Resources

This page provides links to helpful resources that I’ve discovered and often recommend to my clients. Feel free to scroll through this page or use the Table of Contents to jump to topics that are of interest to you. Whether you are a client of Sweitzer Counseling or not, I hope you will find useful information that can help you on your journey. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, need additional assistance, or would like to start a counseling relationship.

Disclaimer: The information you’ll find in the attached links and/or the referenced resources do not necessarily represent my opinions or professional practices and are not intended to replace a relationship with a trained counselor, therapist, or other mental health professional. 

Table of Contents

ADHD

Affair Recovery

Alcohol Reduction Support

Career/Vocation

Depression and Depressive Thoughts

Divorce Support

Domestic Violence Help

Emotions and Feelings

Fatherhood

Goal Setting and Behavior Change

Grief

Infertility

LGBTQ+

Parenting

Pornography

Sexual Abuse/Sexual Assault

Sexual Connection

Sleep

Subsidized Counseling

Suicide Prevention

Trauma

ADHD

  • Dr. Hallowell’s Wonderful World of Different, a podcast featuring Dr. Ned Hallowell and special guests. Dr. Hallowell is a psychiatrist and the founder of the Hallowell ADHD Centers. In his podcast, Dr. Hallowell and his frequent guest hosts address all things ADHD – providing practical information and tools for adults in today’s busy world. Dr. Hallowell has also written a number of books for people with ADHD and those in their lives.
  • Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) Chadd is a national organization supporting parents and adults managing ADHD and other learning differences. Their website contains a wealth of information.
    • Helpful overview for parents. This webpage is an excellent place to start. Parents can download an ADHD fact sheet and learn strategies for helping their children.
    • Attention Magazine CHADD’s bimonthly magazine is rich in practical information, clinical insights, and evidence-based strategies for managing ADHD. You must join CHADD to access the magazine and to sign up for CHADD’s email newsletter.
  • ADDA – Attention Deficit Disorder Association This website features events, online support groups, workshops and more. Check out their Adult ADHD Starter Kit, which is available for download.
  • ADDitude Magazine This monthly publication addresses timely issues pertaining to ADD and other learning differences. Whether or not you subscribe to the magazine, you can access a tremendous amount of materials on the ADDitude website. A great source for navigating ADD for you, your child, or your partner.
  • ADHD Roller Coaster with Gina Pera. This website provides resources (particularly regarding relationships) for adults with ADHD.
  • How to ADHD This engaging YouTube channel has more than a million subscribers. According to channel host Jessica McCabe, “This channel is my ADHD toolbox — a place to keep all the strategies I’ve learned about having and living with ADHD. It’s also grown into an amazing community of brains (and hearts!) who support and help each other.” Here are two videos I find particularly helpful:
    • ADHD in Girls: How to Recognize the Symptoms Great video addressing how people often miss ADHD diagnoses in girls.
    • ADHD in Women More recent and thorough video about how ADHD affects women in adulthood. Layers in how hormones and menstrual cycles can make the diagnosis and treatment harder because women are often misdiagnosed.
  • Recommended ADHD books for kids This list from ADDitude Magazine is a comprehensive collection of children’s books about learning differences, including ADHD.
  • Find an ADHD Coach:
  • ADHD and Relationships This website is called “ADHD and Marriage.” It features online forums, seminars, groups, and other resources for couples where one or both people have or suspect one has ADHD.
  • Spark book – We know that exercise is good for our physical bodies, but we rarely hear about the mental health benefits. This book is written by John Ratey, co-author of the best-selling books, ADHD 2.0 and Delivered from Distraction. He has ADHD himself and passionately makes the case, backed by a ton of data, how exercise may even be more effective than medicine in managing ADHD, without all the side effects. And it’s not just ADHD – each chapter covers topics we seldom hear can be treated with movement and exercise – stress, depression, anxiety, menopause, etc.

Affair Recovery

  • Beyond Affairs Network (BAN) is a grassroots organization made up of local support groups for people who are dealing with the devastating impact of a spouse’s affair.
  • Infidelity Survivors Anonymous hosts meetings virtually and in person. They use the 12-step model and apply it to infidelity recovery.
  • NOT “Just Friends” is the best book on affair recovery I’ve found. Author Shirley Glass dedicated her career to researching and working with couples recovering from an affair. She was the first researcher to identify PTSD symptoms in partners and name the trauma that can come with the discovery of an affair.

Alcohol Reduction Support

  • Serenity House in Buford, GA hosts more than 40 weekly AA, Al-Anon, Alatot, Ala-teen and ACOA programs. They may offer childcare.
  • AA Meeting Finder App Find meetings based on your location.
  • Reframe App This App was created by a Georgia Tech graduates and has become a popular tool to help people reduce alcohol use.
  • Helpful resource site full of books, podcasts and online resources for people rethinking their relationship with alcohol
  • Online programs for changing relationship with alcohol:
    • Tempest Membership Community: Clinically proven tools to help you explore your relationship with alcohol, developed by experts and folks who’ve been there.
    • Monument: Community forums, online and individual group therapy for alcohol use.
  • Really good, direct article from an Australian non-profit advocating a primarily whole food plant-based diet discussing the health ramifications of alcohol use.
  • Refuge Recovery Buddhist-based, non-theistic recovery. Find a meeting near you or attend an online group.
  • AA Agnostica. This site is dedicated to people seeking recovery through the 12-step model and fellowship but for whom the religious language in AA is somewhat off-putting.
  • Smart Recovery is one of the largest secular support groups for people wanting to change their relationship with drinking or other compulsive behaviors. It’s rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI).
  • Huberman Labs podcast episode on alcohol does a fantastic job walking people through how alcohol affects the body and brain and some of the mechanisms of how alcohol is addictive. It’s currently the number one podcast in the health category on both Spotify and Apple. Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor of Neurobiology at Stanford, and his podcast shares insights from scientific research on health in an easy-to-understand format.

Career/Vocation

  • Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute is the best-selling career book of all time. His flower exercise is a simple self-discovery technique that has helped many readers get in touch with the intersection of their talents and interests so they can pursue meaningful work

Depression and Depressive Thoughts

  • Bright Light Therapy. This article from the Amen Clinic outlines the benefits of bright light therapy, including a study indicating it was as effective as an antidepressant (without the side effects). Supplies are available inexpensively on Amazon.
  • Feeling Good and Feeling Great books – Feeling Good was a breakthrough book when it was published in 1980, making the philosophy and skills from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) accessible to the general population. It makes the case that people’s inner dialogue, perceptions, and predictions lead to depression, anxiety, and many other mental health problems (and by proxy, relationship problems). One of my favorite techniques is the daily mood log exercise described below.
  • The daily mood log is one of the most effective interventions from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in boosting mood and lowering anxiety. I’ve created a Google Sheet anyone can copy and use for talking back to the critical voice inside of them. Note, when you click on the link you will be directed to “make a copy” of the mood log through Google Sheets. Follow the instructions on your screen. 

Divorce Support

Domestic Violence

  • The National Domestic Violence Hotline offers support to victims of abuse. If you think you may be experiencing abuse in your relationship, learn about the types of abuse and how to get help.
  • The Verbal Abuse Information Site is a resource for people that suspect they may be in an abusive relationship. It’s put together by Patricia Evans, author of the best-selling book “The Verbally Abusive Relationship.” On this website, you will learn what constitutes verbal abuse and find resources to help.
  • Lundy Bancroft is the best-selling author of several books about abusive relationships. His site includes blog articles and other resources for people in abusive or other unhealthy relationships.

Emotions and Feelings

  • “Emotional Agility” is a book written by Harvard psychologist Susan David. In it she talks about the power of acknowledging and feeling negative emotions and research to support how it makes us more resilient. You can also watch Dr. David’s impactful TED Talk.
  • Sweitzer Counseling offers an online Feelings Inventory to help you identify and articulate complex emotions. 
  • The book On Becoming a Person by Dr. Carl Rogers was a pivotal book in helping people get in touch with and learn to accept their rich emotional inner life. It’s a book that has profoundly shaped me and I recommend it to clients who are learning to be more open to and acquainted with their inner life.

Fatherhood

  • The Expectant Father is not explicitly a relationship or parenting book. But it does a tremendous job of helping men prepare for and transition into fatherhood, especially in how to support their partners.

Goal Setting and Behavior Change

  • StickK is a free goal-setting platform created by behavioral economists at Yale University. It leverages the behavioral change principles of loss aversion and accountability to help you set and follow through on your goals.
  • Atomic Habits is the best book I’ve found that translates decades of habit and behavior change research into easy to understand concepts. The author understands at a very deep level that significant change is possible and is engineered through small changes applied over time. A great and accessible book for anyone looking to make changes in their life.

Grief

  • Tender Hearts is an online grief support community developed by grief expert David Kessler. He has written several books on grief and collaborated with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who identified, wrote about, and researched the 5 stages of grief in her book On Death and Dying.
  • Writing Your Grief is an online 30-day course created by Megan Devine, author of It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok. She challenges some of the conventional wisdom about stages and timelines for grief prevalent in American culture. She also hosts a podcast.
  • The Dougy Center offers support materials and equips professionals in helping children and their families grieve. They have a directory of local support groups for children and adults.
  • Compassionate Friends offers support groups for parents who have lost a child
  • Griefshare is a network of grief support groups in the US and around the world. There are several groups in the Cumming area.

Infertility

All three of these organizations offer support resources for couples or individuals dealing with infertility:

LGBTQ+

  • The Gay Church Directory helps people find LGBTQ+ affirming churches by zip code.
  • PFLAG ​is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. They run support groups across the US, including a local one at Johns Creek UMC.

Parenting

  • How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, one of the best-selling parenting books of the last 50 years. The authors are not mental health professionals but were profoundly shaped by their participation in a parenting group with Dr. Haim Ginott. His and the author’s philosophy is rooted in a profound respect for children’s personhood, including their feelings and the importance of modeling to children the care and respect we often expect from them.
  • No Drama Discipline, by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. This book is rooted in brain science and provides an effective, compassionate road map for dealing with such issues as tantrums, tensions, and tears. I have attended training by the co-author of this book, Dan Siegel.
  • Good Inside by Becky Kennedy, is a book, a podcast, an Instagram page, and a paid online community for parents. Based on the Amazon reviews and the podcast episodes I’ve listened to, she seems to do a really good job of offering practical advice for real-world parenting challenges, while also being rooted in what science is teaching us about what helps children thrive (being aware of feelings so they can form constructive relationships with themselves, their work, other people and the world around them).

Pornography

  • The Great Porn Experiment. This straightforward TED Talk with 15 million views shows some of the biological processes involved in porn and how it hijacks the brain and our dopamine (the neurotransmitter involved with feelings of satisfaction and motivation).
  • Your Brain on Porn is a companion Website to the book written by Gary Wilson, the presenter in the previous TED Talk. It’s worth noting he was an avowed atheist and did not make any religious arguments. He faced a lot of criticism from porn advocates for his stance.
  • Fight The New Drug is a non-religious non-profit whose goal is to “provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.”
  • Fortify, according to their Website, is a “science-based recovery tool to help individuals quit pornography through comprehensive training, real-time analytics, and interactive support so that more people can find greater happiness and lasting love.” As with other compulsive behaviors, getting support can help you understand and change your relationship with pornography, regardless of whether you decide to eliminate the behavior.

Sexual Abuse/Sexual Assault

Sexual Connection

Emily Nagoski’s book Come As You Are empowers men and women to embrace sex and sexual desire within the context of being fully human. It’s solidly rooted in science while also being very approachable.

Sleep

Andrew Huberman’s Toolkit for Sleep has a lot of helpful tips and recommendations for practicing good sleep hygiene.

Subsidized Counseling

Several local ministries subsidize counseling in various ways:
  • Summit Counseling Center 
  • Northpoint Church 
  • Browns Bridge Church
  • Stephen Ministers provide mental health support that is not professional counseling. It is faith-based and could be an alternative if professional counseling is not accessible. Stephen ministers are available all over the world through local religious organizations. 

Suicide Prevention

988: If you are having suicidal thoughts or thoughts about ending your life, dial 988 from any phone. You will be connected to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline where a licensed, trained counselor will speak to you for free.

Trauma