17 Therapist-Approved Books That Will Teach You Something New About Yourself

“When my therapist recommended The Highly Sensitive Person to me, I was admittedly a little dubious at first. This book was supposed to tell me something about myself I didn’t already know? Sure, Jan. But a few pages in, I was staring, mouth agape, at the pages, wondering if the author had stolen my middle school diary. All my personal baggage, which I’d been carrying around since childhood—‘you’re too sensitive,’ ‘you’re too emotional, just seeing someone else who’s upset is enough to set you off,’ ‘why are you so jumpy? All I did was brush past you!’—suddenly it was all being explained to me. And not in terms of brokenness, which is what I’d always attributed it to, but to my hardwiring, the way I’m made, my very self. The author was telling me this could be positive, it could be my advantage. It could be a good thing. Mind: blown. I had never felt so seen.”

—Tawny C., 29

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