August's Featured Book:
​
The Highly Sensitive Parent
​by Elaine N Aron

Saturday, Aug 14th - 11am Pacific

What To Expect From the Read:

  • A self-examination test to help parents identify their level of sensitivity
   • Tools to cope with overstimulation
   • Advice on dealing with the negative feelings that can surround parenting
   • Ways to manage the increased social stimulation and interaction that comes with having a child
   • Techniques to deal with shyness around other parents
   • Insight into the five big problems that face highly sensitive parents in relationships—and how to work through them
About Your Host: Anna King
Anna has experience in providing counseling and crisis support to clients experiencing a range of mental health and chronic health conditions, and specializes in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders such as postpartum depression and anxiety. She has worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and understands the unique needs of parents with medically-compromised children. Anna also identifies as a sex positive and LGBTQIA+ affirmative therapist. She has supported clients in exploring spirituality, grief and loss, phase of life and adjustment issues, highly sensitive person (HSP) trait, issues of diversity and racial/ethnic identity, and intergenerational trauma for BIPOC. She also has experience supporting adult children of parents with personality disorders. Her practice is inspired by: attachment, psychoanalytic, and systems theories, as well as somatic, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology.

"Anna is a deeply empathic person who works to build your trust and become more attuned to your individual needs. She creates space for you to explore yourself and access your own inner wisdom and intuition with curiosity. In session, she integrates mindfulness breathwork, visualization, movement, and sensation tracking to engage her clients in learning and applying self-regulation and coping skills."

Previous Book Club Meetings

June 2021

Host: Tamika Simpson
Book: The 5 Love Languages by Elaine N. Aron
Here's what we discussed:
  •  Each of the 5 love languages, how they are expressed and how you can cater to them 
  • Each participants love language and how learning about it helped them 
  • How to share with your partner and learn their love language ​

June 2021

Host: Tamika Simpson
Book: The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron
Here's what we discussed:
  •  Self-assessment tests to help you identify your particular sensitivities
  • Ways to reframe your past experiences in a positive light and gain greater self-esteem in the process
  • Insight into how high sensitivity affects both work and personal relationships
  • Tips on how to deal with over-arousal
  • Information on medications and when to seek help
  • Techniques to enrich the soul and spirit

May 2021

Host: Dr. Marissa Long
Book: Attached by Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller
Here's what we discussed:
  • Anxious people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back
  • Avoidant people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness. 
  • Secure people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving.

April 2021

Host: Dr. Megan Ciota
Book: Healing the Adult Children of Narcissists by Shahida Arabi
Here's what we discussed:
  • The​ unique challenges daughters of narcissistic fathers face
  • The ways in which adverse childhood experiences affect our brains
  • How narcissistic abuse in childhood can set us up for trauma repetition in adulthood, affecting how we navigate relationships, the self, and the world

March 2021

Host: Dr. Rebekah So
Book: The Body Keeps Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk
Here's what we discussed:
  • ​ That trauma is a fact of life  and the various places/experiances it can stem from 
  • Recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.
  • The tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

Feburary 2021

Host: Dr. Monica Hennon
Book: The Worry Cure by Robert L. Leahy
Here's what we discussed: 
  • Determining your “worry profile” and change your patterns of worry 
  •  Identifying productive and unproductive worry
  • Taking control of time and eliminating the sense of urgency that keeps you anxious
  • Embracing uncertainty instead of searching for perfect solutions

January 2021

Host: Dr. Kristen Izbicki 
Book: The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris
Here's what we discussed: 
  • The insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
  • That trying to find happiness ends up making us miserable, driving the epidemics of stress, anxiety, and depression. 
  • Techniques to create a rich, full, and meaningful life

December 2020

Host: Dr. Ashleigh Fellows
Book: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Here's what we discussed: 
- Finding courage to overcome paralyzing fear and self-consciousness
- How to believe we are worthy of self-discovery, personal growth, and boundless love.
- The psychology of releasing our definitions of an “imperfect” life and embracing living authentically.

November 2020

Host: Dr. Makisha Lawrence
Book: The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Here's what we discussed: 
- Understanding our own indoctrinated body shame
- The transformative opportunity of radical self-love
- What it means to break up with your shame in your self image

October 2020

Host: Dr. Marissa Long
Book: Codependent No More by Melody Beattie
Here's what we discussed: 
- What is codependence anyway
- How to know if you're codependent
- How codependence shows up in our lives and what to do about it