WELCOME to the world’s first dedicated self-help book club.

A place where reading becomes wellbeing as we turn self-development into a shared experience, and you’re supported to learn and grow, whether you want to JOIN our global book club or HOST your own circle for colleagues, clients, classmates or neighbours

This is self-help with friends: motivating, welcoming and genuinely life-changing as we connect curious readers, champion inspiring authors, and guide you though our gentle but effective approach to personal growth through community.

How it began

In 2017, Toni Jones hit burnout after years of ignoring her mental and emotional health. Leaving a high-pressure career in journalism gave her the first quiet moments she’d had in years, and what she saw wasn’t pretty. She knew something had to change, but didn’t have a clue where to start. So she started with the first self-help book she could find, and Paul McKenna’s Change Your Life in 7 Days became the first book of many that began to change her life (spoiler alert: it did take longer than 7 days). This book led to another, then another. Multiple lightbulb moments and real shifts followed. Self-awareness, self-compassion, self-understanding. Permission to feel things she had pushed down for decades. Self-help was indeed changing her life and she wanted to share everything she was learning with others (once a journalist…). She started a local little book club where she lived in West London, because she also wanted some company on this journey, and that circle of curious souls has now grown into a global community of 25,000+ people who are reading, learning and growing together.

What we do

We make self-help accessible, collaborative, fun and - as a result - way more powerful!

Every week we’re creating and sharing content, and supporting reading in community as a way to help people understand themselves - and others - and feel better about life.

Our work includes: An online book club with curated Read-alongs (one new book every two months) * Weekly digital events * Interviews and workshops with well-being experts and best-selling authors * Tools and practices to help you take action * A supportive network to help you feel less alone * In-person events * Local book circles run by members * Lots of lovely free content across our social media channels, including Substack, Instagram, YouTube, and our (chart-topping) podcast, The Bibliotherapists.

How the Club Works

1. We choose a new self-help book to read together every 2 months (we’ve read over 60 as a community so far!)

2. We share reading schedules, resources and weekly tools, prompts and author events in our online membership (hosted on Substack) to support the reading.

3. Members can join discussions on Substack or in a local book circle.

4. We continue to connect, learn and grow alongside the community.

Why people join

Most of our members arrive feeling one or more of these:

• I want to feel better but don’t know where to start.

• I love self-help but struggle to finish books on my own.

• I’m craving meaningful connection that isn’t small talk.

• I know there’s more for me, but I want some guidance and support.

• I’m overwhelmed by life and need something that helps, not more homework.

TONI’S BIO

Toni Jones is a journalist-turned-bibliotherapist and the founder of The Shelf Help Club, the world’s first dedicated self-help book club and community. Since 2017 she has read more than six hundred self-help books, hosted conversations with hundreds of bestselling authors and global experts, and built a warm, supportive space for more than twenty-five thousand readers around the world.

Toni’s work sits at the intersection of community support, positive psychology and personal development. Every day she is reading, curating and sharing new and powerful ideas in self-help, turning big concepts into practical tools that help her community feel better and grow. She works closely with leading publishers and wellbeing brands and is regularly interviewing and hosting events with authors including: Hal Elrod, Gretchen Rubin, Marie Kondo, BJ Fogg, Candice Brathwaite and Paul McKenna.

A former lifestyle and women’s editor with fifteen years of experience across major newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, Toni now dedicates her career to making self-help accessible, collaborative and something to be done with friends. She lives in Norfolk with her husband, photographer Dan Kennedy, and their rescue dog Mylo.