Whether you’re new to psychodynamic therapy or a long-term client, it’s important to know that psychodynamic therapy is effective and evidence-based.

Below are links to resources that are regularly recommended by psychodynamic psychotherapists. We are happy to receive feedback on items for inclusion at content@psychodynamiccanada.org.

You may also want to visit our Evidence page for links to academic articles and books.

Money on Your Mind: The Psychology Behind Your Financial Habits by Vicky Reynal

Reynal, V. (2024) Money on Your Mind: The Psychology Behind Your Financial Habits. New York: The Experiment, LLC

Financial Psychotherapist Vicky Reynal dives into different money behaviours such as overspending, underspending, money secrets and self-sabotage to reveal how our past experiences impact our relationship with money.

Click here to read more about the book

The Last Taboo by Dr. David Krueger

Krueger, D. (Ed.)(1986) The Last Taboo. Routledge.

Dr. David Krueger formerly practiced and taught Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. He was also an Executive Coach who integrated psychology, neuroscience and coaching with a focus on success strategies.

This book includes 24 papers, divided into three categories: theoretical and symbolic meanings of money, money in the therapist-patient relationship, and payment structures and management issues.

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Money and Mind by Sheila Klebanow and Eugene L. Lowenkopf

Klebanow, S. and Lowenkopf, E.L. (Eds.)(2012) Money and Mind. Kluwer Boston Incorporated

Money has been essential to the rise and development of civilization, with the first known writings being records of simple business transactions. Present dealings with money have become infinitely more complicated but its basic meaning remains the same, a medium underlying all goods and services (including therapy), in which comparative values are measured and by which they are acquired.

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The Body Keeps the Score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma by Bessel Van der Kolk

Van der Kolk, Bessel A. (2015) The Body Keeps the Score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Penguin Random House

One of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.

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Jung: A Very Short Introduction by Anthony Stevens

Stevens, A. (2001) Jung: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press

In this extremely accessible introduction, Anthony Stevens--one of Britain's foremost Jungian analysts--clearly explains the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: the collective unconscious, complex, archetype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individualization of the Self.

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Grief Works by Julia Samuel

Samuel, J. (2017) Grief Works. Milton Keynes, Great Britain: Penguin Random House

Grief Works is a compassionate handbook written by psychodynamic psychotherapist Julia Samuel to support, inform and engage anyone who is grieving, from the 'expected' death of a parent to the sudden and unexpected death of a small child.

With deeply moving case studies based on real stories of loss, it is brilliantly accessible and provides clear advice for those seeking to comfort the bereaved.

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Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman

Herman, J. (2015) Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror New York: Basic Books

A foundational text on understanding trauma survivors. Psychiatrist Judith L. Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research as well as a vast literature, she shows surprising parallels between private and public horrors.

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The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz

Grosz, S. (2014) The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves. London: Penguin Random House

A book of stories as powerful as therapy itself: psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz draws vivid, compelling lessons from his decades of practice to uncover the hidden feelings behind our ordinary behaviour.

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Why Love Matters – how affection shapes a baby’s brain by Sue Gerhardt

Gerhardt, S. (2014) Why Love Matters – how affection shapes a baby’s brain. New York: Routledge

Why Love Matters explains why loving relationships are essential to brain development in the early years, and how these early interactions can have lasting consequences for future emotional and physical health.

The author focuses in particular on the wide-ranging effects of early stress on a baby or toddler’s developing nervous system, relationships in early life and the brain’s emotion and immune systems.

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Therapy Wars: The Revenge of Freud

The Guardian - January 7, 2016

Cheap and effective, CBT became the dominant form of therapy, consigning Freud to psychology’s dingy basement. But new studies have cast doubt on its supremacy – and shown dramatic results for psychoanalysis. Is it time to get back on the couch?

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Psychodynamic Therapy: There’s More to it Than Lying on a Couch Talking About Your Childhood

The Conversation - Jan 6, 2016

When it comes to more deep-seated psychological problems, new research suggests that psychodynamic psychotherapy – in which the therapist and patient form a therapeutic relationship where the patient can begin to think about and understand their past and present relationships with others and consider new ways to relate to people – can be effective.

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The Gift Of Therapy by Irvin Yalom

"A book aimed at enriching the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors, Yalom’s Gift of Therapy is an entertaining, informative, and insightful read for anyone with an interest in the subject." - Harper Collins Canada

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You are Not Your Depression by Karin Porter

You are Not Your Depression challenges the feelings of hopelessness experienced by the depressed and offers practical suggestions about how to use their resources to deal with the dark periods. Karin Porter discusses everything from getting out of bed in the morning to healthy nutrition, to using talismans to stay in touch with feelings of optimism. She puts the depressed person in touch with the larger picture of life so easily lost when depression descends." - FriesenPress

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Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson

"Heralded by the New York Times and Time as the couples therapy with the highest rate of success, Emotionally Focused Therapy works because it views the love relationship as an attachment bond.

This idea, once controversial, is now supported by science, and has become widely popular among therapists around the world. 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. With this in mind, she focuses on key moments in a relationship-from “Recognizing the Demon Dialogue” to “Revisiting a Rocky Moment” — and uses them as touch points for seven healing conversations.

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." - Hachette Book Group

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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction By Dr. Gabor Maté

"In this timely and profoundly original book, writer and physician Gabor Maté looks at the epidemic of various addictions in our society, tells us why we are so prone to them and outlines what is needed to liberate ourselves from their hold. Starting with a dramatically close view of Maté's drug addicted patients, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts weaves in stories of real people while providing a bold synthesis of clinical experience, insight and cutting-edge scientific findings. A haunting, compassionate and deeply personal examination of the nature of addiction." - Penguin Random House Canada

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