Resources

Your voice, your actions, your recorded experience will have a direct impact on social culture through the advancements in technology, artificial intelligence, etc. Amber’s mission is to empower others who have experienced trauma – help them heal and find their voice. Whereas her focus is on women, she encourages men to share their stories and follow the journey to healing. Her goal is to help others become their best self, build community, and create a vision of hope for the future.

Below are the “influencers” of  Amber B Skylar’s thought, evolution, and values.

Amber’s Book Recommendations

  • You Can Heal Your Life by Louisa Hay – A woman ahead of her time who writes about emotions and problems with the body. You can look up a symptom and she correlates it to an emotion or belief a person may have learned and the power that belief holds over them.
  • Heal Your Body by Louisa Hay
  • Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
  • Discover Your Woman Within: A Journey to Wholeness by Charlene Bell Tosi
  • She by Robert A Johnson – A short book that gives excellent thought and behavior challenges utilizing stories, myth, and archetypes to allow the reader some self-observation.)
  • He by Robert A Johnson
  • Power vs Force by David R Hawkins, M.D. PhD
  • Because of Sex – One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years that Changed American Women’s Lives at Work by Gillian Thomas –  A reinforcement tool that aided me in knowing that I am not a conspiracy theorist and that my emotional responses to social and political messages were spot on.
  • Women and Children Last by Barbara Sidel – One of the first books I ever read which provided a comprehensive overview of how our women and children have been treated.
  • Men Who Rape by A. Nicholas Growth – As a victim of rape, sexual assault, and harassment, this insightful book enabled me to feel compassion more than anger.
  • A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz – an organized look at the social shaping of human behavior and the tools utilized to dictate gender roles and stereotypes.
  • Mind Fixers by Anne Harrington – An easy-to-read overview of the abuses of the mental health industry (psychopharmacology).
  • The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker – An excellent book for women in particular to trust their instincts and to pay very close attention to the environments in which they live and interact.
  • Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman – A brilliant overview of why it is important to understand the human capacity of emotions and the behaviors that are attached, connected, created as a result.
  • Social Intelligence  by Daniel Goleman
  • Journey of the Heart by John Welwood – An interesting perspective on “love and relationship”.
  • Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliot Friedman – A must-read for me in my quest to understand the ignorance that has empowered so much mistrust, violence, disharmony, and an impossible mental safe haven for those that may have feared the consequences of revolutionary thought. This book offers a stunning account of how historically men have manipulated the written word to aid them in their quest to harness the minds and souls of their constituency.
  • How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett – This is an interesting, theoretical leap toward understanding one of the many unknowns about the human body.
  • Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky – Written by a brilliant neurobiologist. Sapolsky’s book is organized to include humor, bold judgments about outdated information, and the scientists who entrapped so many people with their pontificating and speculation and awarded with high scientific awards. I totally enjoyed the debunking of the old ways that have hurt so many people.
  • Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky – This author is one of my very favorite humans. Brilliant, curious, compassionate, and caring soul.
  • The Biology of Belief by Bruce H Lipton, PhD
  • Frequency by Penney Pierce
  • Entangled Minds Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality by Dean Radin
  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield – An eye-opening resource that the author creatively suggests the power of opportunities to grow if we pay attention to our environment. Coincides in the field of epigenetics.

Websites for Personal Growth and Healing

I believe wholeheartedly in psychotherapy. I have been in therapy for 30 years. It is a misrepresented and misjudged science that creates a negative ripple of information for people who need/desire to access this type of care. It is not as sexy as alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex addictions. I find myself often exploring the paths/places/ideas that are rejected by the masses. I have found such inspiration, courage and strength as influenced by an adherence to my innate nature – to be open, curious, and to explore “The Road Less Traveled”.
~Amber B Skylar

  • Woman Within International – A grassroots organization founded by Char Tsoi (and others) now flourishing as an international place for women to tap into experiences held in silence within. The highly skilled personnel are made up of women who have experienced the training and understand the processes offered.  The power of being witnessed and supported is transformational. A revelation is almost guaranteed.
  • The Mankind Project – The brother organization to Woman Within International, founded by Rich Tsoi (and others). A place for men to process, be supported, witnessed, heard, and validated for the richness of their experiences that have truly been squelched by society. A powerful experience for transformation and run by men who have completed the same training and have a clear understanding of men’s emotional and mental wellbeing.
  • Clarissa Pinkola Estés – A powerful author, teacher of women’s shadow work, a Jungian analyst. My favorite type of therapeutic work is the use of archetypes and storytelling that enable the reader to process from the perspective of a story. Powerful and impactful work. I use this book like a religious person who refers to a spiritual work of art.
  • The Recovery Village – A web resource that provides information and support to people fighting domestic abuse, mental illness, and addiction.
  • Adult Children of Alcoholics – This is an excellent article on the qualities and traits adult children of alcoholics share. Recognizing these traits and understanding them can help you take the steps you may need to move forward with healing.
  • New Information on 100 Different Types of Tears – This article was extremely exciting to me because of the stubborn limitations of science to minimize the value of human tears. I have been blown away by how cross-culturally we look at tears as something bad or negative when in fact it is a biological and a natural body secretion that can shift the endocrinological as well as the chemical release of tension, trauma, pain, and grief, joy, laughter and so on.
  • Canine Companions for Independence – This organization has provided me with a highly trained Service Dog to aid and support me in neurological challenges better known as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.) It took 11 years to negotiate and formulate the possibility of providing Veterans with PTSD a Service Dog. Powerful and transformative experiences have been reported, including my own. I do not believe in medicine for PTSD, not when psychotherapy and a Service Dog can help the central nervous system through an increase in human connections, an uptick in human and environmental interactions getting the Veteran to interact more outside the safety of home, and the training of the Service Dog is such that he is calm, soothing and allows the Veteran to not be overly excited by having to manage the natural untrained tendency of dogs to be dogs.

I am highly selective about information I put into my brain.  I do not read a book because history has dictated its potential and value.  I do not read a book because the author has a PhD or because the person is famous.  I read a book because it resonates with my curious mind and my thirst to understand human evolution.
~Amber B Skylar

Podcasts

Podcasts provide insightful commentary on issues concerning people which impact my thought formulation and how I fit into the world. Mostly nonpartisan information.
~Amber B Skylar