Giovanna Otfinowski, PsyD.
Resources
This section is continually evolving. I welcome your suggestions of books and websites you have found helpful. Thank you for emailing me any recommendations.
If you are experiencing a crisis please visit
https://www.marinhhs.org/behavioral-health-recovery-services
Addiction:
aasfmarin.org Alcoholics Anonymous for Marin and San Francisco counties: Peer led support system to aide in the recovery of alcohol addiction.
oa.org Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a community of people who support each other in order to recover from compulsive eating or who feel they have a problem with food.
samhsa.gov US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration provides links to substance abuse treatment and recovery services in any given area.
Beattie, M. Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself (1986) This classic defines and provides treatment suggestions to address co-dependency or one's tendency to become so involve in 'fixing' their partner or sometimes child ignoring their needs and development in the process.
ADHD:
additudemag.com As the name indicates, this is a virtual subscription magazine. The free website provides useful handouts, checklists, and charts but numerous adds. The medical review panel includes renown researchers in the field.
chadd.org One of the first national organizations to provide information and support to advance the understanding of ADHD in all ages. Its board of directors has extensive experience in understanding and providing advocacy for those with ADHD. One can find ADHD support groups, often helpful for parents of ADHD children/teens, through this site.
Anxiety/Depression:
Graham, Linda, MFT, Resilience, 2018 As defined by Ms. Graham, Resilience is 'the learned capacity to cope with any level of adversity'. Her work provides a multitude of somatic and cognitive strategies to increase one's ability to bounce back.
Shapiro, L, and Sprague, R. The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook for Kids 2009 Helps parents understand their child's stress and provides numerous activities to increase your child's coping skills.
Bourne, Edmund. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, first published in 1990 but continually updated. This workbook is an excellent resource to help you understand the variety of anxiety issues and a wide variety of treatment options.
Autism:
autismspeaks.org Autism Speaks provides a comprehensive resource guide for all states. The site also boasts an impressive list of apps that parents may find useful, including games that focus on communication and social skills.
Death and Dying:
deathcafe.com While drinking tea, coffee and eating cookies this facilitated gathering of people explores all aspects of death. Open to anyone interested one should use this link to find a Death Cafe near them and register.
Yalom, I. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death, 2008 Dr. Yalom proposes that the fear of death is at the heart of much of our anxiety. When this fear is acknowledged we can begin to live more fully.
General Information:
www.kidshealth.org Sound advice for parents, children, teens, and educators on a wide variety of topics
www.spiritrock.org Spirit Rock Meditation Center (415) 488-0164. Spirit Rock, located in West Marin and the base of renown teachers, is a premier center to learn and practice Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and loving-kindness meditations.
Mindfulness:
www.freemindfulness.org The Free Mindfulness Project provides free access to mindfulness meditation through submissions of the mindfulness community.
Kornfield, Jack: A Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology, 2009
uclahealth.org/marc University of California's Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC) utilizes science to understand the efficacy of mindfulness. In addition to educating the public on the neurobiology of mindfulness, the website includes lessons on how to begin a mindfulness practice and a variety of guided meditations.
Postive Psychology
awakeningjoy.info James Baraz's online course developed to increase one's happiness.
Baraz, J. and Alexander, S. Awakening Joy, 2010, Understanding that Happiness is a construct that can be developed in everyone, this book provides steps to achieve more happiness.
greatergood.berkeley.edu University of California's Greater Good Science Center provides numerous articles, videos, podcasts for all ages exploring concepts such as compassion, empathy, gratitude. It includes a parenting section and mindfulness lessons.
Hanson, R. Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, 2016, To increase our chances of survival and help us avoid pain, neuroscience provides evidence that our brain is wired to focus on potentially hurtful/harmful events. This can lead to pessimism increasing worry, irritability and stress. Dr. Hanson provides practical suggestions on increasing hopefulness, joy, and peace.
happinesslab.fm Yale professor Dr Laurie Santos describes latest scientific research on happiness providing insights on what tends to make us more or less happy.
self-compassion.org Dr. Neff, a research psychologist, provides numerous practices to increase your self-compassion.
Relationships:
drsuejohnson.com Dr. Sue Johnson's, creator of EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) personal website.
gottman.com Website for the Gottman Institute contains exercises for couples (Marriage Minute), tips for parents, and various blogs on a wide variety of issues.
Gottman and Gottman Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, 2019 Guided conversations to encourage partners to clarify values, dreams, goals.
Gottman and Silver Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, 2000 An examination of the communication habits of successful couples including exercises to help couples increase their communicative effectiveness.
iceeft.com Web home for Emotionally Focused Therapy developed by Dr. Sue Johnson. Provides information for Hold Me Tight workshops developed for couples to deepen their attachment.
Johnson, Sue Hold Me Tight, 2015 Describes how our primary relations reflect our natural interdependence and attachment needs. Provides couples the means to understand and transcend hurtful relationship patterns.