The GetPsyched Reading List 2019

Welcome to the GetPsyched reading list 2019!

I love reading, and there is nothing I love more than a good psychology book.

I developed this reading list based off of some of my favourite books over the past few years.

If you are a psychology student, graduate, qualified psychologist, therapist or simply just interested in the topic of psychology then there will be a book in here for you, or maybe two, or maybe all of them!

Check out my reviews of all 20 books and simply click on the name of the book to be taken straight to a link to purchase it!

GRIT

I’m kicking off the GetPsyched reading list with one of my favourite books from last year.

Grit, by Angela Duckworth, utilises real empirical psychological research to establish the key characteristic that determines the difference between the successful and unsuccessful.

That key characteristic is Grit!

Grit meaning the determination to continue to pursue goals and objectives regardless of failure.

Not only this, but grit also means the desire to learn from failure and apply that learning to the next attempt to achieve their goals.

This is a brilliant book, well written and not your typical hard to read psychology book full of jargon and difficult concepts. A real must read for 2019!

Click here to buy Grit.

BLACKBOX THINKING

Blackbox thinking really came at the right time for me.

I had just started my doctorate in counselling psychology and was struggling to come to terms with a failed assignment.

This book really opened my eyes to the power and true purpose of failure.

Blackbox Thinking looks at different professional industries in our society and tries to teach lessons of industries that refuse to learn from failure, those that do and the differences in those industries as a result.

If you want to gain a better understanding of what failure is all about, the purpose and power of what failure can do for us, then this book is a must read!

Click here to buy Blackbox Thinking

ON BECOMING A PERSON

Carl Rogers is one of the greatest pioneers of psychotherapy and psychology!

His work created a new age of therapeutic work during times of psychodynamic and behaviourist principles.

With a focus on the client as an individual, in their subjective world, Rogers’ work was revolutionary.

This book really encapsulates his ideology and philosophy better than any other.

What’s more, is that you don’t need to be a therapist to really appreciate and gain benefit from his work and knowledge

A new appreciation of the individual, empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence, an appreciation of the principles in this book and enhance the life of any reader, from any background and profession.

Click here to buy On Becoming A Person.

FLOW

 

The book, unsurprisingly so, introduces the concept of ‘flow’.

Flow is a state that if reached, it is argued, can enrich the lives of people, and is the key to true happiness.

 combination of a number of things such as minimising some of the challenges we catastrophise in life, as well as learning from our failures encapsulates what flow is about, however, it includes so much more.

This book is a bit of a classic in psychology and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Backed with real sound empirical principles this book is one for the people looking to introduce a new concept in their lives to experience some more happiness in 2019!

 

Click here to buy Flow

SCRIPTS PEOPLE LIVE

Scripts People Live is a classic Transactional Analysis (TA) text

It really goes in depth to one of the most intriguing aspects of TA therapy

Scripts, in short, are functions, routines and plans that are laid out by us from birth, with how we plan to live our lives.

Understand the script that you live can be a vital part of self-discovery and treatment for mental health issues TA argues

Click here to buy Scripts People Live

OUTLIERS

This, for me, is Malcolm Gladwell’s best work.

He illustrates in this book how being separate and different from the pack can be to your great advantage when trying to excel and get ahead in life.

So often, people want to be on the best sports team, at the best university or hired by the best company, but does this really give us the opportunity to be an outlier?

Does this really give us the opportunity to stand out from the pack, be different, be noticed and great opportunities for ourselves?

In this book, Gladwell outlines how being different and separate from the rest could be one of your greatest strengths.

Using some incredible examples, from industries and professions from all over the work, Gladwell outlines this point superbly!

Click here to buy Outliers

THINKING FAST AND SLOW

Thinking fast and slow can be a challenging read I will not deny it

However, this is in the GetPsyched Reading List 2019 because of how thought-provoking it is.

If you can get past the challenges you might experience in reading it, this book talks in great detail about the two different parts of our decision making brain, the logic behind them and how it rules everything we do.

How rational we think we are when we are reactive compared to when we are considered and think situations through thoroughly, is very different from reality.

A really really insightful read.

Click here to by Thinking Fast and Slow

DAVID AND GOLIATH

 

This is by far and away one of Gladwell’s best books.

He takes some really simple concepts and stories and outlines how having few advantages can actually be one of your biggest advantages.

What I love most about this book is the way Gladwell turns society perceptions on its heads.

So often we think we need more than we really do to be the success we want to be…Gladwell outlines this wonderfully.

 

Click here to buy David and Goliath

 

LOVES EXECUTIONER

Love Executioner has to be my favourite book of all time in the therapeutic field.

I have read this book numerous times, and as a trainee psychologist myself, I get something different from it every single time.

Yalom is one of the most experiences psychotherapists you could imagine, and in Love Executioner, he goes into detail about some of his most memorable cases, for good reasons and bad.

What is amazing about this book is Yalom’s fearlessness about expressing his failures as a therapist.

He does not write this book in an attempt to outline is brilliance, but rather to be open and honest about the realities of working in therapy.

Each case is different, and each case is as exciting and interesting as the next.

What’s more is that Yalom himself learns something new from each client and outlines some of his thinking patterns and therapeutic philosophies as he writes.

This is an incredible book!

Click here to buy Loves Executioner

THE GIFT OF THERAPY

Similar to his other work, Yalom in the Gift of Therapy talks about his personal experiences and process of becoming the establish therapist he is today.

He goes into brutal detail about his trials and successes, something I rarely come across form professional therapists talking about their work.

The lessons he has learned and is willing to relay to the reader are so so valuable.

I really believe this book is not only a must read for therapists and trainees, but for anyone wishing to develop empathic and interpersonal skills with a desire to communicate and relate to others better.

Click here to buy The Gift of Therapy

CREATURES OF A DAY

Creatures of a day, another one of Yalom’s books (you’re getting a sense of a theme here), is very similar to Loves Executioner.

He goes into depth about some of his most challenging clients, why he related to well to some, why he found some so difficult, and what they all taught him.

If you buy and liked Loves Executioner then you’ll want to buy this also!

Click here to buy Creatures Of A Day

MOMMA AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

Momma and the meaning of life is similar to Yalom’s other texts but also very different.

Again, a case study based book, Yalom looks at some compelling clients he has worked with but focusses his writing more on the character of the individuals and what is instilled in Yalom as a result.

A deeply reflective practitioner, Yalom shares some of his deepest vulnerabilities and personal challenges in this book that are surfaced as a result of the work he conducts with each client.

One to read after to have read the other Yalom recommended books, but one that brings a new dimension to his valuable and insightful work.

 

Click here to buy Momma And Me

THE ALCHEMIST

The Alchemist is a bit of a cult classic.

I won’t deny it, at times it can be difficult to read.

However, immersing yourself in this book and learning the lessons of following your dreams and overcoming any obstacle, makes it a fantastic read.

Click here to buy The Alchemist

WORKING AT RELATIONAL DEPTH

This book should be on any trainee or qualified therapist’s reading list.

Cooper and Mearns have written numerous books together but this is a stand out for me.

They look at the concept of the relationship between client and therapists and outline is value, principles and functionality in the therapeutic dynamic.

The therapeutic relationship is the key ingredient to any successful therapy and this book outlines how to do it and value it right!

Click here to buy Relational Depth

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY

 

 

One of the questions I get asked the most is about counselling psychology.

What is it? How is it different from clinical? What do counselling psychologists do?

It can be hard to give the answers that people want from me at times…however, this book as all the answers.

I use this book to this day when outlining key principles and identities in counselling psychology.

With it’s easy to read, digestible principles, its a brilliant read for anyone interested in the field of counselling psychology.

 

Click here to buy A Short Introduction To Counselling Psychology

 

THE EXAMINED LIFE

This book is all about insight.

Much like some of Yalom’s work, this book is based around case studies.

However, this is so applicable for not only therapists but anyone interested in understanding what it takes to overcome some of the most challenging circumstances in life.

The Examined Life is Looks at what insights clients make about themselves, other people and the world around them, and how this can at times be all that is required to achieve healing.

A really moving book.

 

Click here to buy The Examined Life

 

AWAKENINGS

 

Out of all the books on the GetPSyched Reading List 2019, this one blew me away more than any other.

The book outlines the lives of a terrifying condition experienced by only a handful of people in the USA where they were aware of the world around them but unable to speak, move or engage with it.

After 40 years in hospital, these patients were temporarily awoken due to the administration of a new drug.

Ill leave you to find out the rest but this book is both shocking and brilliantly written.

 

Click here to buy Awakenings

THE TRIBES OF THE PERSON CENTRED NATION

A real favourite therapeutic approach book of mine.

The tribes of person-centred do a wonderful job of outlining the different approaches to one of the most famous branches of therapy.

At times person-centred therapy and the different viewpoints of it can be very confusing…this makes sense of it though.

It gives great details of the different forms of PCT and the functionality of hem in practice.

 

Click here to buy The Tribes of the Person-Centred Nation

 

PAVLOVS DOGS AND OTHER EXPERIMENTS

This is one of those books that I just love picking up every now and again.

It’s by no means a self-discovery or intellectual based book but it is so so fun to read and actually gives more detail than I thought it would at first.

If like me you are interested in the basic principles of psychology but have limited time or resources to remind your self of some of the experiments that established these principles…then this is the book for you.

It gives wonderful illustrations and descriptions of the most famous studies in psychologies history.

It’s so easy to read and a really nice break from some of the harder texts I read often.

This book also looks at some of the ethical and legal issues some of these studies raised as well as their findings and how they still influence our lives and understand of psychology today. A really brilliant book!

Click here to buy Pavlov’s Dogs And Other Experiments

THE PSYCHOLOGY BOOK

Very similar to Pavlov’s Dogs and Other Experiments, the Psychology Book is one of those books I love to big up and just have a scan through.

Its nothing heavy and in truth was actually given to me as a bit of a joke.

It’s honestly brilliant though.

It’s a book that makes some of the most challenging and difficult to absorb concepts and principles in psychology easy to digest.

With awesome illustrations and key facts about studies, research, psychologists and experiments, it is everything you need in order to learn the most valuable points of some of the key principles to psychology.

Click here to buy The Psychology Book

 

And that does it folks

Thanks so much for reading the GetPsyched Reading List 2019, make sure to click on the links for each of the books to be taken to options to buy them, each of them really is as brilliant as the next.

Let us know how you liked them as well once you’ve taken a look at them.

And happy reading fro 2019!

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