Book Reviews - Santa Barbara Therapy

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

By: Eckhart Tolle Publisher: Penguin

Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose is an important book which spans many themes familiar to psychotherapists, and which adds a spiritual dimension and a humanistic vision which speaks to all of us. According to Tolle, a central purpose of his book is to introduce a shift in consciousness, an "awakening" in the reader that can be put into immediate practice and that cannot be put into words. read more

With appreciation to Margaret George-Cramer for supplying this Book's Review.

Emotional Wisdom: Daily Tools for Transforming Anger, Depression, and Fear

By: Mantak Chia and Dena Saxer Publisher: New World Library

For clinicians who appreciate somatic and experiential approaches to working with clients' painful emotions, here's a brand new, little gem of a book you'll want to check out. As someone who purchases books on emotional healing, I got an advance notice on this one from Amazon and pre-ordered it for my Kindle. I read it in two sittings and it didn't disappoint. I wish I'd bought the paperback copy, though. It turned out to be such a handy reference that I want to flip through it freely and look things up, which isn't so easy on the Kindle. read more

With appreciation to Angela Holland for supplying this Book's Review.

Energy Tapping for Trauma

By: Fred Gallo, Ph.D. Publisher: New Harbinger

Dr. Fred Gallo's book about treating trauma and PTSD by tapping acupressure points will please both lay readers and professionals. The information flows effortlessly from chapter to chapter, starting with definitions of trauma, the ways that trauma has been treated before the advent of Energy Psychology, and an overview of alternative trauma treatments like EMDR, TIR and V/KD.

With appreciation to Gloria Arenson for supplying this Book's Review.

Exploring a Sense of Place

By: Karen Harwell & Joanna Reynolds Publisher: Conexions

Exploring a Sense of Place, by Karen Harwell and Joanna Reynolds, offers a straightforward, ground-up possibility. It's fundamentally a practical guide, showing us concrete ways to get to know the natural world we inhabit, helping us to move from an abstract idea of planetary wholeness, to a direct relationship with our immediate surroundings. read more

With appreciation to Angelica R Jochim for supplying this Book's Review.

Save the Planet - On the Survival of an Arrogant Species

If you Google the phrase �save the planet� you will get more than three million hits. There are more than 4,500 books and other publications and more than 5000 videos posted on the web with �save the planet� as part of their title. Even allowing for the obvious sci-fi take on this and similar phrases (e.g. �save the world�), there are an enormous number of serious publications, essays, videos, and other media content devoted to this subject, and the majority of them concern environmental issues. read more

With appreciation to Roy Mankovitz for supplying this Book's Review.

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

By: Irvin Yalom, M.D. Publisher: Jossey-Bass

In wondering how to write this review, I took a cue from Yalom�s new book. Writing letters of gratitude to those we deeply admire helps to bring life into the open and to express our true feelings that are often left unspoken, or put in eulogies or memorials after death. So this is my expression of gratitude to Yalom for his writing. read more

With appreciation to Suzanne Retzinger for supplying this Book's Review.

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

By: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn Publisher: The Guilford Press

This book is the latest work by the authors of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (The Guilford Press, 2001) and is aimed at a general readership. It uses Jon Kabat-Zinn�s approach to mindfulness practice as the foundation for an 8-week program to alleviate depression; it claims to cut the risk of relapse by half in sufferers of repeated bouts of depression. read more

With appreciation to Angela Holland-Zimmer, MA, MFT for supplying this Book's Review.

The Unimaginable Life: Lessons Learned on the Path of Love

By: Kenny & Julia Loggins Publisher: Harper

When I bought this book in 1997, the year it was published, I was fascinated by the concept of a rock star and his partner writing about their relationship. But there was more. The book also came with a CD of music and poetry written to accompany the prose, and that appealed to me. The concept also spawned Kenny�s album �The Unimaginable.� Both Kenny and Julia were avid journal writers and excerpts of these journals from the 1960s to the 1990s abound in the book. read more

With appreciation to Jennifer S. Larsen for supplying this Book's Review.

This I Believe

By: Jay Allison & Dan Gediman Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

The simple, This I Believe, (2007), is a book. It is an astonishing book that was started in the 1950's when Edward R. Murrow and a prominent cast of individuals and corporations began a program with the same name that initially invited powerful and celebrated individuals of that time to write 500-600 word essays about core principals or convictions that guided their life. read more

With appreciation to Ned Bixby for supplying this Book's Review.

Toward Psychologies of Liberation

By: Mary Watkins and Helene Shulman Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

As I write this review, I have before me an online piece of research arguing that the blink rate of political candidates correlates with whether they win an election. After decades of involvement in the field of psychology, the disgust rising in me has a familiar sourness to it. read more

With appreciation to Craig Chalquist, Ph.D. for supplying this Book's Review.

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Santa Barbara Chapter