Recommended AUDIO TAPES & CD’s
I often walk by the ocean and listen to Audio Tapes & CD’s…they could be books put to tape or a Self-Help/motivational speaker, tapes which bring me into a Spiritual way of being, or tapes I seek out to help with a specific problem I am encountering at that time in my life. Using books or tapes in Counseling is known as Bibliotherapy, and I have always used this approach along with others in my counseling of clients. Listening to tapes or reading books is only a part of self-discovery and healing, and these recommendations are not meant to solve your problems or issues alone.
However, used along with Talk Therapy, the client is educated and brought to a higher level of self-awareness that can bring about healing more effectively and efficiently. I have lent my tapes and books to my clients who visit my Therapy office, which I felt pertained to their specific issues at the time. After reading the book or listening to the tape between our Counseling sessions as "homework" my Client and I would then discuss the profound information in their following session.
Although I personally follow the belief system offered in "A Course in Miracles" which is Christian based, I whole-hearted believe that living "a Spiritual way of life" transcends into all religions, whether the lessons and teachings come from Buddha, Mohammed, the Torah, the Bible, or God (whomever you see him or her to be). My Counseling approach could be called "Spiritual Psychotherapy"; as I often refer to spirituality as a path to wholeness, happiness and healing. Many of the books & tapes recommended also follow and teach the Spiritual path to living a fulfilled, peaceful, happy life – filled with purpose.
Even though you see recommended web links that carry the tapes and books below and other similar self-help materials, many of these recommended books and tapes can be acquired for free at your local library.
Although my personal tape library has reached over 250 tapes, I will only recommend the most inspiring tapes that have helped my clients over the years. I may suggest others during your personal therapy session. They are listed in alphabetical order by Title, under five categories:
Couples & Relationship Issues
Mental Health, Spirituality & Well Being
Parent & Teen Relationships
Women’s Issues
Work & Career Advice
A Course in Love. Joan Gattuso. Examine the patterns in your relationship to discover the warning signs that could take the couple into conflict. Learn to create a "holy relationship" with your soul mate using "A Course in Miracles."
Are you the One for Me? Knowing Who’s Right & Avoiding Who’s Wrong. Barbara DeAngelis. Understand compatibility and getting the most out of your relationship. Evaluate your past & present relationships, love in a more healthy way, and make wiser choices in a partner. Key elements include: the 10 types of relationships that won’t work, know when to say goodbye, 6 essential qualities to look for in a mate.
Creating Love: The Next Stage of Growth. John Bradshaw. Understand your most critical relationships: with parents, children, friends & co-workers, with yourself and with God. Tools to bring hope and new direction to your life, and how to open yourself to the soul-building work of real love to create healthy, loving relationships.
Loving Each Other, The Challenge of Human Relationships. Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D. Learn the key qualities of how your relationships, whether with a friend, lover, or child can be more loving, growing, and lasting. Intimacy, Honesty, Happiness & Forgiveness are each explored in this two-tape presentation.
Making Relationships Work. Barbara DeAngelis, Ph.D. Learn how to keep the magic and passion of love alive, year after year! How to identify warning signals of trouble, break unhealthy love habits, get your partner to open up, and secrets for putting the sizzle back into your Sex life!
On Intimacy, Intimacy & Control, Real Intimacy. Marianne Williamson. Based on "The Course of Miracles," the author challenges us to focus on not "getting" the perfect partner, but on becoming the perfect partner. Intimacy and its role in healthy lives is explored. Live your life in relationships fully, and without fear.
On Intimacy: How to Create a Remarkable Relationship. Harriet Lerner, Ph.D. Confront the myths on women & intimacy to examine those relationships where intimacy is most challenged. Overcome too much distance or conflict, sacrificing the self or one’s self-esteem, and foster maturity and passion in your most important relationships.
On Love…What is Love? Love Without an Agenda. Marianne Williamson. Examine your thoughts, fears, and feelings about love. The expansion of love can help us understand our obsessions, release our past mistakes, and become open to new opportunities for love in our lives. Based on "A Course in Miracles" and spiritual growth in relationships.
Powertalk! On Creating Extraordinary Relationships. Anthony Robbins & Dr. John Gray. Three hours of information on the subtle differences between men & women, and how these differences impact your relationships.
Includes insights & strategies for making improvements in your relationship.
The Good Marriage: How & Why Love Lasts. Judith Wallerstein & Sandra Blakeslee. What is the secret to a happy, long-lasting marriage? Learn the four basic types of marriage: romantic, rescue, companionate & traditional from a study with over 50 couples. This 4-tape study shows couples who’ve kept love alive despite the pressures of everyday life.
A Course in Miracles & Every Day life. Diane Brook Gusic. A two-tape presentation explaining how learning the "Course in Miracles" helps to remove the guilt that is buried deep within our mind through forgiveness. Our reaction to people & events are the result of our belief system. By removing guilt, new possibilities for peace & healing enters our life.
Addiction to Perfection, The Roots of Compulsive Behavior & the Need for Spiritual Fulfillment. Marion Woodman. Explore the hidden causes of compulsion in the lives of men & women using Jungian principles. Learn how a hunger for spiritual fulfillment & the illusory ideal of perfection are the roots to various addictions & compulsive behavior.
A Strategy for Daily Living. Ari Kiev, MD. Practical guidelines in this two-tape series filled with inspirational and motivating common-sense insights and tactics to overcoming feelings of inadequacy, breaking bad habits, improving relationships, discovering hidden talents, and maximizing personal performance in all areas of life.
Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior. Jeffrey Schwartz, MD. A four-step Self-Treatment Method to help alter your Brain Chemistry. Learn the process of relabeling, reattributing, refocusing, and revaluing to defeat OCD tendencies and gain better control of your daily life.
Build Your Self-Esteem. Gael Lindenfield. Gain a new outlook on life as you discover the causes of low self-esteem, steps to change self-destructive habits, strategies for self-protection, and how to overcome fear of change. Learn to relax and become calmer with yourself & others, while feeling more energized and self-reliant.
Changing for Good, The 6 Stages of Change/How to Free yourself from Bad Habits. J. Prochaska, Ph.D. & J. Norcross, Ph.D. Effective life-long changes occur in 6 predicable stages. Once you understand which stage you are in, you can motivate yourself to make new healthy behaviors a permanent part of your life. Make your goals happen!
Conversations with God: Book One & Two. Neale Donald Walsch. Author has conversations with "God," as God talks about personal matters, the necessity of living in the present, and glorifies and demystifies human sexuality.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: P.S. It’s All Small Stuff! Michael Mantell, Ph.D. Thoughtful and practical advice for all of us who take life too seriously. Topics include: marriage, sex, children, aging, health, drugs, stress, anxiety & wisdom.
Emotional Intelligence, Why it can Matter More than IQ. Daniel Goleman. A new vision of excellence that can change the future for our children and us. Emotional Intelligence includes how to nurture and strengthen self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, self-motivation, empathy, and social confidence; key life skills one is not born with.
Losing the Weight of the World: A Spiritual Diet to Nourish the Soul. Jonathan Kramer, Ph.D. & Diane Kramer. This spiritual diet offers 10 eternal principles common to all religious belief systems. Discover how to calm & clarify your mind, identify & handle painful emotions, eliminate self-criticism & guilt, and uncover your meaning & mission in life.
On Spirituality, Souls in School, Quantum Easter. Marianne Williamson. Based on "A Course in Miracles" the author defines what it means to be honestly spiritual in our lives and to recognize the power within.
Overcoming Addictions: The Spiritual Solution. Deepak Chopra, MD. Learn to replace the addictive behavior with enduring sources of joy and spiritual fulfillment. To overcome addiction, the body, mind & spirit must be discussed as a whole along with the role of diet, exercise and meditation to restore imbalances and discover more satisfying alternatives.
The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment. Walter Anderson. The most important class you never took in school; learn how increase your self-confidence and to motivate yourself to succeed in reaching your goals.
The Four Levels of Healing: A Guide to Balancing the Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Aspects of Life. Shakti Gawain. Our lives consist of four levels: Spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. To be whole, we need to heal and balance all four of these aspects. Learn to integrate and balance all four levels & let go of old beliefs that limit you.
The Road Less Traveled & Beyond - Spiritual Growth in the Age of Anxiety. M. Scott Peck, MD. A four-tape series on how to live rich, fulfilling lives in a world filled with stress & anxiety. Learn the simplicity that brings peace.
The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life you Want. Deepak Chopra, MD. Create a shift in perception that opens the mind to the value of spiritual transformation in everyday life. New inner qualities will unfold that help create the life you want. Learn the keys to achieving love, personal fulfillment, and spiritual connectedness.
What is "A Course in Miracles?". Tara Singh. A great tape explaining this philosophic approach of a Spiritual Journey to self-love, forgiveness of others, and a way to cultivate peace in one’s life.
If You Had Controlling Parents - How to Make Peace with your Past & Take your Place in the World. Dan Neuharth, Ph.D. Identify if you are facing adult-life problems caused by unhealthy control in childhood, how to quiet your "inner critics," bring balance to moods & relationships, increase optimism & assertiveness, and achieve greater autonomy.
Mothers & Daughters: Breaking the Patterns that Keep You Stuck. Harriet Lerner, Ph. D. A personal conversation for every woman who seeks to better understand the mystery of the mother-daughter bond. Specific skills & guidelines for changing patterns that keep us stuck, and to better the core relationship in the emotional lives of women.
The Heart of Parenting: Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. John Gottman, Ph.D. How to help your children live happier, more fulfilling lives and determine the style of parent you are. Self-test booklet also critiques your emotional coaching skills. Discusses the effects of marriage & divorce on the child’s emotional health & the father’s role.
The Mother Daughter Revolution: From Betrayal to Power. Elizabeth Debold. How to preserve the pre-adolescent strength, self-esteem & honesty of young girls to insure a productive and self-assured adulthood.
The Moral Intelligence of Children - How to Raise a Moral Child. Robert Coles. Help your kids become good people. Learn how a child can be encouraged to develop empathy, a strong conscience, and to cultivate an inner spiritual growth. How to approach the moral crossroads in the three stages of a child/teen’s life.
Three Steps to a Strong Family. Linda & Richard Eyre. An essential guide for families that improves communication within the family to provide children with a sense of consistency & security. Learn the three-step plan to praise and reward children while conserving time and promoting communication.
Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. Michael Riera, Ph. D. Uncommon advice to break down the often adversarial relationship between parents and teens. Motivation, fair punishment, and advice on teens & sex, drugs & alcohol
A Return to Love. Marianne Williamson. A two-tape collection that explores a woman’s return to herself, and appreciating who she is and what she has become. Learn to eliminate fear to become the best woman you can be.
A Woman’s Worth. Marianne Williamson. This tape explores the dilemmas women face today as well as the many facets of contemporary womanhood: family, work, sex, love and power, while exploring the female spirit & emotion.
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul. Jack Canfield. "Feel-good" stories that motivate women to find the inner strength to happiness and success; whether it be in a relationship, within a family, or in reaching one’s career goals.
On Anger - Where your Anger Comes from and How to Transform It. Harriet Lerner, Ph.D. Women learn how to use anger as a vital life-changing force, and how suppressing anger leads to guilt and self-violation. Use anger constructively and learn to understand the deeper connection between anger, self-esteem and the necessity to change.
Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know! Barbara DeAngelis, Ph.D. Secrets and truths about men that every woman should know. Tips include: "The 5 biggest mistakes women make with men, How to stop giving more than you get, How to communicate so a man will listen, What men say versus what they mean, Secret fears of every man."
The Dance of Anger - A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships. Harriet Lerner, Ph.D. A two-tape guide that shows women how to turn anger into a constructive force for reshaping their lives. Change and clarify relationships rather than remain stuck in emotional distancing, blaming, and fighting patterns.
Why Men are the Way they are. Warren Farrell. Learn the male perspective with empathy so there can be open and loving conversation that will lead to understanding. This 2-part tape addresses many common questions women have. Learn what you wish you knew "before" your first date! How to create the powerful, passionate love you deserve.
Awaken the Giant Within: How to take Immediate Control of your Mental, Emotional, Physical & Financial Destiny! Anthony Robbins. Learn to uncap your abilities, talents and skills and wake up the Giant that lives within you. Immediately change dis-empowering habits to understand why you do - what you do. Develop a new set of beliefs, values and rules that will guide your emotions and behaviors in the direction of your dreams for lasting changes.
Guide to Business Etiquette. Emily Post. Advice on gender roles in the workplace, conducting meetings, and interviewing. Knowledge in manners and etiquette gives you the confidence you need to succeed in business.
Pushing the Envelope All the Way to the Top. Harvey Mackay. Put the fun, creativity and challenge back into business and reach the top of your business learning the essential qualities all leaders have in common.
Swim With the Sharks Without being Eaten Alive. Harvey Mackay. A tape on sales, leadership and management. A useful tool for those who seek fresh and stimulating ideas on how to be successful in business or in daily life. Refers often to the Mackay 66: 66 tips to succeed in sales and business.
The Best of David Viscott: Risking, Winning, How to be your Own Therapist & 52 minutes to Turn your Life Around. Dr. David Viscott. Specific, no-nonsense techniques you need to make your work, your relationships, and your life be the way you want it to. Discover your strengths and overcome your weaknesses in both your career and personal life.
The Seven Laws of Succes: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of your Dreams. Deepak Chopra. Learn the seven simple, yet powerful principles that can easily be applied to create success and quality in all areas of your life.
Unlimited Power. Anthony Robbins. An excellent tool for anyone inspiring to be the best they can be within their chosen career. Motivate yourself to succeed through Tony’s inspiring lecture and stories on how you can have the power to achieve whatever it is you desire!
