Resources
A selection of books, journals and resources I recommend to clients and their families, for adults, for children, and for families navigating autism.
Top picks for parents
These two belong together. One makes the case for holding your children close, the other for keeping your sense of humour while they pull away. Both are worth reading, and they balance each other.
Hold On to Your Kids
Why Parents Matter More Than Peers. Dr Gabor Maté and Dr Gordon Neufeld explain why a positive/supportive and validating parent/adult child attachment is crucial for a child’s healthy development, not only during the first years but throughout childhood and adolescence.
Now I Know Why Tigers Eat Their Young
Surviving a New Generation of Teenagers. Dr Peter Marshall. A warm, funny and practical companion for the adolescent years, on what is normal, what is worth worrying about, and how to keep the relationship intact while your teenager works out who they are.
Books I recommend for adults
The Meaning of Your Life
The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. Arthur C. Brooks, 2026. A Harvard social scientist and happiness researcher looks at why so many people feel empty despite modern comforts, and how technology and cultural change have made a sense of purpose harder to reach. Drawing on research, philosophy and faith traditions, he offers practical ways to rebuild meaning through close relationships, work that feels worthwhile, and healthier ways of facing hardship.
Dopamine Nation
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Dr Anna Lembke, 2021. A Stanford psychiatrist explores how our brain’s pleasure and pain systems work to keep us in balance, and how constant access to highly stimulating rewards can tip that balance toward compulsive, self destructive patterns. Practical, grounded guidance for finding balance again.
The Body Keeps the Score
Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel A. van der Kolk, 2015. What causes people to continually relive what they most want to forget and what treatments could help restore them to a life with purpose and joy? In this audiobook, Dr Bessel van der Kolk offers a new paradigm for effectively treating traumatic stress. Neither talking nor drug therapies have proven entirely satisfactory. With stories of his work and those of specialists around the globe, The Body Keeps the Score sheds new light on the routes away from trauma, which lie in the regulation and syncing of body and mind, using sport, drama, yoga, mindfulness, meditation and other routes to equilibrium.
Polyvagal Prompts
Finding Connection and Joy through Guided Exploration by Deb Dana & Courtney Rolfe, 2024. This interactive guide invites readers to explore their nervous systems through Polyvagal Theory using engaging questions and exercises. Designed for both personal reflection and therapeutic settings, the prompts help individuals notice, listen to, and reflect on their physiological states, fostering emotional regulation and connection.
Helping You to Identify and Understand Autism Masking
by Emma Kendall, 2020. The author was diagnosed with ASD in her early thirties. Emma describes her struggles at school and work, trying to maintain her social persona and starting to fall into a state of self-destruction. Later on in life, she describes how her diagnosis and strong family bonds helped her feel like her true self and happy.
- Parenting ASD Teens (Andrew Schlegelmilch, 2014)
- The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins, 2025)
- Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia (Hadley Freeman, 2023)
- Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder (Gabor Maté, 2022)
- Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential (Carol Dweck, 2017)
Journals for adults
- Do It For Your Self (Kara Cutruzzela & Tessa Forrest, 2024)
- Hold On, Let Me Overthink This (Anxiety Journal, 2023)
- Journal Like a Stoic (Brittany Polat, 2022)
For children
- MUD BOY (Sarah Siggs, Illustrated by Amy Crosby, 2023)
- Be Mindful of Monsters (Lauren Stockly, 2022)
- The Calm Down Jar (Jennifer Jones, 2021)
- My Behaviour and Emotions Library: 20-Book Set (Jasmine Brooke)
- The Colour Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings (Anna Llenas, 2018)
- My Body Sends a Signal (Natalie Maguire, 2022)
- The HUGE BAG of WORRIES (Virginia Ironside, 2011)
- The Invisible Boy (Trudy Ludwig, 2013)
- Marlene Marlene Queen of Mean (Jane Lynch, 2014)
- Write and Draw Your Own Comics (Louie Stowell, 2014)
My Thoughts & Feelings Journal: Help Kids To Express Emotions, Practice Mindfulness, Gratitude & Positivity! (Cherry & Pickle Publishing, 2021)
Autism related books
- Empowering Children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder & Daily Triumphs for Children with Autism (Lauren Varela, 2022)
- Asperger’s Rules!: How to make sense of school and friends (Blythe Grossberg, 2012)
- The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan (Dr Megan Anna Neff)
