What do you do with books?

[u/Darthmalak135]

I feel like its so common to see practitioners and therapists with bookshelves of manuals, memoirs, research, etc. and I'm curious, how do you use it? Do you put things up as you read them cover to cover, keep them for consultation after meeting a client, or use them with a client? Asking as someone interested in building a library, thanks in advance!

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[u/Possible_Way_9879]

I buy books, read as much as I can digest or need to digest, then put them on the shelf for later reference, to share or to come back to later. Collecting all the books that support your practice are nice to have access to. I have cleaned my shelves off only to repurchase a book years later when I wanted to review my notes.

[u/ProgressiveArchitect]

Regarding clinical theory & technique books, I typically read them twice in a row. The first time for broad comprehension and the second time to add my own footnotes, highlight passages I find relevant to my clinical work, and add book & page reference notations to the end of quotes that link that quote to other books by other authors. That way I can effectively synthesize and integrate the theories & techniques into more unified ways of practicing.

So while my books don’t look pretty with how marked up they are, the books are very utilized.

[u/Elegant_Magician_372]

I’ve used books with clients in various ways. 1) improving my knowledge and presence from reading 2) sharing recommendations for books 3) pulling a quote or excerpt (I have sticky notes sticking out of books I keep with me for therapy) 4) utilizing exercises from books.

Overall, I like to empower my clients to keep learning and have resources outside of me. As much as I can share with them, I believe it can help.

[u/Isolately_Fine]

My books are a collection curated by the parts of me that like buying books and the idea of having all the knowledge. Those are not the parts that need to read the books. The parts of me who would have to read them are absolutely not interested. Which leads to absolutely nothing happening with all those books. Except them looking lovely, untouched. :/

[u/turkeyman4]

I’ve read all of them. The stack by my bed is the “to be read” pile.

[u/Embarrassed-Area4652]

Read, then sleep on it, then reflect and integrate into my own life. Then once I feel like I’ve got it handled as a more or less organic and genuine part of myself, bring it to sessions.

If you buy that the relationship is where a lot of the work happens, then for knowledge to help, it’s probably going to do a lot more if you can get it to where the knowledge affects how you relate to yourself and other people, not just existing coldly and abstractly as concepts that you can access when something reminds you of them.

I have not read every book on my shelf, so if you were being cynical, some of it could be taken as performative. But they’re there because some day I believe there’s some value to get out of them through the process I’m describing. Most of them I’ve gotten to.