Peachey’s Picks
Your Curated Guide to Growth and Healing
Navigating life's most challenging moments often requires a trusted guide. Whether you're facing a significant life transition, seeking to strengthen your relationships, or looking for ways to support your child's well-being, the right book can be a source of profound insight, comfort, and practical strategies.
At Peachey Counselling and Family Support, our commitment to your journey extends beyond our therapy sessions. Peachey's Picks is a carefully curated collection of book recommendations, personally selected and vetted by our team of professional counsellors, social workers, therapists, and mediators. These are the resources we trust, reference in our practice, and confidently recommend to our clients.
Think of this page as an extension of the support you receive in our office. Each book listed has been chosen for its empathy, evidence-based approach, and potential to empower you with knowledge. Our team believes in the power of integrating professional counselling with high-quality, supportive resources to facilitate deeper understanding and lasting change.
We invite you to explore the recommendations within these categories. Every title is a stepping stone on your path toward greater resilience, connection, and peace. We are honoured to be a part of your journey.
Categories
Separation, Divorce and Co-Parenting
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DINOSAURS DIVORCE
MARC BROWN AND LAURIE KRASNY BROWN
A comprehensive, sensitive guide for changing families, DINOSAURS DIVORCE helps readers understand what divorce means, why it happens, and how to best cope with everyone’s feelings.
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The Kids' Book of Family Changes
CATHERINE STEPHENSON AND JENNY STEPHENSON
Divorce or separation can bring big changes to a child’s world. The Kids’ Book of Family Changes is a gentle, age-appropriate guide for children ages 6–10, created to help them understand what’s happening without confusing language or overwhelming details.
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The Co-Parenting Handbook
KAREN BONNELL WITH KRISTIN LITTLE
A valuable parenting guide for divorced or separated couples with kids, this handbook offers tools for navigating conflicts and setting boundaries so both children and co-parents can thrive.
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(Un)Tangled
DEBORAH GILMAN
In (Un)Tangled, clinical psychologist and co-parenting expert Dr. Deborah Gilman offers 52 practical, powerful habits—one for every week of the year—to help divorced or separated parents reconnect with what matters most: raising emotionally secure, resilient kids.
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Anchored
DEBORAH GILMAN
In Anchored, clinical psychologist Dr. Deborah Gilman offers parents a compassionate, science-based guide to helping children feel safe, connected, and seen during and after divorce.
Trauma
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The Body Keeps Score
BESSEL VAN DER KOLK
Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
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When the Body Says No
GABOR MATE
In this accessible and groundbreaking book--filled with the moving stories of real people--medical doctor and bestselling author Gabor Maté shows that emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis and many others, even Alzheimer's disease.
Relationships
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Hold Me Tight
DR. SUE JOHNSON
In Hold me Tight, Dr. Sue Johnson presents Emotionally Focused Therapy to the general public for the first time. Johnson teaches that the way to save and enrich a relationship is to reestablish safe emotional connection and preserve the attachment bond. Through case studies from her practice, illuminating advice, and practical exercises, couples will learn how to nurture their relationships and ensure a lifetime of love.
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Hold Me Tight Workbook
DR. SUE JOHNSON
A companion workbook to Dr. Sue Johnson’s million-copy bestseller Hold Me Tight, packed with exercises, conversation prompts, and activities to help couples strengthen their bond, deepen their intimacy, and cultivate a lifetime of love. Whether you're celebrating your 50th anniversary or your first, The Hold Me Tight Workbook is an invaluable guide to cultivating a deeper connection — and more fulfilling relationship — with the person you love most.
Parenting
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Parenting from the Inside Out
DANIEL J. SIEGEL AND MARY HARTZELL
In Parenting from the Inside Out, child psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., and early childhood expert Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., explore the extent to which our childhood experiences shape the way we parent. Drawing on stunning new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, they explain how interpersonal relationships directly impact the development of the brain, and offer parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories, which will help them raise compassionate and resilient children.
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The Whole Brained Child
DANIEL J. SIEGEL AND TINA PAYNE BRYSON
In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
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The Power of Showing Up
DANIEL J. SIEGEL AND TINE PAYNE BRYSON
One of the very best scientific predictors for how any child turns out—in terms of happiness, academic success, leadership skills, and meaningful relationships—is whether at least one adult in their life has consistently shown up for them. In an age of scheduling demands and digital distractions, showing up for your child might sound like a tall order. But as bestselling authors Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson reassuringly explain, it doesn’t take a lot of time, energy, or money. Instead, showing up means offering a quality of presence. And it’s simple to provide once you understand the four building blocks of a child’s healthy development.
Self-Help
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The Gifts of Imperfection
BRENE BROWN
What transforms this book from words on a page to effective daily practices are the ten guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way.
Brené writes, “This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, ‘My story matters because I matter.’ Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance.” -

No Bad Parts
RICHARD C.SCHWARTZ
Discover an empowering new way of understanding your multifaceted mind―and healing the many parts that make you who you are. Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment―and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives.
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Daring Greatly
BRENE BROWN
Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage. Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity.
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Atomic Habits
JAMES CLEAR
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Child and Teen Mental Health
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The Think Confident, Be Confident Workbook for Teens
LESLIE SOKOL AND MARCI G. FOX
With The Think Confident, Be Confident Workbook for Teens, two leaders in the field of CBT present the wisdom and guidance of Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens in a fun workbook format. Filled with easy CBT-based activities and tips, this book will help you recognize, rethink, and replace self-doubt, enabling you to transform your negative self-image into a more positive, accurate reflection so you have the confidence to pursue your dreams and find success.
How you think affects how you feel and what you do. Now, with this proven-effective skills-based workbook, you’ll be ready to eliminate self-doubt and build sustainable, unshakeable self-confidence and lasting self-esteem.
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Captain Snout
DR. DANIEL AMEN
Don't let ANTS steal your happiness! That is what Captain Snout says loud and clear in this playful and encouraging book about living a positive life without the stress of negativity. What exactly are these ANTs? Automatic Negative Thoughts … and Captain Snout says we can use his super power questions to be mindful of our thoughts and be heroic too.
Does your child struggle with negative thought patterns, stress, and anxiety? Written with easy-to-read text for children ages 4 to 8, Captain Snout encourages children to live a happier and healthier life with a more positive outlook. This motivational picture book by Dr. Daniel Amen, New York Times bestselling author and board-certified child psychiatrist, offers children a way to address their negative thoughts.
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Confidence is my Superpower
ALICE ORTEGO
After a series of failures at school, little Leonardo feels sad and disappointed. But, by interacting with his parents, he soon realizes that his superpower is, in fact, his self-confidence.
Every child faces low self-esteem and poor self-confidence at least once in their life. Children are often ready to give up on their goals, especially if they encounter obstacles and challenges. We must support them and teach them to believe in themselves.
If you are looking to help your kid(s) to feel more confident and capable, the light rhymes and colourful illustrations will help your little ones believe in themselves as they are!
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How to Train Your Amygdala
ANNA HOUSLEY JUSTER
The amygdala is the brain's alarm system that alerts for danger, but sometimes it gets things wrong and needs help calming down. In this picture book, young readers receive kid-friendly information about the amygdala from the amygdala, how it can sometimes get confused, and simple ideas to calm and train it.
The amygdala in How to Train Your Amygdala makes complicated concepts accessible to children so they can understand their bodies, practice impulse control, and boost their self-regulation