As this year comes to an end, here are my favourite books of the year – books that have inspired me as a coach, impacted my work, and are books that I would thoroughly recommend.

Some are new, some have been on my bookshelf for a while… but all have influenced and inspired my work this year.

Happy by Dr. Arlene Unger is a practical guide filled with mindfulness techniques, visualizations, and exercises designed to help readers cultivate happiness, resilience, and inner peace in their daily lives.

Wintering by Katherine May is a deeply reflective memoir that explores how we navigate life’s inevitable periods of hardship, drawing on nature’s cycles and the concept of “wintering” as a time for rest, healing, and renewal.

It’s a great reminder of the value of slowing down and embracing life’s slower, challenging seasons rather than resisting them. It’s a beautiful reminder for my coaching practice to encourage clients to honor their need for rest and see setbacks as opportunities for growth and transformation.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk is a groundbreaking exploration of how trauma impacts the brain, body, and mind, offering insights into the connection between emotional experiences and physical health, along with strategies for healing.

This book has been profoundly inspiring in my coaching work, as it underscores the deep interplay between our emotions and physical well-being. It reinforces the importance of working with clients holistically, fostering awareness of how unprocessed experiences might influence their behavior, resilience, and ability to thrive.

It Didn’t Start with You by Mark Wolynn delves into the concept of inherited family trauma, showing how unresolved emotional issues from previous generations can shape our behaviors, beliefs, and experiences, and offering tools for breaking these cycles.

Working as a coach, it can often be helpful to help clients look deeper into the patterns that may be holding them back, often rooted in generational experiences. Those narratives may have helped them earlier in life, but perhaps are not so useful in their adult roles. Helping clients rewrite their personal narratives can so often lead to a much more fulfilled and transformed self.

Great Women’s Speeches by Anna Russell is a celebration of powerful speeches by women throughout history, highlighting their voices on topics ranging from equality to empowerment and showcasing their influence across diverse fields and movements.

This has been a great resource to share with so many of the female leaders I have worked with this year. Through showcasing the courage and conviction of women who have used their voices to create change, it is a great reminder to my clients to speak authentically, embrace their power, and lead with purpose in their own journeys.

The Promise That Changes Everything by Nancy Kline explores the transformative power of truly listening without interruption, offering a compelling case for creating spaces where people can think independently and express themselves fully.

Those of you who know me, know how much I am inspired by Nancy and her work around a thinking environment. This year I am delighted to now be part of the thinking environment faculty and I am teaching more courses in the work of experiencing thinking envionrments to help people  feel heard, respected, and empowered to access their own best thinking.

Challenging Coaching by John Blakey and Ian Day introduces the concept of “FAIR” coaching, which balances support with constructive challenge, encouraging leaders and clients to step out of their comfort zones to achieve extraordinary results.

As a coach where empathy is at the bedrock of the relationship, it is also important to challenge and have courageous conversations. This has helped me as a coach be more courageous as well as helping my clients push their own boundaries in the conversations with those around them. John is also a guest faculty member on the Pearls of Wisdom coach training programme where I am one of the founding faculty.

Coaching and Mentoring Supervision by David Clutterbuck offers a comprehensive guide to supervision in coaching and mentoring, emphasizing its importance for professional growth, ethical practice, and ensuring high-quality client outcomes.

2025 has been the year for me to really focus on me as a supervisor. Having worked as a ICF mentor for many years, I have been informally supervising many coachees. This has been the year to tighten up my practise, and to be more rigourous in my approach. I am now EMCC accredited as a supervisor and this book has been a great resource to help reinforce supervision as a space for learning, self-awareness, and maintaining the highest standards in supporting my clients effectively.

Power by Julie Diamond explores the dynamics of power in personal and professional settings, examining how individuals can harness and navigate power in healthy, authentic ways to influence and lead effectively.

Power has been a theme in many of my coaching relationships this yeaar. This book has helped highlight the complexities of power and how it shapes leadership and relationships. It has helped me guide clients in understanding their own relationship with power, empowering them to lead with confidence and authenticity while maintaining integrity.

Systemic Coaching by Peter Hawkins and Eve Turner offers a framework for coaching that takes into account the broader systems in which individuals and organizations operate, emphasizing the interconnectedness of people, teams, and the larger environment.

As I work as a sytemic coach, there is no surprise that this book is on my list. This book has some stimulating thinking to challenge us as coaches to ensure we are becoming future fit for the ever growing complexities of our clients, working in multi-dimensional systems and organisations – the impact of so many stakeholders, the growth of AI, and working with the wider system that the coachee finds themselves in.

Neurodiversity Coaching by Jo-anne Houghton focuses on coaching techniques and strategies tailored to individuals with neurodiverse conditions, helping them leverage their unique strengths and overcome challenges in both personal and professional settings.

Neurodiversity is a new topic for me and this book has been a massive help to understand, embrace and celebrate neurodiversity in my coaching practice – whether with coaching clients who are neurodiverse, or in supervision where supervisees are bringing cases of neurodiversity.  It has helped me to create inclusive coaching approaches  and to recoginse distinct cognitive styles.