Hi, I’m Ann Weiser Cornell, and I’m excited about sharing with you some of my favorite, most highly recommended Focusing books.

We don’t sell these books in our web store. If you click the links you’ll be taken to Amazon. Or how about ordering them from your local independent bookstore!

Ann

Ann’s Recommended Books by Other Authors

I Know I’m in There Somewhere:

A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner Voice and Living a Life of Authenticity
by Helen Brenner with Laurence Letich
Avery, 2004

For 25 years, psychologist Helene G. Brenner, Ph.D. has been helping women, and men as well, to overcome past conditioning and begin to trust their inner selves. In this beautiful and inspiring, warm, wise, and funny book, Helene writes: “I truly believe that you don’t have to change or fix or improve yourself in order to be happy.”

“You don’t have to be bigger or braver or smarter or more organized than you are to begin pursuing your inner visions — and you don’t have to clean out your closets first!”

The key message of this book is that women (and all of us really) have lost connection with something Helene calls “the inner voice,” and that reconnecting with it is the key to living a fulfilled and fulfilling life. Learn about the Five Pathways to the Inner Voice and the ABCs of Acknowledging, Being With, and Compassion.

“Extend compassion toward the hurt, angry, and fearful places, the vulnerable places, the foolish places, the clumsy and ‘defective’ places, and even the darkest, most unacceptable places inside of yourself and others, and you’ll begin to feel a peace, calm and presence within you that you can barely imagine.”

Read Ann’s full review of this book here.

Your Body Knows the Answer:

Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change, and Liberate Creativity
by David I. Rome
Shambhala Books, 2014

David I. Rome is a certified Focusing Trainer who has brought Focusing together with Buddhist mindfulness-awareness practices in workshops in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is the creator of Mindful Focusing, a training program that brings together Eugene Gendlin’s felt-sense focusing method with Buddhist mindfulness-awareness practices.

“Eminently readable, engaging and wise, this book is hugely welcome. Those new to Focusing and the felt sense will be expertly guided; those already familiar with the process will find fresh treasure on every page. Compassionate, warm, and generous in sharing his own journey, Rome is just the person you would want as a companion to opening up your inner world. I know I will be re-reading this book for years and recommending it to all my students and friends.” -Ann Weiser Cornell

Embracing Shame:

How to Stop Resisting Shame and Turn It into a Powerful Ally
by Bret Lyon & Sheila Rubin
Sounds True, 2023

Embracing Shame book cover

A few times in a lifetime a book comes along that opens up the dark recesses of our lives and illuminates the mysteries of human behavior, including why people act the way they do and why there is so much emotional suffering in the world. Embracing Shame by Bret Lyon and Sheila Rubin is such a book. Shame is itself shameful, and so it doesn’t get talked about, instead lurking in the shadows, interfering with our ability to give and receive true connection. So it’s already a huge contribution to write, as Lyon and Rubin do, in a non-shaming way about shame. But there’s more: Chapter by chapter, with engaging personal stories and supportive healing exercises, this book builds up a picture of where shame comes from, what it can do, and how it can be transformed. Embracing Shame is personal, practical, wise, and ultimately hopeful. When enough of us can turn toward our shame with compassion, this truly could become a safer and more connected world.

The Way of Curiosity:

Discovering wisdom through listening to the body
by Peter Gill
Living Focusing Press, 2024

Open this book, The Way of Curiosity, and you’ll find yourself being welcomed into a world of compassion, acceptance, and possibility. Almost effortlessly you will learn a powerful skill of inner exploration — Focusing — and use its principles to explore dozens of profound life questions, from grief to parenting and relationships to dreams. In Peter Gill you’ll have a wise and humble teacher, with a voice that’s engaging and fresh, friendly and reassuring. This is a book to keep, to treasure, to share, to return to again and again. 

Focusing with Children:

The Art of Communicating with Children at School and At Home
by Marta Stapert and Erik Verlieferde
PCCS Books, 2008

Rare book status on Amazon. For more details click here.

This priceless book by the brilliant pioneer of doing Focusing with children is practical, warm-hearted, inspiring, and life-changing. For anyone who touches the lives of children: parents, grandparents, teachers, counselors. A joy to read.

“Listening to children is a skill which parents, teachers, caretakers and school counsellors need to employ every day. From a deep respect for the already existing attitude of these adults, the authors offer an extra dimension to the art of communicating with children. This book is about listening in many ways, both to your deepest self and to others. It is listening to what children say, feel, and think, but also to what is deeper than thoughts and feelings. Change in behaviour arises when children learn to listen inwardly, sensing what is bodily felt inside them. This process of change, called ‘Focusing’, is explained with many examples from the personal experiences of the authors, from their workshops, training and child-therapy sessions. The authors give a structured approach for use in schools and other group situations, but much of it can also be used at home by parents. With this book you can, quite independently, start to accompany children more consciously in their development, and by doing so, you will watch their confidence grow.” -from the publisher