The Healthy Compulsive

The Healthy Compulsive is the perfect bibliotherapy for people who are overextended, overscheduled, and overwrought. It guides the reader in a thoughtful exploration of their personal underpinnings of unhealthy compulsion and provides systematic guidance on ways to better channel one’s energy. It can be used in conjunction with therapy, or as a stand-alone exploration of how to reengage and enjoy life. Mental health trainees would also benefit from reading this book as it provides insight into the challenging patients who present as high functioning, but suffer debilitating emptiness.

What sets this book apart from other “self-help” books is its sophistication in understanding the nature of human growth. It helps the reader explore deep and often unacknowledged feelings underlying unhealthy compulsion such as fear, anger, and shame. It even recommends self-analysis of dreams which is a refreshing acknowledgement that meaningful behavior change often entails exploring the subconscious. This book is grounded in a dynamic understanding of human nature, but not rigidly so, as it recommends activities consistent with current mindfulness-based therapies and acceptance and commitment therapy models.


The Healthy Compulsive conveys sophisticated psychological truths in a way that is immediately accessible to readers. It provides a broad overview of the concepts underlying compulsive behavior, but then provides specific examples – compulsive behavior around money, work productivity, parenting – to help the reader fully understand how these truths are expressed in everyday struggles that we can all relate to.