Books From Your Therapist

In this episode we’re joined by therapist, author, and somatic practitioner Simone Saunders to explore what it means to truly feel our feelings and reconnect with our bodies. Simone shares how somatic therapy can help us understand safety, regulation, and connection as embodied experiences, and introduces the framework from her book Where Do You Feel That In Your Body?. We also dive into bell hooks’ The Will to Change and explore masculinity, emotional intimacy, and the ways patriarchy teaches men to disconnect from their emotions.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Amanda and Tara explore the “fawn” response to trauma—the lesser-known fourth F alongside fight, flight, and freeze. We discuss Meg Josephson’s Are You Mad at Me?, a trauma-informed guide to people-pleasing, boundaries, and the fear of disappointing others, before turning to Sally Rooney’s Normal People to explore how fawning, self-worth, intimacy, and class anxiety show up in fiction. Plus, we ask the big question: will Connell and Marianne ever learn to be honest about what they really need?You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month, we're joined by award-winning journalist Amanda McCracken to talk about her debut book, When Longing Becomes Your Lover alongside the classic psychology text Love and Limerence by Dorothy Tennov.In When Longing Becomes Your Lover, McCracken shares her personal experience with limerence and explores how this unfulfilled desire can quietly become central to our identity. The term limerence was introduced by Dorothy Tennov in her book, Love and Limerence. Through interviews and case studies, this book explores the obsessive thoughts, uncertainty and longing for reciprocation that characterise limerence, while distinguishing it from real love.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month we're joined by Dr. Juli Fraga, psychologist and co-author of Parents Have Feelings, Too, to explore emotional honesty, why repair matters more than perfection and how understanding our own emotions helps us raise emotionally healthy children.Our second book is Orenda Fink's memoir The Witch's Daughter, a beautifully written exploration of mother-daughter relationships, intergenerational trauma, creativity, and resilience. Together we discuss emotional regulation, inherited family patterns, and how storytelling and music can help us make sense of complicated emotional lives.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Books From Your Therapist, we’re joined by therapist and author Dr. Han Ren to discuss her debut book The Hyphenated Life. Dr. Ren is committed to making mental health accessible and resonant, especially for historically overlooked communities and her book is a powerful reflection on navigating identity, belonging, and the complexities of living between cultures.This conversation is paired with What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo, a deeply personal memoir on complex PTSD, trauma, and resilience. We discuss the power of storytelling in healing, the realities of living with trauma, and why understanding your past doesn’t always mean you’re free from it.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Amanda and Tara explore the powerful and often misunderstood difference between loneliness and being alone, and how to find a healthy balance between solitude and connection. The books we're talking about are: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and Alone: On Different Ways of Living by Daniel Schreiber. Through these works, we reflect on friendship, independence, aging, and the many forms love can take beyond romantic relationships. You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Books from Your Therapist, we’re joined by therapist and author Andrea Gutiérrez-Glik to talk about her debut book Healing the Oppressed Body. Together, we explore how trauma healing can be reimagined through an anti-oppression lens, centring the experiences of those left out of mainstream mental health conversations. Andrea shares her approach to “oppression-based trauma,” and how compassion, freedom, and community can support deep, sustainable healing.In the second half of the episode, we discuss The Loving Parent Guidebook by ACA WSO Inc. and explore the practice of reparenting. From inner child work to finding supportive community, this conversation offers thoughtful, practical entry points for anyone curious about healing in a more holistic and inclusive way.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents)Content note: this episode includes discussion of trauma. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month, we’re diving deep into shame, mother wounds, and the stories women are finally telling out loud.We sit down with author Melissa Petro to talk about her powerful debut, Shame on You. With fearless honesty, Petro unpacks the social systems that teach women we’re never enough. Blending investigative reporting, science, literature, and raw personal stories—including her own—she challenges the narrative of inadequacy and offers a bold, liberating way forward.We also explore Mother Hunger by Kelly McDaniel, a groundbreaking look at how unmet childhood needs shape our adult relationships. McDaniel names and destigmatizes the pain of being “under-mothered,” connecting the dots between early trauma and destructive patterns—and, more importantly, offering practical tools for healing, self-understanding, and healthier love.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok & YouTube: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents)Follow Tara on Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month we talk with Christine Droney, LCSW about grief, dealing with loss and life after death. The books we discuss are Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go by Gina Moffa and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.After nearly two decades of clinical experience and her own journey after losing her mother to cancer, Gina Moffa knows all too well how disorienting, painful, and lonely grief can be. In Moving on Doesn’t Mean Letting Go, she offers a heartfelt, practical map through loss—one that can shift the pain of your grief even when things feel unpredictable and overwhelming.At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air is a profoundly moving memoir chronicling both his life and death.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok & YouTube: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents)Follow Tara on Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month we talk with Oona Metz, LICSW about divorce, starting over and discovering yourself again. We discuss Oona's newly released book, Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women and Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage by Heather Sweeney.In Unhitched, nationally recognized divorce expert and therapist Oona Metz provides a compassionate yet practical roadmap through every stage of the divorce process. Filled with key takeaways, reassuring insights, and inclusive stories tailored for women in both heterosexual and LGBTQ+ relationships, Unhitched offers a reassuring guide to life before, during, and after divorce.Camouflage is about a woman’s journey from being overshadowed by her husband’s military career to rediscovering her identity as a single mother entering a new stage in life. After camouflaging her identity to conform to the expected role of the supportive military spouse, Heather Sweeney emerged from the shadows of her husband’s Navy career to rediscover herself.You can find us:Instagram, Threads, TikTok & YouTube: @booksfromyourtherapistPodcast: Acast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen!Work with Amanda (California residents)Follow Tara on Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.