43 Study Guides
Mental Health & Wellness
Find peace, healing, and emotional health through honest conversation. These guides create space for groups to talk about anxiety, burnout, identity, perfectionism, and the path toward wholeness.
Soul Keeping
by John Ortberg
Soul Keeping by John Ortberg is a heartfelt and searching exploration of the most neglected part of modern life: the human soul. Drawing on decades of friendship and mentorship with the late philosopher-theologian Dallas Willard, Ortberg invites readers to stop living on the surface and begin tending to what lies beneath — the soul, that deepest center of the self that is our primary connection to God. The book's thesis is simple but urgent: you can manage your career, your reputation, your body, and your schedule, and still lose your soul. True life — the abundant life Jesus promised — flows not from self-management but from soul care. Ortberg structures the journey in three movements: discovering what the soul actually is, understanding what the soul needs to flourish, and experiencing the restoration that comes when we finally let God tend to us at the deepest level.
View Discussion GuideRhythms of Renewal
by Rebekah Lyons
Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons is a practical and deeply personal guide to overcoming anxiety and restoring wholeness through four life-giving rhythms: rest, restore, connect, and create. Drawing from her own harrowing journey through panic attacks, depression, and the disorienting experience of moving her family from the suburbs of Atlanta to New York City, Rebekah shows that the frantic pace of modern life doesn't have to win. The book's core conviction is that God has wired us for specific, repeatable rhythms — not white-knuckled willpower or self-improvement hacks — and that when we practice these rhythms consistently, we create space for the Holy Spirit to heal, renew, and empower us to flourish.
View Discussion GuidePrayer in the Night
by Tish Harrison Warren
Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren is a book born in darkness — both the literal darkness of night and the interior darkness of doubt, grief, and uncertainty. Using the ancient Christian night prayer known as Compline as her guide, Warren moves phrase by phrase through this liturgy, exploring what it means to trust God when life feels fragile, out of control, and shadowed by loss. Drawing on her own experiences of miscarriage, a terrifying medical diagnosis, a season of vocational upheaval, and the ordinary vulnerabilities of being human, Warren argues that Christian faith is not primarily about certainty or spiritual achievement — it is about learning to rest in God's care even when we cannot see or feel that care. The book is simultaneously a work of theology, memoir, and spiritual formation, and it offers a rare honesty about the hard places where faith actually lives.
View Discussion GuideThe Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness
by Timothy Keller
Timothy Keller's slim but powerful book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness takes its central argument from 1 Corinthians 3:21–4:7, where the apostle Paul describes a peculiar kind of ego — one that is neither puffed up with pride nor crushed by self-criticism, but rather quietly, joyfully empty of itself. Keller contends that the restless, painful preoccupation with self that marks modern life is not solved by higher self-esteem or lower expectations, but by the gospel: the liberating truth that in Christ our identity is secure, our verdict is already in, and we are therefore free to stop thinking about ourselves altogether. The result is not self-deprecation, but a lightness — what C.S. Lewis described as a person who has truly forgotten themselves in loving God and others.
View Discussion GuideNothing to Prove
by Jennie Allen
Nothing to Prove by Jennie Allen is a passionate, gospel-rooted invitation for women to stop striving and start living from a place of fullness rather than emptiness. Allen's central thesis is deceptively simple: you are not enough — and that is precisely the point. Jesus is enough, and when we finally stop white-knuckling our way through life trying to prove our worth to God, others, and ourselves, we discover a soul-deep freedom and joy we never could have manufactured on our own. Drawing on her own story of exhaustion and striving, as well as rich biblical teaching, Allen points readers toward a life overflowing with the contentment that only comes from abiding in Christ.
View Discussion GuideOne Thousand Gifts
by Ann Voskamp
Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts is, at its heart, a dare: dare to believe that the life you already have is the life you've always wanted. Written from the rhythms of a working farm in rural Ontario, the book traces Voskamp's journey from a childhood scarred by grief and a daily undercurrent of anxiety toward a discovered theology of gratitude — what she calls eucharisteo, the Greek word rooted in charis (grace) and chara (joy). Her central argument is that joy is not a feeling we wait for but a practice we choose: the discipline of noticing, naming, and giving thanks for ordinary gifts, one by one, until gratitude becomes a lens through which all of life is seen as grace. The book grew out of a friend's challenge to list one thousand things Voskamp loved — and that list became a revolution in her soul.
View Discussion GuideUnglued
by Lysa TerKeurst
Most of us know the feeling: someone bumps into our happy and suddenly we're saying things we regret, slamming doors we wish we hadn't, or retreating into a stony silence that slowly poisons a relationship. In Unglued, Lysa TerKeurst names that experience with refreshing honesty and then offers something better than a self-help strategy — she offers a biblical path toward emotional integrity. Her central thesis is simple but liberating: God gave us emotions to experience life, not destroy it. The goal is not to become a person who never feels anger, hurt, or frustration, but to become a person who processes those feelings in ways that don't leave wreckage behind. Drawing on her own candid stories of coming unglued — with her kids, her husband, strangers in parking lots — Lysa walks readers through the patterns that keep us stuck and the grace that sets us free.
View Discussion GuideLies Women Believe
by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
Lies Women Believe by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is built on a sobering premise: most of the struggles Christian women face—guilt, fear, emotional bondage, broken relationships, spiritual defeat—can be traced back to believing lies. Drawing on the Genesis 3 account of Eve's temptation, Nancy argues that Satan has been deceiving women from the very beginning, and that his strategy has not changed. He whispers half-truths, distortions, and outright falsehoods about God, ourselves, sin, priorities, marriage, family, and emotions. Because these lies feel so natural and are so widely accepted—even in the church—most women never stop to question them. This guide exists to help you do exactly that: to hold your assumptions up to the light of God's Word and let truth set you free.
View Discussion GuideFind Your People
by Jennie Allen
Find Your People by Jennie Allen is a passionate, research-grounded, and deeply personal call to stop settling for surface-level connection and start building the kind of community we were made for. Drawing on neuroscience, history, and vulnerable stories from her own life, Jennie argues that loneliness is not an inevitable feature of modern life — it is a solvable problem. The solution, she contends, is not waiting for community to happen to you, but choosing to pursue it with intentionality, courage, and a willingness to press through the awkward to get to the authentic. At the heart of the book is the conviction that God designed us to live known and loved, and that deep community is not a luxury but a necessity for our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
View Discussion GuideForgiving What You Can't Forget
by Lysa TerKeurst
In Forgiving What You Can't Forget, Lysa TerKeurst writes from inside one of the most painful seasons of her life — the near-collapse and eventual dissolution of her marriage — to answer a question most of us have quietly carried for years: How do you forgive someone who never says they're sorry, and who may never change? Drawing on over 1,000 hours of theological study, honest conversations with her therapist, and the raw material of her own suffering, Lysa argues that forgiveness is not a feeling we wait for or a verdict we render on someone else — it is a decision we make, step by step, for our own healing and for the sake of our relationship with God. The book moves readers from stuck and resentful to genuinely free, not by minimizing what was done to them, but by showing them what the Bible actually teaches about forgiveness and why living it out is possible even when it feels impossibly hard.
View Discussion GuideThe Search for Significance
by Robert S. McGee
Robert S. McGee's The Search for Significance is a landmark work in Christian counseling and discipleship that has helped millions of people break free from the exhausting cycle of performance-based self-worth. McGee's central thesis is straightforward but profoundly liberating: most of us have built our sense of identity on a foundation of four destructive false beliefs — that our worth depends on our performance, that we must be approved of by others, that those who fail deserve punishment, and that we are only as valuable as we are compared to others. These lies drive anxiety, shame, and relentless striving. The good news McGee presents is that God has already provided, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, a secure and unconditional basis for our significance — one we can receive but can never earn or lose.
View Discussion GuideGood Boundaries and Goodbyes
by Lysa TerKeurst
Good Boundaries and Goodbyes by Lysa TerKeurst is a compassionate, theologically grounded guide for anyone who has ever felt trapped, exhausted, or confused by a difficult relationship. Drawing on thousands of hours of her own counseling intensives and extensive biblical research, Lysa dismantles the false idea that loving people well means accepting any treatment they dish out. Her central thesis is both simple and liberating: boundaries aren't just a good idea — they're a God idea. Through Scripture, honest personal storytelling, and the clinical wisdom of her counselor Jim Cress, Lysa helps readers move from paralyzing guilt to grounded, grace-filled action — whether that means setting a healthier limit with someone they love or, when necessary, saying a painful goodbye.
View Discussion GuideTame Your Thoughts
by Max Lucado
Max Lucado's Tame Your Thoughts (2025) begins with a simple but life-altering premise: the way we think directly shapes the way we live. Drawing on both neuroscience and Scripture, Lucado argues that we are not helpless passengers in our own minds — we can, with God's help, take our thoughts captive, test them against truth, and redirect them toward what is good, true, and life-giving. The book's anchor verse is Romans 12:2 — "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" — and its promise is equally clear: the thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life. Anxiety, guilt, shame, doubt, and bitterness are not your destiny. A sound mind, as 2 Timothy 1:7 declares, is a gift God intends for you.
View Discussion GuideBoundaries in Marriage
by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
In Boundaries in Marriage, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend argue that the healthiest marriages are not boundary-free unions where two people merge into one, but rather relationships between two distinct individuals who choose love freely, take personal responsibility seriously, and respect each other's separateness. Drawing on their landmark work in Boundaries, they apply the concept of property lines to marriage — showing that when spouses know where they end and their partner begins, love can flourish rather than stagnate into control, resentment, or codependency. The book's central conviction is that freedom and responsibility, working together, are the twin pillars of a thriving marriage.
View Discussion GuideCaptivating
by John Eldredge & Stasi Eldredge
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul, by John and Stasi Eldredge, is an invitation for women to recover the heart God gave them before the wounds of life covered it over. The book's central thesis is that every woman bears a feminine soul with three core desires: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. These longings are not signs of weakness or vanity — they are God-given clues to who a woman was made to be. Drawing on Scripture, personal stories, and the language of story and beauty, the Eldredges argue that God himself is the only One who can fully meet these desires, and that he is pursuing every woman's heart with the love of a devoted and heroic Bridegroom.
View Discussion GuideUntangle Your Emotions
by Jennie Allen
In Untangle Your Emotions, New York Times bestselling author Jennie Allen offers what she calls a revolutionary path out of emotional confusion and into honest, life-giving connection with God and others. Drawing on neuroscience, biblical theology, and her own vulnerable story, Allen argues that our feelings are not the enemy — they are data. Rather than stuffing, dismissing, or being controlled by emotions, she introduces a five-step process to help readers notice, name, and navigate what they feel. The book's central claim is deceptively simple and deeply freeing: feelings aren't something to fix; they are something to feel. God, she reminds us, is not uncomfortable with our emotions — He created them.
View Discussion GuideSo Long, Insecurity
by Beth Moore
In So Long, Insecurity, Beth Moore delivers one of the most personally vulnerable and spiritually honest books of her career. Her central thesis is bold and simple: insecurity is one of the greatest thieves of a woman's life, quietly sabotaging her relationships, her joy, and her walk with God — and it does not have to win. Drawing on Scripture, psychology, and her own painfully honest story, Beth argues that true security is not achieved through better circumstances, more beautiful bodies, or more successful marriages. It is found only by planting our roots so deeply into the character of God that nothing the world shifts beneath our feet can topple us. This is not a self-help book dressed in Christian language; it is a call to a profound theological reorientation — from a self that looks to the world for its sense of worth, to a self that is hidden in Christ and therefore unshakable.
View Discussion GuideThe Broken Way
by Ann Voskamp
Ann Voskamp's The Broken Way is a deeply personal and luminous book about what happens when we stop running from brokenness and begin to see it as the very path into abundance. Drawing on her own story of childhood trauma, self-harm, and the slow, costly work of healing, Voskamp argues that the broken way — the way of the cross, of koinonia suffering, of giving yourself away — is not a detour from the good life but the very road that leads there. The book's central image is eucharist: bread broken and given, a life broken and poured out. Voskamp weaves together memoir, theology, Scripture, and letters from a Syrian refugee family she visits in order to press home one radical claim: that the wounds we carry can become the places through which grace most freely flows, and that the only way to receive more of God is to give more of ourselves away.
View Discussion GuideBattlefield of the Mind
by Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind begins with a simple but staggering claim: the mind is the battlefield where the enemy wages his most relentless war against believers. Satan knows that if he can control your thoughts, he can control your life. Drawing on her own painful journey through abuse, fear, and mental torment, Meyer writes not as a distant theologian but as someone who has fought — and, through God's Word, won — the battle for her own mind. The book's central thesis is that renewing the mind (Romans 12:2) is not a one-time event but a daily, sometimes moment-by-moment discipline of bringing every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Negative, doubtful, worried, bitter, and self-defeating thought patterns are not just bad habits — they are footholds the enemy uses to derail God's purposes for our lives.
View Discussion GuideAbba's Child
by Brennan Manning
Brennan Manning's Abba's Child is a soul-searching invitation to abandon the exhausting performance of the "impostor" — the false self we construct to earn love, manage impressions, and hide our brokenness — and to rest instead in the radical, unearned love of God the Father. Drawing on Scripture, the desert fathers and mothers, contemplative prayer, and his own hard-won experience of grace, Manning argues that the single most transforming truth a person can internalize is this: God loves you as you are, not as you should be. The title comes from the Aramaic word Abba — the intimate, tender address Jesus used for his Father — and Manning contends that claiming our identity as Abba's children is not spiritual sentiment but the most courageous and countercultural act a broken human being can make.
View Discussion GuideI Want to Trust You, but I Don't
by Lysa TerKeurst
Trust is the oxygen of every relationship — and when it's been stolen from you, breathing feels impossible. In I Want to Trust You, but I Don't, New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst walks alongside readers who have been burned by a friend's repeated letdowns, a leader's hidden hypocrisy, a spouse's betrayal, or a family member's cruelty. Rather than offering a quick fix or urging you to simply "trust more," Lysa argues that lasting resilience comes from building stability within yourself and with God — so that you stop carrying a broken belief system into every new relationship. The book equips readers to identify eleven relational red flags, ask honest "what if" questions about their fears, recognize when a fractured relationship can genuinely be repaired, and understand the physical, emotional, and neurological toll that betrayal takes on the whole person.
View Discussion GuideMade to Crave
by Lysa TerKeurst
Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa TerKeurst is built around one provocative, liberating idea: you were made to crave. Craving is not the enemy — misplaced craving is. God wired us for deep, persistent longing precisely so that we would pursue more of Him. But in a culture of abundant food and instant comfort, many of us have quietly trained our appetites to turn toward the pantry rather than toward prayer. This participant's guide, designed to accompany the Made to Crave book and video series, walks readers through the biblical and practical foundations of reclaiming their God-given cravings and redirecting them toward the One who can actually satisfy them. The result is not just a healthier body, but a more vibrant, honest, and surrendered spiritual life.
View Discussion GuideChanges That Heal
by Henry Cloud
Changes That Heal by Dr. Henry Cloud is a landmark work at the intersection of Christian faith and psychological growth. Drawing on his clinical experience and his own spiritual journey, Cloud argues that God's design for human beings involves four essential capacities: bonding with others, setting healthy boundaries, acknowledging the reality of both good and bad within ourselves and others, and embracing the grieving and growing process that leads to maturity. When any of these capacities is stunted — often through childhood wounds, distorted theology, or relational pain — the result is the anxiety, loneliness, shame, and compulsion that so many Christians quietly endure. The good news Cloud insists on throughout the book is that healing is not only possible, it is promised: "God will complete the good work he has begun in you" (Philippians 1:6).
View Discussion GuideWinning the War in Your Mind
by Craig Groeschel
In Winning the War in Your Mind, Pastor Craig Groeschel confronts one of the most universal struggles of the Christian life: the battle that takes place between our ears. Drawing on both Scripture and current brain science, Groeschel argues that our lives move in the direction of our strongest thoughts — and that the enemy knows this, which is why he works so hard to plant lies, half-truths, and destructive patterns in our minds. The good news is that the brain is not fixed. Through the renewing of the mind that Paul describes in Romans 12:2, we can literally rewire our neural pathways and begin to think — and live — differently. This book is a field manual for that battle.
View Discussion GuideDon't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table
by Louie Giglio
In Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, pastor Louie Giglio takes readers on a fresh journey through Psalm 23 — one of the most beloved passages in all of Scripture — and unlocks a dimension of it that is easy to overlook: verse 5, where God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Giglio's central thesis is both simple and life-changing: the table belongs to you and your Shepherd, and the Enemy has no rightful place at it. Yet Satan — a liar and a thief by nature — will relentlessly try to pull up a chair and whisper his way into our thoughts, hijacking the narrative of our lives with fear, rage, lust, insecurity, anxiety, despair, and defeat. The good news Giglio proclaims is that we are not helpless. Because Jesus is our Shepherd and the battle for the mind is winnable, we can learn to recognize the Enemy's voice, refuse him a seat, and live in the peace and freedom God intends for us.
View Discussion GuideTry Softer
by Aundi Kolber
Try Softer by Aundi Kolber is a book for the exhausted, the overfunctioning, and the burned out — which, if we're honest, describes most of us. Drawing on her training as a licensed therapist and her own hard-won story of healing, Kolber challenges the "try harder" gospel that tells us to push through, numb out, and keep performing. In its place, she offers something both countercultural and deeply Christian: the invitation to try softer. Through a rich integration of neuroscience, attachment theory, somatic (body-based) therapy, and Christian spirituality, Kolber shows how God designed our minds and bodies to work together — and how learning to listen to both is not self-indulgence but sacred work. The book's core argument is that many of us are living in chronic survival mode, cut off from our emotions, our bodies, and our truest selves, and that real transformation requires curiosity, compassion, and the willingness to feel what we've been running from.
View Discussion GuideGet Your Life Back
by John Eldredge
Get Your Life Back by John Eldredge is a compassionate and practical guide for people who feel wrung-out, over-stimulated, and emotionally depleted by the pace of modern life. Eldredge's central thesis is both simple and urgent: your soul is not designed to absorb the relentless torrent of information, tragedy, and demand that defines contemporary living — and unless you intentionally create space for God to restore you, you will continue to run on empty. Drawing on his own struggle and on the wisdom of Christian spiritual formation, Eldredge introduces a series of "graces" — small, accessible practices like the One Minute Pause, benevolent detachment, and drinking in beauty — that don't require you to overhaul your life but do require you to show up differently in it. The good news he keeps returning to is this: God is gentle, and he is near, and he wants to give you more of himself.
View Discussion GuidePraying God's Word
by Beth Moore
In Praying God's Word, Beth Moore offers a deeply practical and spiritually urgent guide to overcoming strongholds — those stubborn patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that keep believers from the freedom Christ has purchased for them. Drawing on 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, Moore's central thesis is simple but transformative: the most powerful weapon for tearing down mental and emotional strongholds is not willpower, therapy, or positive thinking, but the living Word of God prayed back to God with faith and persistence. Each chapter targets a specific stronghold and equips the reader with Scripture-based prayers to fight it directly. The result is less a book to be read passively and more a weapon to be picked up and used daily.
View Discussion GuideSafe People
by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Safe People by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend is a practical, biblically grounded guide to one of the most important decisions we make every day: who we let into our lives. The book's central thesis is that relationships are not just a matter of preference or luck — they are a matter of spiritual and emotional health. Unsafe people damage our souls, erode our confidence, and pull us away from the people God designed us to be. Safe people, by contrast, draw us closer to God and to our truest selves. Cloud and Townsend argue that most of us have predictable, often unconscious patterns that lead us to choose unsafe people — and that those patterns can be identified, understood, and changed with God's help and a healthy community.
View Discussion GuideYou Are Free
by Rebekah Lyons
In You Are Free, Rebekah Lyons writes from the hard-won place of personal exhaustion, anxiety, and striving — and from the surprising discovery that Jesus has already declared freedom over every one of those struggles. The book's central thesis is simple but radical: Christ does not say you can be free or might become free. He says, in the present tense, you are free. Drawing on her own story of battling anxiety, depression, and the relentless pressure of performance, Rebekah unpacks the many forms of bondage that quietly hold women captive — people-pleasing, self-condemnation, ungrieved loss, fear of failure — and then sets each one against the liberating truth of the gospel. The result is both a personal memoir and a theological call to action: freedom is not a destination you earn; it is a gift you receive, and then courageously give away.
View Discussion GuideUninvited
by Lysa TerKeurst
Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst is a deeply personal and biblically grounded exploration of one of the most universal human experiences: rejection. From the sting of being left out of a social gathering to the soul-level wound of abandonment by someone who should have loved us, rejection has a way of writing stories over our hearts — stories that tell us we are unwanted, not enough, and destined to be on the outside looking in. Lysa TerKeurst dismantles those stories with gut-honest vulnerability, pointing us instead toward a love that is handpicked, intentional, and completely unshakeable. Her central thesis is this: we are not defined by the rejections we experience, but by the One who chose us before the foundation of the world. When we learn to live from that truth rather than react from our wounds, everything changes.
View Discussion GuideThe Next Right Thing
by Emily P. Freeman
Emily P. Freeman's The Next Right Thing (2019) offers a quiet, countercultural approach to decision-making in an age of overwhelming options and constant noise. Freeman's central thesis is simple but profound: rather than striving to discover "God's perfect will" for every major life choice, we are invited to practice the habit of doing the next right thing in love — one small, faithful step at a time. Drawing on her own experience of decision fatigue, as well as the wisdom of spiritual directors, contemplative writers, and everyday moments of ordinary life, Freeman builds a practical and deeply spiritual framework for soul-care in the midst of uncertainty. The book is organized around a series of short, accessible practices — like "becoming a student of yourself," "naming your arrow," and "building a rule of life" — that gently clear the inner clutter and make space for God's voice to be heard.
View Discussion GuideThe Emotionally Healthy Leader
by Peter Scazzero
$2d
View Discussion GuideThe Best Yes
by Lysa TerKeurst
The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst is a book about one of the most quietly exhausting struggles in the Christian life: the inability to say no. Lysa argues that when we say yes to everything — out of people-pleasing, fear of disappointment, or the sheer rush of being needed — we rob ourselves of the ability to say a wholehearted, God-directed "Best Yes" to the things we were actually made for. Drawing on Scripture, personal stories, and practical wisdom, she walks readers through what it looks like to make decisions with a wisdom-based process rather than an emotion-driven reaction. The central conviction of the book is that our decisions shape our days, our days shape our lives, and a life with God at the center requires us to steward our yeses carefully.
View Discussion GuidePresent Over Perfect
by Shauna Niequist
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist is a deeply personal memoir-meets-manifesto about leaving behind the exhausting pursuit of busyness, achievement, and performance in order to return to a slower, more connected, more honest way of living. Niequist writes from the middle of her own unraveling — a season when the life she had carefully built (full of yes's, travel, productivity, and public presence) began to collapse under its own weight. Her central argument is deceptively simple: the frantic, "more is more" pace many of us have accepted as normal is not just unsustainable — it is a kind of soul-sickness. And the antidote is not a better schedule or a smarter self-help strategy, but a genuine return to what is most alive, most true, and most beloved in our lives. This is a book for anyone who has ever arrived at a season of exhaustion and wondered how they got there.
View Discussion GuideNecessary Endings
by Henry Cloud
Henry Cloud's Necessary Endings (2011) makes a counterintuitive but liberating argument: endings are not failures — they are necessary conditions for growth. Just as a rosebush requires pruning to thrive, our businesses, relationships, and personal lives require us to cut away what is dying, what is already dead, and what is simply not able to become what we need it to be. Cloud draws on his experience as a clinical psychologist and business consultant to show that the inability to end things — to fire an underperforming employee, leave a destructive relationship, or abandon a strategy that isn't working — is one of the most common and costly sources of personal and professional stagnation. The book's central thesis is that hope is not a strategy: wishing things will get better without doing something different is a form of magical thinking that keeps us stuck. Learning to end well, Cloud argues, is a learnable skill, and this guide is designed to help you develop it.
View Discussion GuideLeading on Empty
by Wayne Cordeiro
$2d
View Discussion GuideIt's Not Supposed to Be This Way
by Lysa TerKeurst
Lysa TerKeurst wrote It's Not Supposed to Be This Way out of one of the most painful seasons of her life — a season marked by a devastating marriage crisis, a cancer diagnosis, and the kind of slow, grinding disappointment that makes you quietly wonder whether God is really as good as you've been told. Her core thesis is both honest and hopeful: the gaps between what we expected and what we've experienced are not evidence that God has abandoned us, but are instead the very places where He most wants to meet us. Our disappointments, she argues, can become divine appointments — if we learn to wrestle well between our faith and our feelings rather than running from the tension.
View Discussion GuideGet Out of Your Head
by Jennie Allen
In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie Allen confronts one of the most intimate battlegrounds of the Christian life: the mind. Drawing on her own struggle with spiraling, anxious, and toxic thought patterns, Allen argues that the enemy's greatest weapon against us is not circumstances or suffering — it is the thoughts we allow to take root and run unchecked. Her central thesis, drawn from Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 10:5, is that we are not helpless victims of our own minds. We can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, choose what we think. That choice — practiced deliberately, repeatedly, and in community — is nothing less than a spiritual battle with eternal stakes.
View Discussion GuideEmotionally Healthy Spirituality
by Peter Scazzero
Peter Scazzero's Emotionally Healthy Spirituality begins with a confession most of us quietly recognize: it is entirely possible to be deeply involved in church, committed to the Bible, and actively serving God — and still be emotionally immature. Scazzero, a pastor who built a growing congregation in Queens, New York, discovered through a painful personal and marital crisis that his spiritual life had a gaping hole in it. He had been using ministry to run from himself, suppressing his anger and sadness in the name of Christian niceness, and leading others while his own soul was starving. His central thesis is both simple and radical: emotional health and contemplative spirituality are not optional add-ons to discipleship — they are its very foundation. You cannot be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.
View Discussion GuideCrash the Chatterbox
by Steven Furtick
We all have a chatterbox — that relentless inner voice that whispers (and sometimes screams) that we are not enough, that our situation is hopeless, that God is distant, and that our failures define us. In Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church argues that the greatest battle of your life is not fought on a visible battlefield but in the six inches between your ears. Drawing on Scripture, personal stories, and sharp pastoral insight, Furtick identifies four core lies the enemy uses to silence us — "God won't," "You can't," "You don't deserve it," and "It won't last" — and shows how the living Word of God is the only weapon powerful enough to silence those voices for good.
View Discussion GuideBoundaries
by Henry Cloud
In Boundaries, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend tackle one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Christian life: the idea that loving others well sometimes requires saying no. Drawing on Scripture, psychology, and decades of counseling experience, the authors argue that a "boundary" is a personal property line — a marker that defines where you end and someone else begins. Far from being selfish, they show that healthy limits are essential to love, responsibility, and spiritual maturity. The book walks readers through why so many Christians struggle to set boundaries, what the Bible actually teaches about personal responsibility, and how to apply these principles across every major relationship in life: parents, spouses, children, friends, coworkers, and even oneself.
View Discussion GuideAnxious for Nothing
by Max Lucado
Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World by Max Lucado is built around one of the most countercultural promises in all of Scripture: "Be anxious for nothing" (Philippians 4:6–7). Drawing on Paul's letter written from a Roman prison cell, Lucado argues that peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of God. The book's central thesis is captured in the acronym CALM — Celebrate God's goodness, Ask God for help, Leave your concerns with him, and Meditate on good things — a four-part framework drawn directly from Philippians 4:4–8 that Lucado believes can genuinely quiet the restless, worried heart. With characteristic warmth and storytelling, Lucado weaves together personal confessions, real-life stories, medical research on anxiety, and rich biblical exposition to show that anxiety is a real and serious struggle, and that God's Word offers a real and sufficient answer.
View Discussion GuideMental Health & Wellness Studies — Questions Leaders Ask
- How many Mental Health & Wellness study guides are there?
- 43 guides right now, listed above, out of 223 in the library. Each one is written for a specific published book: a reading, discussion questions, and a closing prayer for every week of it. Browse the whole library →
- How long does a study take?
- Mental Health & Wellness guides run 5 to 22 weeks, one meeting a week, and each week has its own reading, discussion questions, and closing prayer. Groups that meet every other week or take a break for the holidays simply spread the same weeks further apart. Put your meetings on real dates →
- Can we read part of a guide before we pay?
- Yes. Week 1 of every guide is free — no card and no account. Three of its discussion questions sit right on the guide's page for anyone to read, and the rest of Week 1 opens as soon as you tell us where to send it. Browse the guides →
- What does a guide cost?
- Two ways to pay. This Guide Only is $29 once for the book you pick, and never renews. Full Library is $79 a year for every guide in the library — $59 for your first year if you have not bought from us before, through September 30, then it renews at $79 a year unless you cancel. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee on the year (with 2 or fewer guides downloaded) and 30 days on a single guide. See both options →
- What if the book we want isn't on this page?
- We write it. Tell us the title and the author, and we email you the link as soon as the guide is ready. Full Library includes 3 on-request books a year and $9 for each one after that; This Guide Only covers the single book you name. Ask for a book →
- Can I print the guide or share it with my group?
- Yes. Download the guide as a PDF to print for the table, or send your group a read-only link. One membership covers everyone who shows up — there is no per-person fee and no seat limit.