psychology – The Self-Help Whisperer®

Toxic Friends – Deep Dive

2 Aug 20222 Aug 2022

Taking a deep dive into Toxic Friends by Susan Shapiro Barash was not as enjoyable as one might expect. Which is to say... It was mildly enjoyable. A little hurty. But oh-so-necessary!…

From My Bookshelf

What’s Stopping Me From Being Happy? – Newbie Must-Have!

15 May 2022

I first saw What’s Stopping Me From Being Happy? by Lisa Ellis on my Facebook timeline. Although I’ve taken down my professional FB page, I kept my personal one. Throughout…

From My Bookshelf

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem – Er, Seven Actually

24 Apr 2022

Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves. That judgment impacts every moment and every aspect of our existence.…

From My Bookshelf

The Dance of Deception – Apropos

14 Mar 2022

I should begin today with a short (Haha. Me. Short?) digression... A couple of days ago I wrote this post. That day was one of my worst in a month…

Self-Help Whispering

A Note For YOU! At Your Fingertips!

24 Jan 2022

In late December, I was involved in a kitchen catastrophe! I was splitting peas after a long day in the fields and didn’t notice that I’d picked up a machete…

From My Bookshelf

Shifting Shorelines – Gifted Writer

8 Sep 20218 Sep 2021

Oh, how I wish I could live on an island surrounded by a blue-green ocean... I'd walk barefoot on white, sandy beaches collecting shells, with the sun on my face…

Self-Help Whispering

Finding Joe – The Hero’s Journey & Bliss

2 Jun 2021

“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery…

From My Bookshelf

Infinite Self – Ah, as I’ve always said…

3 Apr 2021

Stuart Wilde is a prolific writer! I'll be honest in saying that I'd never heard of him before I picked up Infinite Self in a thrift store. It's funny... because…

From My Bookshelf

Spiritually Sassy – Radical, baby!

18 Feb 202118 Feb 2021

Just two days ago, I shared a teensy-tiny hint about this book. I've given it the once-over and now have gone back to the beginning to dig in and work…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – Second Wind

13 Feb 2021

“How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young…” Dr. Bill Thomas Second Wind by Dr. Bill Thomas is part history, part sociology, part medicine, part advocacy, and part…

From My Bookshelf

Sacred Contracts – Jumping off a cliff

16 Jan 202122 Feb 2021

“Our individual souls hum actively within a kind of global soul comprising all life on the planet. Our words, thoughts, deeds, and visions influence our individual health just as they…

From My Bookshelf

Bradshaw On: The Family – Best of the best!

12 Jan 2021

“We have no alternative. We must break the sacred rule and question these rules because unless we talk about them, there is no way out. We must evaluate them in…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – Passing for Normal

30 Oct 2020

I picked today’s book from my bookshelf for one reason and one reason only: The title. Yes, sometimes it really is that simple. Passing for Normal by Amy S. Wilensky is the kind…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – The Hero Within

8 Oct 20208 Oct 2020

No matter how much people want to feel loved, appreciated, and a part of things, they will be lonely until they make a commitment to themselves, a commitment that is…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – I’m OK – You’re OK

12 Sep 2020

“Three things make people want to change. One is that they hurt sufficiently. They have beat their heads against the same wall so long that they decide they have had…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one?* – The Road Less Traveled

6 Aug 202026 Sep 2020

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. An excerpt from the poem, “The Road Not…

From My Bookshelf

Healing the Child Within – For Crying Out Loud!

3 Aug 20203 Aug 2020

Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear for I wear a mask, a thousand masks, masks that I'm afraid to take off, and none…

Self-Help Whispering

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Old Lady & the Buffyverse

21 Jul 202011 Aug 2020

What is an old lady like me doing watching a series about teenaged vampire slayers? Good question! Sit in a comfy chair with a cup of herbal tea (or in…

From My Bookshelf

The Dreaming I – Another “Mom’s Pick”

13 Jul 202015 Sep 2021

If Heather can have a pick, my mom sure-as-heck should, too! She finds the best books! So, a preemptive Thanks, Mom! The Dreaming I by Kezia Vida was a gift…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – Many Lives, Many Masters

20 Apr 202020 Apr 2020

Brian L. Weiss, MD is a psychiatrist, trained at Columbia University and Yale Medical School. He was, he admits, a man of science first… and a skeptic when it came to matters of spirituality…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – Going Within

11 Apr 2020

If you are anywhere *near* around my age, you know who Shirley Mclaine is… and you have some thoughts about her. Perhaps you remember her from her Oscar-winning turn in Terms of Endearment? Or that…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – “Her name, Titanic”

29 Mar 202029 Mar 2020

March 29, 2020: Sometimes I feel led to share something and don't know why. This post jumped out at me today so I'm sharing it. It's one of my favorites!…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? – “Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain”

21 Mar 2020

I remember the first time I mentioned to my doctor that I believe I have Fibromyalgia. She rolled her eyes. I stopped as I wrote that last part, about her…

From My Bookshelf

Remember this one? -The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

20 Feb 202025 Feb 2020

When The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey came out in 1989, it was a game-changer. I’m not the first person to write about it… it’s been written about, discussed…

From My Bookshelf

Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy – Beveled pages, cut heart

15 Nov 201930 Apr 2022

My copy of Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy by David S. Awbrey is stunning! The pages are beveled along the edges ... you know how I love that!…

From My Bookshelf

Memory and Abuse – With a caveat

11 Nov 201928 Apr 2022

Charles L. Whitfield, MD is one of my favorite self-help authors. I've mentioned him before regarding his excellent book Healing the Child Within. However, today we are talking about Memory and Abuse…

From My Bookshelf

The Tao of Dreaming – East meets West meets my weird dream

1 Jul 20199 Oct 2019

This is not the first time I've talked about dreams. There's a good reason for that and it's incredibly, psychically deep: I like dreams. Ha, you thought I was gonna…

From My Bookshelf

Dr. Phil McGraw – How’s that working for you?

9 Jun 201912 Aug 2020

It's an "Easy like Sunday" and I have a headache. Boo. Hiss. I decided that today, instead of writing about a particular book, I'd write about a person who is…

Self-Help Whispering

Remember this one? – A Shining Affliction

26 Apr 2019

I feel your pain... … because it’s my story and my pain, too. I’ve always wondered how psychotherapists, psychiatrists and social workers live after hearing about catastrophic abuses. I get…

Self-Help Whispering

Easy like Sunday – DON’T GO THERE! (This flies in the face of everything I’ve read about healing trauma.)

21 Apr 201912 Aug 2020

As many of you know, my mother is a Dr. Mom (Ph.D. Jungian therapist) and I respect her immensely. She has been my guru and my muse on many-a-post(s) here.…

From My Bookshelf

A Series – The Tapping Solution – Part 1

9 Mar 201915 Sep 2021

Something disappointing happened this last week. Well, disappointing is probably too light a word... it was ... kind of ... devistating. Through it, an interesting thing happened and it is…

From My Bookshelf

What Your Childhood Memories Say About You – I need a Tylenol

23 Feb 201911 Sep 2020

What Your Childhood Memories Say About You by Dr. Kevin Leman will lead you back to childhood to reflect on what you remember. Me? My first childhood memory is bathed in…

From My Bookshelf

Making Sense of the Men in Your Life – Oh, brother!

17 Jan 20199 Oct 2019

"True story: a young mother was giving her three-year-old son a bath when he looked up and said, Mommy, I love my penis." - page 43 It would be so…

From My Bookshelf

Romancing the Shadow – Get to know that shady dude!

15 Jan 20199 Oct 2019

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious." - CG Jung I chose this book because today, I gave in to the…

From My Bookshelf

Necessary Losses – There’s that word again: Expectations

21 Dec 20189 Oct 2019

“There comes a time when we aren't allowed not to know.” ― Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of us Have I'd say the time is…

From My Bookshelf

On Grief and Grieving – Rebuilding yourself around the loss

10 Dec 20189 Oct 2019

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and…

From My Bookshelf

Flying Without Fear – No Xanax needed. Maybe.

27 Nov 201814 Aug 2020

Flying Without Fear by Duane Brown, Ph.D. is SUCH a good book that I carried it on flights for about a year... okay, seven. It helped. A LOT. I wasn't…

From My Bookshelf

Jung’s Struggle With Freud – A little light reading

18 Oct 20189 Oct 2019

This probably goes without saying, but Jung's Struggle With Freud by George B. Hogenson is about Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud. It was published in 1983 and was a real…

From My Bookshelf

The Little Book of Stress Relief – Sometimes, you just don’t wanna think

30 Aug 20189 Oct 2019

The Little Book of Stress Relief by David Posen, MD is not a heavy book... and by that, I mean, physically or emotionally. The cover is inviting and beautiful. The…

From My Bookshelf

The Hero Within – A journey worth taking

20 Aug 20189 Oct 2019

“No matter how much people want to feel loved, appreciated, and a part of things, they will be lonely until they make a commitment to themselves, a commitment that is…

If you have a medical or mental health emergency, call your doctor or 911.

Nothing contained in this blog (The Self-Help Whisperer®) is intended to establish or replace a physician-patient relationship or services.

If you are IN CRISIS and NEED TO TALK but don’t know who to call…

In USA: Mental Health America In Crisis? Call 1-800-273-TALK

Or elsewhere in the world – By Country, as compiled by Wikipedia

Suicide hotline numbers

Someone dies from suicide every 40 seconds

United States 1 800 273 8255

Canada 1 800 456 4566