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The books in the collection

Cover of Breaking Free from Toxic Relationships

Breaking Free from Toxic Relationships

Manipulation, Narcissistic Abuse, and Recovery

Published: March 2025

  • The 10 warning signs of a toxic relationship
  • Trauma bonding: why your brain creates a dependency
  • Gaslighting: the 8 techniques used to make you doubt your reality
  • CBT strategies to break free from coercive control
PDF + audio
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Cover of Saving Your Relationship

Saving Your Relationship

Communication, Crises, and Renewal

Published: April 2025

  • Gottman's 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse and how to neutralize them
  • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) applied to your relationship
  • Managing crises and repetitive conflicts
  • Restoring emotional connection and intimacy
PDF + audio
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Cover of Understanding Your Attachment Style

Understanding Your Attachment Style

From Insecure Bonds to Secure Love

Published: May 2025

  • The 4 attachment styles: secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized
  • Identifying your own style and your partner's
  • Earned security: developing secure attachment at any age
  • Practical applications in romantic relationships
PDF + audio
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Cover of The Practical CBT Guide

The Practical CBT Guide

Exercises and Tools for Feeling Better

Published: June 2025

  • The fundamentals of cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Cognitive restructuring: identifying and changing your thoughts
  • 30+ practical exercises for daily use
  • Technique sheets for each common disorder
PDF + audio
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Cover of Overcoming Anxiety and Stress

Overcoming Anxiety and Stress

The 8-Week CBT Program

Published: July 2025

  • A structured week-by-week program
  • Relaxation and mindfulness techniques
  • Gradual exposure and desensitization
  • Scientifically validated stress management tools
PDF + audio
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Cover of The Absent Father

The Absent Father

Invisible Wounds and the Path to Healing

Published: August 2025

  • The 5 faces of the absent father
  • Impact on development and adult relationships
  • The grieving and identity rebuilding process
  • Becoming a parent when you lacked a role model
PDF + audio
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Cover of Surviving the Breakup

Surviving the Breakup

From Heartbreak to Renewal

Published: September 2025

  • The 5 stages of romantic grief
  • Managing no-contact and emotional relapses
  • CBT exercises to overcome rumination
  • Rebuilding and preparing for a new relationship
PDF + audio
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Cover of Infidelity and Jealousy

Infidelity and Jealousy

Understanding, Overcoming, Deciding

Published: October 2025

  • The psychological mechanisms of infidelity
  • Normal jealousy vs. pathological jealousy
  • A trust rebuilding protocol after betrayal
  • Making the decision: stay or leave
PDF + audio
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Cover of Adolescence in Crisis

Adolescence in Crisis

A Guide for Overwhelmed Parents

Published: November 2025

  • Understanding the adolescent brain and its reactions
  • Parent-teen communication: common mistakes and solutions
  • Managing crises: self-harm, school phobia, screen addiction
  • When and how to seek professional help
PDF + audio
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Cover of Emotional Dependency

Emotional Dependency

Breaking Free from the Need for Others

Published: December 2025

  • Identifying emotional dependency patterns
  • Origins in childhood and attachment figures
  • A CBT program to develop emotional autonomy
  • Building balanced and fulfilling relationships
PDF + audio
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Cover of My Ex Has Moved On

My Ex Has Moved On

Grief, Letting Go, and Rebirth

Published: January 2026

  • Understanding the shock and comparison mechanisms
  • Managing digital stalking and social media detox
  • Cognitive distortions and restructuring after the shock
  • Rebuilding and preparing to love again
PDF + audio
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Cover of The Silent Treatment and No Contact

The Silent Treatment and No Contact

A Guide to Emotional Withdrawal and Healing

Published: February 2026

  • The neuroscience of emotional withdrawal and addiction
  • A 30-day no contact protocol, day by day
  • Managing relapses and your ex's attempts
  • When silence is imposed: ghosting and grief without closure
PDF + audio
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Cover of Loana — Burned by the Light
SPECIAL EDITION

Loana — Burned by the Light

A Psychological Portrait of a Sacrificed Icon

Published: March 2026

  • Young's early maladaptive schemas: abandonment, mistrust, emotional deprivation
  • Anxious-preoccupied attachment and the desperate search for love
  • The reality TV machine as a psychological trap
  • Complex PTSD and media co-addiction
  • What Loana reveals about a society that devours its idols
PDF + audio
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Cover of Our Archaic Wounds

Our Archaic Wounds

The 5 Soul Wounds

Published: April 2026

  • The 5 soul wounds: rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, injustice
  • The Bourbeau × Young × Bowlby cross-reference table
  • The neuroscience of wounding: amygdala and implicit memory
  • 5 detailed clinical case studies (one per wound)
  • An 8-week healing program with CBT exercises
PDF + audio
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Cover of Trauma Bonding: Understanding and Breaking Free from Traumatic Bonds

Trauma Bonding: Understanding and Breaking Free from Traumatic Bonds

Abuse Cycle, Emotional Withdrawal, and Recovery

Published: April 2026

  • Understanding the traumatic bond: why we stay attached to those who hurt us
  • The 4-phase abuse cycle: tension, explosion, reconciliation, honeymoon
  • The neuroscience of trauma bonding: dopamine, cortisol, and emotional addiction
  • A CBT protocol to break the cycle and rebuild self-esteem
PDF + audio
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Cover of Why Men Lie: Understanding the Mechanisms of Deception in Relationships

Why Men Lie: Understanding the Mechanisms of Deception in Relationships

Psychology of Deception, Betrayal, and CBT Protocol

Published: April 2026

  • Why lying feels easier than truth
  • The 5 types of lies in relationships
  • How lies destroy trust
  • CBT protocol for rebuilding honesty
PDF + audio
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Cover of Avoidant Attachment
New

Avoidant Attachment

Understanding, Loving, and Breaking Free — Volume 2

Published: May 2026

  • The 3 avoidant profiles identified (dismissive, fearful, deactivating)
  • The anxious-avoidant dance decoded and how to break the cycle
  • 8-week CBT protocol to restructure schemas
  • The path to "earned secure" — neuroplasticity at the service of change
PDF + audio
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Cover of Inside the Mind of Organized Criminals
SPECIAL EDITION

Inside the Mind of Organized Criminals

A Psychological Analysis of Major Crime Figures

Published: May 2026

  • 19 criminal organizations decoded (Cosa Nostra, cartels, yakuza, triads, Bratva...)
  • 12 real mobsters clinically analyzed (PCL-R): Capone, Escobar, Luciano, Riina, Gotti...
  • 5 fictional characters decoded: Soprano, Corleone, White, Shelby, Fring
  • Comparative PCL-R table, 62-term glossary, annotated filmography, 47 recommended books
PDF + audio
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Cover of Michael Jackson — Psychological Portrait of a Broken Myth
SPECIAL EDITION

Michael Jackson — Psychological Portrait of a Broken Myth

Trauma, Fame, and Fragmentation

Published: May 2026

  • The stolen childhood in Gary, Indiana and Joe Jackson the tyrannical father: developmental trauma
  • The grandiosity of Thriller as a narcissistic defense against an inner void
  • Body dysmorphia, vitiligo, and internalized racial shame
  • Neverland: the impossible attempt to rebuild a lost childhood
  • 1993 and 2003-2005 allegations read as regressive dynamics, in strict respect of the 2005 verdict
  • Demerol/Propofol addictions and emotional dysregulation up to the 2009 death
PDF + audio
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Cover of Encyclopedia of the Narcissistic Abuser
NEW

Encyclopedia of the Narcissistic Abuser

From the Dyad to the Dark Decade — the reference work in six volumes

Published: August 2026

  • Volume I — From the myth of Narcissus to the DSM-5: the genealogy of the concept, from Racamier to Hirigoyen
  • Volume II — The manipulator's personality structure: dark triad, defences, DARVO
  • Volume III — The victim and coercive control: vulnerabilities, phases, psychological and somatic consequences
  • Volume IV — Beyond the couple: family, workplace, politics, social media, cults
  • Volume V — Therapies under scrutiny: CBT, schema therapy, EMDR, IFS — what is validated and what is not
  • Volume VI — A 174-entry dictionary, each with its level of evidence
  • 1,235 pages, over 1,100 references verified one by one
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Cover of The Narcissistic Abuser
NEW

The Narcissistic Abuser

Recognise it, understand it, break free

Published: August 2026

  • Where the term comes from, what it actually describes — and why you don't need a diagnosis
  • The 8 mechanisms that make you doubt: love bombing, gaslighting, triangulation, silent treatment, DARVO, isolation, financial control
  • Why what made you vulnerable is most often the best of what you have
  • Intermittent reinforcement: why the bond holds so firmly, and why that isn't weakness
  • The couple, the children, separation, work: what changes depending on the ground
  • Leaving, holding on, rebuilding — with the therapeutic approaches that have proven themselves
PDF + audio
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Cover of Anxious Attachment
NEW

Anxious Attachment

Understanding, loving, and breaking free — why fear of abandonment drives compulsive reassurance-seeking

Published: September 2026

  • Twelve concrete signs to recognize anxious attachment in yourself
  • The anxious-avoidant dance, seen from the anxious side
  • Eight-week CBT protocol: restructuring catastrophic interpretations
  • A survival guide for your partner, and a chapter on couples therapy
  • The path toward earned secure attachment
PDF + audio
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Cover of Inside the Minds of Football Champions
NEW

Inside the Minds of Football Champions

What great footballers have built — and what you can do with it

Published: September 2026

  • Why deliberate practice matters, but explains only 18% of performance
  • What Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, and Aitana Bonmatí have in common in the face of adversity
  • Four real situations: injury, non-selection, your entourage, matchday
  • An eight-week program built on cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Why talent scouting gets it wrong, and what that means for you
PDF + audio
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Cover of When Everything Turns Against You
NEW

When Everything Turns Against You

Spotting DARVO and Protecting Your Boundaries

Published: September 2026

  • Recognise denial, attack and role reversal without assuming a fixed sequence
  • A whole chapter on what is not DARVO, so you don't see it everywhere
  • One-off DARVO or coercive control: the difference that changes everything
  • Telling fact, opinion and accusation apart; keeping a timeline; setting a boundary
  • Couple, family, work: three contexts, with written exercises in every chapter
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About the collection

The Essentials of Applied Psychology is a collection designed to make the tools and knowledge of contemporary clinical psychology accessible to everyone. Each book is grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), recognized as the gold-standard approach for many psychological disorders.

The goal is not to replace professional therapy, but to provide keys to understanding and practical exercises that anyone can use in their daily life. Scientific references are cited in each book to allow readers to explore topics further.

The topics cover the main issues encountered in clinical practice: toxic relationships, couples, attachment, anxiety, romantic grief, emotional dependency, parenting, and adolescence. Each book can be read independently, in whatever order suits your situation.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the author of these books?

Gildas Garrec is a certified CBT practitioner based in Nantes, France. Drawing on his experience in private practice and video consultations, he writes books that combine scientific rigor with accessibility for the general public.

Where can I buy the books?

On this site, in PDF format (4.99 EUR — instant download, direct support for my work). PDF is the recommended format: instant delivery and reading on all your devices.

Do I need to read the books in order?

No, each book is independent and covers a specific topic. Start with the one that best matches your current situation. Some books complement each other naturally (e.g., attachment and emotional dependency), but no prerequisites are necessary.

Do these books replace therapy?

These books are complementary tools based on CBT. They offer practical exercises and insights but do not replace professional therapy. If you are going through a difficult time, do not hesitate to seek professional help.

Need personalized support?

Books are an excellent starting point. To go further, I offer individual consultations in my office in Nantes or via video call.

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