Check Mates

Check Mates is an original collection of fiction and poetry written about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by the people who know best – Obsessive-Compulsives. Split between ‘realism’ and stories of the ‘beyond’, there is a diverse range of styles and genres, and a mix of rage, frustration, tears, violence, pain, heartache, subversion,love, strength, metaphysics, philosophy, friendship, hope, and even a bit of humour. And maybe – just maybe – it will knock away a few stereotypes.

The Worry Wars

The Worry Wars is a step-by-step guide to helping children conquer their fears. Three heroic characters battle formidable fears and defeat them. Children who struggle with anxiety will identify with one or more of the hopeful and beautifully illustrated metaphoric stories that provide a springboard for dozens of fun, clinically sound interventions. The activities provide child-friendly ways to: Understand how anxiety works Identify worries and anxious thoughts Develop and practice adaptive coping strategies Practice relaxation Create and practice cognitions to help boss back the worries Develop an attack plan that includes doing the scary thing anyway … but in a gradual way that allows the child to experience a sense of mastery. A variety of fun reproducibles help children and their helpful adults plan their battles, record their successes and track rewards as they gradually boss back the worry. Finally, activities are provided to help families celebrate after they emerge victorious from the Worry Wars.

Belong

How is it that the internet connects us to a world of people, yet so many of us feel more isolated than ever? That we have hundreds, even thousands of friends on social media, but not a single person to truly confide in? Radha Agrawal calls this “community confusion,” and in Belong she offers every reader a blueprint to find their people and build and nurture community because connectedness—as more and more studies show—is our key to happiness, fulfillment, and success.

A book that’s equal parts inspiring and interactive, and packed with prompts, charts, quizzes, and full-color illustrations, Belong takes readers on a two-part journey. Part one is Going IN—a gentle but intentional process of self-discovery and finding out your true energy levels and VIA (values, interests, and abilities). Part two is Going OUT—building on all that you’ve learned about yourself to find those few special people who feed your soul, and discovering, or creating, the ever-widening groups that align with your aims and desires.

As the Co-founder and CEO of the popular global morning dance community Daybreaker, Radha Agrawal developed an immense offline community with her team of Community Catalysts in 25 cities and on a dozen college campuses around the world by creating a physical space for people to connect, self-express, sweat, and dance. Now, Radha offers life-changing strategies, tips, and tricks for making friends that will light your fire and give you the exhale of  “Ahh, I’m home.”

5 Survivors

Each year millions of people are afflicted by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Most struggle to simply make it through the day as sights, sounds, and smells bring their life’s most harrowing experience front and center, to be relived again and again. And many are unaware of the root problem of these symptoms or are unwilling to admit one exists.

Through moving firsthand accounts, 5 Survivors sheds an intimate light on the impact of PTSD on three veterans of war, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, and a victim of childhood sexual abuse. With courage and honesty, they tell their stories of trauma, revealing the struggles they faced later in life, and how they eventually worked toward positive change and healing.

With the guidance of PTSD expert and researcher Tracy Stecker, Ph.D., who outlines the symptoms and progress of each survivor, those living untreated with PTSD may see themselves in these stories, realize they are not alone, and take action to get help. Friends and family of those who have been greatly impacted by trauma will gain a more intimate understanding of a loved one’s struggle and pain.

Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD

It may not seem possible at first, but you can make a full recovery after trauma.

Many traumatic experiences naturally heal with time and become part of your past, like old scars. But when you have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumas flare up in your life again and again, causing stress and making it difficult to focus on the here and now. Months and even years may pass, but the memories don’t fade and let you move on.

A clinically proven therapeutic method called mind-body bridging can help you to finally heal and recover from these difficult experiences. Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD is a straightforward, self-guided mind-body bridging program that you can complete in ten weeks. You’ll use your body to settle your mind, develop the skills you need to recover from PTSD, and start to feel connected, confident, and in charge of your life.

• Stop feeling detached and numb and start feeling alive again
• Notice the tension in your body and experience it melting away
• Reduce flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, and restlessness
• Keep track of your progress as you move toward making a full recovery

Spent

Today, Americans are saving less, carrying larger debt loads, losing their homes to foreclosure, and filing bankruptcy in record numbers. People are spending more than they can afford, and many feel guilty, anxious, and overwhelmed as a result.

Moving beyond the advice of financial planners who only treat the symptoms of overspending, in Spent Sally Palaian offers proven plans for taking on a range of personal issues with money by examining those underlying emotional, familial, and societal factors that trigger spending behaviors.

Spent teaches readers to control shopping, pay off debt, develop budgets, and become financially competent through:

• Easy-to-use assessment tools designed to pinpoint the severity of a problem
• Questionnaires that facilitate the exploration of the root causes of unhealthy financial behaviors
• User-friendly exercises created to influence change from within

Palaian’s system for financial recovery is designed to not only help excessive spenders overcome their spending habits, but also to help hoarders, financial codependents, and underachievers let go of fears, take responsibility for their actions, and break unhealthy cycles. Spent empowers people in every financial predicament to disentangle their financial messes to achieve lasting, positive change and a healthy view of one’s true value in life.

Urges

Trichotillomania has been part of the life of Gary Hennerberg since the age of six. His personal story takes you deeply into his thoughts as he searches for ways to cope with the baffling urge to pull his hair. In this book, Gary reveals three ways he has learned to co-exist with trichotillomania: his faith, self-acceptance, and discovering his gifts and talents. This is a book of hope, inspiration and encouragement for people who feel isolated and powerless over trichotillomania and other mysterious compulsive disorders. As a child, Gary believed he was the only person in the world who pulled his hair and he kept his hair pulling urge a secret. Today we know trichotillomania (also called trich or TTM) is silently suffered by as many as 10 million people. Compulsive hair pulling creates deep shame and loss of self-esteem. While his prayers to stop the urge to pull his hair were never seemingly heard or answered, Gary later recognizes that his prayers were answered in unexpected ways.

The Worry Solution

Our brains are hardwired for worry. While our ancient ancestors had a legitimate use for the fight-or-flight instinct, today what was once a matter of survival has become the stuff of sleepless nights and anxiety-filled days. At its best, worry is a way for us to turn over and solve a problem in our minds. But for many, worry becomes a negative cycle of unnecessary suffering. Now, based on cutting-edge brain science, Dr. Martin Rossman has developed a program to help you break the worry cycle—and transform worry into a positive force.

In The Worry Solution, Dr. Rossman gives you an easy-to-follow plan for taking control of your reactions to stress and anxiety. Using proven clinical techniques that harness the very power of imagination that creates worry and stress, you will learn the five basic skills that will help you to clarify your worries, sort them into those you can and cannot do something about, and tap the wisdom buried deep within you to help solve problems creatively. At the heart of the program is the use of guided imagery and creative visualization, techniques that invigorate the emotional and intuitive parts of the brain to add to and enhance logical intelligence.

Not only can you start to see a change in your stress levels immediately, but with regular practice, you may literally alter the worry pathways in your brain—and “hardwire” yourself for calmness and clarity. Grounded in cutting-edge science and wonderfully accessible, The Worry Solution is a powerful and practical guide to living your best life—healthier, happier, and free from unnecessary stress.