Welcome to The Shelf Help Club 💛

And breathe… You’ve found your (book-loving) tribe

Hello and welcome to the Shelf Help Clubhouse, a membership space for the Shelf Help Club (SHC) designed to support your healing, happiness and growth.

I’m Toni, a journalist-turned-bibliotherapist and the founder of SHC, which is the world’s first dedicated self-help book club and platform.

I started the Shelf Help Club seven years ago, just after my 40th birthday, because it was something I needed as I began a (long overdue) journey to understand and improve my mental health, and wanted to find other people doing the same.

And I did find them. Lots of them! From a little local book club in Chiswick, West London (where I bribed sceptical friends with wine and snacks to come to the first meetup and talk about their feelings) the Shelf Help Club has become a global online and offline collective reaching over 25,000 readers and seekers worldwide.

And this is your invitation to join our private online Book Club, an intentionally positive space where we celebrate self-help 🥳 and working on our inner selves and our mental health, and I share tools, structure and community to support you to support yourself.

IS THE SHELF HELP CLUB RIGHT FOR ME? YES, IF…

1. You want to actively support or improve your mental health, whether that’s to manage anxiety, stress, burnout, self-doubt, limiting beliefs or imposter syndrome.

2. You’re fed up of being a lone self-improvement wolf and your immediate circle just don’t seem to get it.

3. You LOVE reading the books, watching the TED talks and listening to he podcasts but you find it hard to take action and apply your learnings.

4. You’re overwhelmed by self-help options (too many books, not enough time).

5. You’re looking for a safe, non-judgmental space to have important conversations.

6. You feel stuck and are ready to make real change but you run out of motivation and struggle with consistency & accountability.

   Subscribe

AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SIGN UP?

• If you join us as a BASIC (free) Clubhouse subscriber you’ll be part of our global community (hosted on Substack since April 2024) and able to start connecting directly with me (above in the jolly red suit 👋) and the Shelf Help team.

• Upgrade to PAID and get immediate access to our award-winning Book Club membership, author events and archive, and a private growth-minded community (which is where the magic really happens).

• And BOOKWORM subscribers get all of the above plus BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS (sent in advance of each Read-along) and a private session with me to explore your reading habits (or lack of!) and how you can start to support your mental health via your bookshelf.

(above) Meet the authors: Some of the incredible authors we’ve connected with through our community events, online book clubs, podcasts and parties (yes, self-help readers and authors can also like parties!)

There’s more information below about SHC and what you can expect from the different levels of membership here in the Clubhouse, but for now I’ll defer to one of my favourite authors and thought leaders, Brené Brown, to share the most important message from this page (and Club)…

We don't have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.

- Brené Brown

I believe know that self-help is magic and has the potential to completely transform your life.

I know this both from my own lived experience (hang around for a while and you’ll learn about the 'hot mess’ years 🙈) and also from seeing hundreds of people in this community use the tools learned from the books to heal and grow and create amazing change in their lives, whether that’s in getting sober or setting boundaries, learning how to deal with toxic relationships or unlearning the limiting beliefs that are holding them back, supporting their recovery from burnout or - as needed - pushing themselves out of their comfort zones.

I also believe know that the term self-help is a misnomer and that it’s when we come together that this work is most powerful.

Which is why I’m here rebranding self-help as something to be done with friends, why I’m on a mission to create a global online/offline movement that supports better mental health for all through the promotion of self-help, and why I’m delighted that you’ve found your way here and are considering becoming part of this movement.

It’s ok not to be ok. Of course it is. Sometimes. But if you want more than an ok life (which I think know you do, because you’re here and taking the time to read this) I want you to know there’s SO MUCH you can do to feel better, as well as inspire those around you to do the same.

And The Shelf Help Clubhouse is here to provide the tools, structure and support to teach you how.

I hope this page will give you a flavour of what I and the SHC are about, why we’re here on Substack, why you should join us and what I hope we can do together (and if you’re still on the fence by the end of this post then I also recommend reading the below piece about getting ‘skin in the game’ when it comes to your self-development).

You need skin in the game if you're serious about change

Toni Jones

·

Jan 10

Read full story

If you have any questions about membership you can get in touch with me directly using the button below (I always read all of my emails. As you’ll see if you join, I’m very involved in the Clubhouse and in the Chat pretty much daily).

And if you know someone else who might benefit from being here then I’d love it if you could share this page with them (you’ll also find a juicy BOGOF discount code at the end of this page because, as I’ve said, self-help, like everything else, is better with friends).

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See you in the Club!

Big love from SH HQ.

Toni 💛

WHY JOIN THE SHELF HELP CLUBHOUSE COMMUNITY?

What to expect when you subscribe…

FREE SUBSCRIBERS GET:

• 💌 Regular emails from me with book recommendations and info on our latest author events and workshops

• 👫 Basic community access, so you can start connecting with like-minded folk online and (coming soon) offline

• 🎧 Access to The Bibliotherapist podcast episodes (with exclusive video)

PAID SUBSCRIBERS GET:

• 📚 Full Book Club Membership (structured read-alongs + deep discussions)

• 🎤 LIVE self-help author Q&As (ask your burning questions!)

• 💡 Guided discussions & prompts to turn insights into action

• 💬 Private Growth-Minded Community (a safe space for self-improvement)

• 📖 Access to our Book Review Team, the SHquad (read self-help books for free)

• 📦 [For Bookworm Tier] Books Delivered to Your Door + 1:1 Bibliotherapy Session

  

  Subscribe

THE HEADLINES: ALL ABOUT SHC

• The Shelf Help Club is the world's first dedicated self-help book club.

  We are a social network for your self-development, a place to LEARN from best-selling authors and well-being experts, to CONNECT with people walking the same path of self-discovery, and to support you to GROW into the healthiest and happiest version of you.

• Founder Toni started the SHC as a local book club in West London in October 2017, because it was something she needed as she began a journey to understand and improve her mental health in her late thirties, after years of neglecting it had resulted in physical, emotional and spiritual burnout/catastrophe.

• After leaving a high octane, high stress career in journalism she suddenly had the time and space to consider her life choices, and didn’t much like what she saw. She also had the time to start reading again, something she had loved so much once upon a time, and so began a glorious love affair with self-help, and a catalogue of life-changing ‘lightbulb moments’ that she wanted to explore further and share with others.

• Toni has since read 600+ self-help books (50+ with the community) and done all kinds of weird and wonderful things in the name of personal development. She’s made huge shifts to her life and her Self, and is in a happy and healthy place.

• And the Shelf Help Club is now a global online and offline collective, reaching over 25,000 readers and seekers worldwide.

• The Shelf Help Club exists to celebrate and promote self-help, connecting as many people as possible with books, ideas and experts to inspire them to create healthier and more positive relationships with themselves. And also to connect these people with each other. Because self-help is great, but it’s even better with friends.

• Our mission is ‘Better mental health for all through the promotion of self-help’ and everything we share and create works towards supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #3

• Substack is our new community HQ, a place to grow our global network, continue to share the best in self-development and host our membership and group Read-alongs.

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As gift for getting to the end of this post - you can claim a 50% discount on annual membership for LIFE if you join with a friend today…

Thanks for reading.

See you in the Club!

50% discount on group bookings

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