RESOURCES FOR COUPLES & FAMILIES
Pick the section that sounds like where you are right now, and begin there!
For Parents & Adult Children...
Navigating common differences
Dealing with estrangement and conflict
Working toward relationship repair
For Parents of Teens...
The emotional lives of teenagers
The changing
teenage brain
Resource List
If you've noticed distance
Hold Me Tight — Dr. Sue Johnson
The book I hand to almost every couple after their first session. If you only read one thing on this list, make it this one. There's an accompanying workbook that's great too!
An Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples: The Two of Us — Veronica Kallos-Lilly & Jennifer Fitzgerald
Less about understanding the theory, more about actually doing the exercises together. Good for couples who want structure between sessions.
The Secure Love Podcast — Julie Menanno
Real couples, real sessions, real cycles. Hearing someone else's dynamic often makes your own click into place.
Created for Connection — Dr. Sue Johnson and Kenneth Sanderfer is a Christian-based, EFT companion workbook that translates the same attachment science I use in the therapy room into practical exercises grounded in a faith-based framework. Ideal for couples who want to work through material together at home.
If you're dealing with a betrayal
Courageous Love: A Couples Guide to Conquering Betrayal — Dr. Stefanie Carnes
A clear, step-by-step map for the disclosure and rebuilding process, written for couples who are still in the rawest part of it.
Repairing Attachment Injuries in Close Relationships — Dr. Clare Rosoman
For when the hurt isn't necessarily an affair, but still shattered trust in a specific moment you keep circling back to.
If you're always having the same fights
Help for High-Conflict Couples — Jennine Estes Powell & Jacqueline Wielick
Written by two EFT therapists specifically for couples whose fights escalate fast. Practical, not preachy.
If you want to reconnect physically
Brave Love, Great Sex — Dr. Laurie Watson & George Faller
The clearest explanation I've found of how attachment patterns show up in the bedroom, and what to do about it.
Come As You Are — Emily Nagoski
The science of desire, minus the shame. Especially good for anyone who's ever wondered if something is "wrong" with their libido.
Brave Love, Great Sex — Laurie Watson & George Faller
Two therapists talking about sex the way you wish you could with your own partner. Easy to listen to together in the car.
Family estrangement and conflict
Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them — Dr. Karl Pillemer
Ten years of research on family estrangement, built from interviews with families who actually found their way back to each other. Grounding if you want the bigger picture, not just your own situation.
The Reconnection Club Podcast — Tina Gilbertson, LPC
Short, focused episodes for parents in the middle of it right now. Good for listening to one at a time between hard days.
Navigating common differences & working toward repair
ABC’s of Parenting Adult Children — James Moffitt
A thoughtful, compassionate podcast for parents navigating the challenges of relationships with adult sons and daughters. Through honest conversations and real-life stories, the show explores communication, boundaries, identity, LGBTQ+ acceptance, grief, faith, reconciliation, and emotional healing.
Coaching Your Family Relationships — Tina Gosney
Each episode blends real coaching conversations, practical tools, and a little tough love to help you build the relationships you actually want — not the ones you inherited.
Understanding your teen's emotions and brain
The Emotional Lives of Teenagers — Dr. Lisa Damour
The book I recommend most for parents of teens. Damour treats teenage emotions as information rather than a problem to manage, which fits naturally with how we think about emotion in this work.
Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain — Dr. Daniel J. Siegel
Explains the neuroscience behind why teens seem so intense, impulsive, or checked out, and reframes adolescence as a period of real strength, not just risk.
Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Raising Tweens & Teens — Dr. Lisa Damour & Reena Ninan
A weekly, question-and-answer format podcast. Easy to find an episode that matches whatever you're dealing with that week.
Changing families
Parenting Apart: How Separated and Divorced Parents Can Raise Happy and Secure Kids — Christina McGhee
Covers every age group, but has real depth on the specific challenges of parenting teens through separation and two households.
Now What Do I Do? A Guide to Help Teenagers with Their Parents' Divorce or Separation — Lynn Cassella-Kapusinski
Written directly for teens rather than parents. Worth having a copy for your teen to read on their own terms, if they're not ready to talk yet.
A Jumble of Thoughts and a Tangle of Feelings — Kathryn de Bruin, Ronda Evans & Katie Stefano
A story to read with your kids that gives them language for big feelings after a hard day, exactly what many blended-family transitions call for.
Cooperative Co-Parenting for Secure Kids — Aurisha Smolarski
The clearest guide I know for co-parenting across two households without your child feeling caught in the middle.