Resources
A range of easy to use resources to support your mental health and well-being.
Crisis & Emergency Care
9-8-8
National Suicide Crisis Helpline – call or text
310-6789
BC Mental Health & Crisis Response
1-800-SUICIDE / 1-800-784-2433
BC Suicide Prevention and Intervention Line
WEBSITES & APPS –
Anxiety
BOOKS –
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor
- How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind, Pema Chodron
- Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom, Rick Hanson
- When the Body Says No: The Hidden Cost of Stress, Gabor Mate
WEBSITES & APPS –
- Anxiety Canada, information to help you understand anxiety, as well as resources and tools to help you manage your anxiety.
- Mood Disorders Association of British Columbia
- Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), BC Division
- Calm – app with guided meditations for relaxation and sleep
- Balance app – meditation for sleep, stress, and more
- Mindshift CBT, app from Anxiety Canada
- Pause a Moment, tailored tools and techniques
- Insight Timer – free guided meditations
- Headspace app – more meditations
Depression / low mood
BOOKS –
- The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression, Lauren Dockett
- It’s Not Always Depression, Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self, Hilary Jacobs Hendel
WEBSITES & APPS –
- Mood Disorders Association of British Columbia
- Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), BC Division
- SuperBetter app, daily challenges to gamify your mental health
Emotions / Other
BOOKS –
- Atlas of the heart: Mapping Meaningful Connect and the Language of Human Experience, Brene Brown
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brene Brown
- The Gifts of Imperfection: Your Guide to a Wholehearted Life, Brene Brown
WEBSITES & OTHER MEDIA –
- Feelings Wheel, an intricate map of human emotion
- Needs & Feelings list, a comprehensive list of needs and feelings
- Mental health 101
- Here to Help
- Numinous podcast, about intuition, spirituality and the mystery of life
- How to be alone, a video with some nice ideas
Anger
BOOKS –
- The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships, Harriet Lerner
- Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, Soraya Chemaly
- Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames, Thich Nhat Hanh
HANDOUTS –
- Anger Mountain
Relationships / Attachment
BOOKS –
- Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, Elizabeth Gilbert
- The All or Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work, Eli J. Finkel
- Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, Sue Johnson
- The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, John Gottman
- Mating In Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, Esther Perel
- Come as you are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life, Emily Nagoski (Sexual Health)
- Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples; Harville Hendrix
- How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It, Patricia Love and Stephen Stosny
- Wired for Love: How Understanding Your Partner’s Brain and Attachment Style Can Help You Defuse Conflict and Build a Secure Relationship, Stan Tatkin
- Insecure in Love: How Anxious Attachment Can Make You Feel Jealous, Needy, and Worried and What You Can Do About It, Leslie Becker-Phelps
- Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love, Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller
- Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, Gottman
- The Course of Love, Alain de Botton
- Married to Distraction: How to Restore Intimacy and Strengthen Your Partnership in an Age of Interruption, Edward M. Hallowell, Sue Hallowell and Melissa Orlov
OPEN RELATIONSHIPS / ETHICAL NON-MONOGAMY (ENM) –
- The Ethnical Slut, A practical guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and other freedoms in sex and love, Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
- Opening Up, A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, Tristan Taormino
- More Than Two, A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory, Franklin Veaux & Eve Rickert
PODCASTS –
- Small Things Often, Gottman podcast
- Where Should We Begin?, Esther Perel podcast
- Forever is a long time podcast, looking into relationship questions
WEBSITES –
Communication
BOOKS –
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler and Emily Gregory
- Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time, Susan Scott
- There is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love, Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell
WEBSITES –
Aging
BOOKS –
- From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, Arthur C. Brooks
- Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up, James Hollis
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
Holistic & General Healing
WEBSITES & APPS –
- Here to Help – mental health resources in BC
- Mental Health Support – including low cost counselling
- Checking in app – indigenous led site for checking and tracking healing
- Tao Connect app – CBT-based mental health
- Simple Habit app – meditations for stress relief, creating habits, and better sleep
Trauma
BOOKS –
- Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, Pete Walker
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk
- Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Peter Levine
- The Myth of Normal – Gabor Mate
- What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma – Stephanie Foo
- No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model – Richard Schwartz
FILMS –
WEBSITES & HANDOUTS –
Mindfulness / Self-compassion
BOOKS –
- The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer
- When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, Pema Chodron
- How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind, Pema Chodron
- Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, Kristen Neff
- Peace Is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life, Morgan Harper Nichols
WEBSITES, APPS & OTHER MEDIUM –
- Pema Chodron Foundation
- Self-compassion.org, Kristen Neff
- Compassionate Mind
- Tara Brach
- Somatic Self-compassion
- Tara Brach, meditations
- Moonly app, meditations, affirmations, soothing sounds
- Mantra Deck, Erin Merrihew
Alcohol & Substance Use
- 1-800-663-1441 – Alcohol and Drug information service
WEBSITES & APPS –
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services – services for substance support
- Vancouver Coastal Health substance use support
- Reframe app – psychology-based help for cutting back and managing addiction
Stress
BOOKS –
- Burn out: the Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, Emily Nagoski
HANDOUTS –
- I’m so stressed out! infographic
Grief
BOOKS –
- The Crafting of Grief: Constructing Aesthetic Responses to Loss, Lorraine Hedtke
- Conscious Grieving: The Path of Awakening Through Loss, Taraneh Erfan King
- On Death and Dying, What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy & Their Own Families, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand, Megan Devine
APPS & OTHER MEDIA –
PODCASTS –
Work & Creativity
BOOKS –
- The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Steven Pressfield
- The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
- How to Find Fulfilling Work, Roman Krznaric
- The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain de Botton
Gender-based Violence
BOOKS –
- When Love Hurts: A Woman’s Guide to Understanding Abuse in Relationships, Jill Cory and Karen McAndless-Davis
WEBSITES & HANDOUTS –
Need Other Resources?
Please contact me if you have resources to share or a recommendation to check out. I love hearing about things that have worked for you.