At Pacific, we believe that mental health matters. Prioritizing our mental and emotional well-being is essential — not only for navigating life’s challenges, but to help us show up as our best, most authentic selves.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, our dedicated team at the Counseling Center put together a list of their top five book recommendations that offer insight, comfort, and support — many of which are available for our students in the Counseling Center office.
Note: Book descriptions are provided by GoodReads
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
By Stephanie Foo
In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown in California to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma — but you can learn to move with it.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself
By Nedra Glover Tawwab
Licensed counselor, sought-after relationship expert and one of the most influential therapists on Instagram, Nedra Glover Tawwab demystifies this complex topic for today's world. In a relatable and inclusive tone, Set Boundaries, Find Peace presents simple-yet-powerful ways to establish healthy boundaries in all aspects of life. Rooted in the latest research and best practices used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), these techniques help us identify and express our needs clearly and without apology — and unravel a root problem behind codependency, power struggles, anxiety, depression, burnout, and more.
Minor Feelings
By Cathy Park Hong
This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche — and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth.
Braiding Sweetgrass
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings — asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae and sweetgrass — offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
The Will to Change
By Bell Hooks
With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, Hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves — and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women. A brave and astonishing work, The Will to Change is designed to help men reclaim the best part of themselves.