Dr. Jacqueline Carleton

Overcoming Your Difficult Family: 8 Skills for Thriving in Any Family Situation

Family life can be difficult; the interconnectedness of family can spark conflict that is hard to avoid. Family difficulties take many forms therefore there is no easy solution or magical fix for dysfunctional families. Family members can influence each other but can only control how they, as an individual, respond to the conflict. In his self-help book Overcoming Your Difficult Family: 8 Skills for Thriving in Any Family Situation, Eric Maisel presents eight skills anyone can acquire and utilize to help themselves through difficult familial circumstances, and in turn hopefully influence the whole family unit in a positive way.

The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD

The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD teaches readers how to overcome “flashbacks, shame, guilt and fear” using compassion-focused therapy. Deborah A. Lee and Sophie James provide readers with insight into the mechanisms of post-traumatic stress and a practical self-guided approach to overcome it.

Shift into Freedom – The Science and Practice of Open-hearted Awareness.

Shift into Freedom by Loch Kelly is a great primer on mindfulness. Surprisingly, he doesn’t rely on the cache of overused words like meditation, mindfulness, or awakening to legitimize his approach. While the western world often uses words like awareness and attention interchangeably, he defines attention as using the mind to focus, while awareness is a heart-centered way to experience life.

The Dark side of Personality

The Dark Side of Personality uses the dark triad of personality traits as a building block to discuss a wide array of socially maladaptive traits. Divided into five main sections, the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions, the authors discuss antagonism, disinhibition, rigidity, and negative affectivity. Under each section, several subcategories are addressed in individual chapters and are broken down further.