Therapist Recommended Titles
Embrace your shadow and find freedom
"What emotions do you actively try to avoid?"
"How do you lie to yourself on a daily basis?"
"What do you need to make peace with?"
Healing, growth, and self-acceptance come from seeing our flaws, fears, and mistakes with clarity and compassion. In this 52-card deck, Dr. Faith G. Harper—bestselling author of Unfuck Your Brain and Boundaries Conversation Deck—offers prompts to help you explore the parts of yourself that you usually try not to see. Work through your trauma, improve your relationships, seek true accountability, and embrace your whole authentic self. Use these cards for individual reflection, as a challenging group activity, as part of addiction recovery, or with your therapist to get up close and personal with your hidden side and see what important truths you uncover—and the freedom and joy of truly knowing who you are.
by Kevin A. Patterson and Ruby Bouie Johnson
Polyamory, however compassionate an alternative to monogamy, still operates and is rooted in a racist society. The things that make monogamous dating daunting for people of color—shaming and exclusion by white partners, being fetishized, having realities of everyday racism ignored—occur in polyamorous relationships too, but are often exacerbated by societal misconceptions of polyamory as a game of “collecting” different kinds of lovers.
When these behaviors are unacknowledged and unchecked, polyamory isn’t a more inclusive or compassionate relationship style. Agreeing to “not be racist” or, worse, trying “not to see race” only makes it worse. To make polyamorous communities inclusive, we must all take ownership, acknowledge our part in perpetuating racism, and listen to people of color.
These conversations can be difficult and (if we’re being honest) self-incriminating. But they are necessary for us to build a better alternative.
Love’s Not Color Blind puts forward the framework—through research, anecdotal testimony, and analogy—for understanding, identifying, and ultimately confronting the manifestations of racism within polyamorous communities.
Whether you’re a community leader or you just like to date a lot, this is an invaluable tool for creating a more inclusive polyamory.
Because you are enough
Shame and guilt are perhaps the most difficult emotions humans experience. They tell us we are fundamentally broken, wrong, and unsalvageable—and then we operate in the world from that self-concept. Dr. Faith G. Harper, bestselling author of Unfuck Your Brain and Unfuck Your Stress, writes that these emotions often result from our sense of "not-enough-ness" and the overwhelming feeling that we need to hide parts of ourselves in order to be loved and accepted. But we don't need to keep going through life feeling guilty, ashamed, and disconnected from ourselves. With compassion, humor, brain science, and swearing, she guides us through the difficult shadow work of finding and reconnecting with these hidden parts and learning to accept our whole selves to regain our sense of vitality and completeness. Because we each deserve the experience of being a fully alive human.
