature of loving relationships and leads us toward a new serenity and fullness of life.
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Self Compassion by Kristin Neff
Using solid empirical research, personal stories, practical exercises, and humor, Dr. Neff - the world's foremost expert on self-compassion - explains how to heal destructive emotional patterns so that you can be healthier, happier, and more effective.
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The Gifts of Imperfetion by Brene Brown, Ph.D.
Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor and thought leader, shares ten guideposts on the power of wholehearted living—a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.
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Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, M.D.
In this autobiographical bestseller, Viktor Frankl recounts his experiences surviving the Holocaust and describes how it shaped his understanding whereby man finds meaning for his life.
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Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman,
Ph. D.
Seligman shows readers how to identify their highest virtues and use them in ways they haven’t yet considered. Authentic Happiness is the most powerful work of popular psychology in years.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
By turns fascinating, hopeful, and timely, The Happiness Advantage reveals how small shifts in our mind-set and habits can produce big gains at work, at home, and elsewhere.
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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
The Feeling Good Handbook by David D Burns, M.D.
The Feeling Good Handbook reveals powerful new techniques and provides step-by-step exercises that help you cope with the full range of everyday problems.
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Mind Over Mood by David Greenberger & Christine A. Padesky
This life-changing book has already helped more than 1,200,000 readers use cognitive-behavioral therapy--one of today's most effective forms of psychotherapy
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Listening to Prozac by Peter Kramer, M.D.
Listening to Prozac is a revolutionary book that offers new perspectives on antidepressants, mood disorders, and our understanding of the self.
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Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart by Mark Epstein, M.D.
For decades, Western psychology has promised fulfillment through building and strengthening the ego. We are taught that the ideal is a strong, individuated self, constructed and reinforced over a lifetime. But Buddhist psychiatrist Mark Epstein has found a different way.
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The Endless Practice by Mark Nepo
Comforting, moving, and spiritually practical, The Endless Practice is filled with universal insights and stories woven with guidance and practice, which will bring the reader closer to living life to the fullest.
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Living Untethered : Beyond the Human Predicament by Michael A. Singer
Living untethered Beyond the Human Predicament provides clear guidance for moving beyond the thoughts, feelings, and habits that keep you stuck, so you can heal the pain of the past and let your spirit soar. Michael A. Singer helps you discover a deeper understanding of where your thoughts and emotions come from, and how they affect your natural energy flow.
Thoughts Without a Thinker by Mark Epstein, M.D.
Upon its first publication, this path breaking book launched an explosion of interest in how Eastern spirituality can enhance Western psychology. emotional life.
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Yoga for Depression by Amy Weintraub
Yoga for Depression is the first yoga book devoted exclusively to the treatment of these debilitating conditions. Amy Weintraub will help readers see their suffering and themselves in a vibrant new light.
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The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich & Andrew Schatt
In light of the unprecedented challenges we've recently faced, there’s never been a greater need to boost our resilience. The Resilience Factor is self-help at its best, destined to become a classic in the genre.
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Raising Resilient Children by Robert Brooks & Sam Goldstein
Raising Resilient Children is the perfect book for parents searching for a caring method to help their children grow into healthy, happy, loving, and mature adults.
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Resilience by Steven M. Southwick & Dennis Charney
Ten key resilience factors, including facing fear, optimism, and relying on role models, through the experiences and personal reflections of highly resilient survivors.
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Building Resilience in Children and Teens by Kenneth R. Ginsberg, M.D.
In this award-winning guide author and pediatrician Dr. Ken Ginsburg shares his 7 crucial Cs: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control.
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Emergency Suicide & Crisis
National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline:
Suicide intervention & other crisis intervention
Address/Phone:
Dial 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255); For Deaf & Hard of Hearing (800) 799-4889
Website:
Crisis Text Line: Text HELLO to 741741 to connect with a trained crisis counselor
Emergency Suicide & Crisis
(Kids & Teens)
The Thread Alliance:
Suicide intervention & other crisis intervention for children & teens
Address/Phone:
(713) 529-8336, (281) 201-4430 (text)
Website:
thethreadalliance.org/kids-and-teens
Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT)
Contact through Integral Care:
Provides crisis intervention at home or in the community
Address/Phone:
(512) 472-HELP (4357)
Psychiatric Emergency Services Clinic
Integral Care's Psychiatric Emergency Services Clinic:
Walk-in service for adults and children experiencing a mental health crisis
Address/Phone:
Richard E. Hopkins Behavioral Health Building, 1165 Airport Blvd., Second Floor, Austin, TX 78701
Psychiatric Emergency Services (teens, young adults)
The Excellence Resource Center (by the Excellence & Advancement Foundation:
Psychiatric emergency services, community support services, navigating the system, case management, support network, mentoring, help find school, ged/high-school equivalency skills & training, interview training
Address/Phone:
D900 Chicon Street, Suite #C66, Austin, TX 78702; 512-505-6484
Website:
Psychiatric Support (middle & high school students)
The Wrap Up (by the Excellence & Advancement Foundation:
Mental health care, community support services, navigating the system, case management, support network, mentoring, ged/high-school equivalency, interview training, skills & training
Address/Phone:
900 Chicon Street, Suite #C66, Austin, TX 78702; 512-505-6484
Website:
Inpatient Hospital (Children)
Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas:
Pediatric inpatient psychiatric care, crisis stabilization
Address/Phone:
4900 Mueller Blvd, Austin, TX 78723; 512-324-0000
Website:
Inpatient Hospital (Children)
Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas:
Pediatric inpatient psychiatric care, crisis stabilization
Address/Phone:
9010 North Lake Creek Pkwy
Austin, TX 78717; 737-707-6000
Website:
Inpatient & Outpatient Hospital (Adults & Adolescents)
Austin State Hospital:
Inpatient psychiatric hospital for adults and adolescents
Address/Phone:
4110 Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78751; 512-452-0381
Website:
Inpatient & Outpatient Hospital (Adults & Adolescents)
Austin Oaks Hospital:
Inpatient care for adults, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient care for adults, children and adolescents, expressive therapy
Address/Phone:
1407 W. Stassney Ln, Austin, TX 78745-2947; 512-610-0847
Website:
Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) & Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP)
Integral Care - Outpatient & IOP Service: Mental health outpatient, IOP, PHP for adults and adolescents
Address/Phone:
1631 E 7th St, Austin, TX 78702; 512-472-HELP (4357)
Website:
Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)
South Meadows Recovery:
PTSD, depression, anxiety, bipolar, drug or alcohol abuse, mental health symptoms
Address/Phone:
15505 Patricia St., Austin, TX 78728; 512-980-6287
Website:
Eating Disorder Treatment
Austin Center for Eating Disorders:
Treatment for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, outpatient services
Address/Phone:
3939 Bee Caves Rd Suite A204, West Lake Hills, TX 78746; 512- 983-6634
Website:
Eating Disorder Treatmment
The Center for Discovery:
Specialized treatment for eating disorders, outpatient and residential options
Address/Phone:
5900 West William Cannon Dr, Austin, TX 78749; 866-984-6071
Website:
Eating Disorder Treatment (Adult, Adolescent, Child)
Eating Recovery Center Austin:
Orthorexia, Anorexia Nervosa. ARFID, Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, Compulsive Overeating, Diabulimia. OSFED
Address/Phone:
12221 Renfert Way #250, Austin, TX 78758; 512-814-8255
Website:
Substance Abuse & Addiction Treatment
Austin Recovery Center:
Detox, inpatient, outpatient, sober living
Address/Phone:
700 E 7th St, Austin, TX 78701; 512-382-0072
Website:
Substance Abuse & Addiction Treatment
Phoenix House Texas:
Substance use treatment, outpatient programs
Address/Phone:
1110 E 52nd St, Austin, TX 78723; 844-748-3927
Website: