In This Chapter
^ Self-help books and therapist manuals ^ Books for learning more about CBT
Book recommendations for tackling specific kinds of problems using CBT
Tumerous self-help and professional manuals on CBT are available. # W We’ve tried to choose books that reflect the diversity of CBT as an approach, and that can add to your armoury of knowledge and skills in tackling disturbing emotions or behaviours.
Cognitive Therapy – Basics and Beyond
This an excellent step by step guide to the basics of CBT. Written by Judith S Beck (Guilford Press, 1995), Cognitive Therapy – Basics and Beyond Provides a sound overview of the theory and application of CBT. The book is useful to the CBT practitioner and other mental health professionals interested in using CBT. It also contains enough good, hands-on advice to be useful as a self-help book or to be used in conjunction with a therapist.
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders By Aaron T. Beck (Penguin Psychology) is the founder of cognitive therapy’s original text on his research-based approach to emotional problems. Beck’s contribution to the field of CBT has been phenomenal, not least because of the emphasis placed on scientifically evaluating CBT treatments. This is an historic book, and a good introduction to the fundamentals of CT.
Full Catastrophe Living
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, By Jon Kabat-Zinn (Delta) is a guide to stress reduction based on the principles of mindfulness meditation. This is part of a new wave in CBT that focuses more on what we Do With our mind rather than the Content Of the thoughts that go through it. This book helps readers identify different kinds of stress in our daily lives and outlines a programme of mental and physical exercises to help combat stress.
Overcoming…
The Overcoming. . . Books (published by Robinson Press) are an excellent series that attend to specific kinds of problems. These books are usually written by experts in their field and are frequently recommended by professional therapists. The series includes: Overcoming Childhood Trauma By Helen Kennedy; Overcoming Depression By Paul Gilbert; Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder By David Veale and Rob Willson; Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness By Gillian Buttler; Overcoming Traumatic Stress By Claudia Herbert and Ann Wetmore; and Overcoming Mood Swings (bipolar affective disorder) by Jan Scott.
Overcoming Anger
Windy Dryden, author of Overcoming Anger (Sheldon Press) has written or edited more than 150 books in the areas of counselling and psychotherapy. In a clear and forceful style, Windy shows how we create our anger with our attitudes and beliefs. He goes on to show how thinking rationally helps overcome unhealthy anger and communication with others.
Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy
The Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy, Edited by James Bennett-Levy, Gillian Butler, Melanie Fennell, Ann Hackman, Martina Mueller, and David Westbrook (Oxford University Press) is like a distilled essence of CBT. Many cognitive behavioural therapists wish that the book had been written years earlier! Focusing on the ‘lets find out’ element of CBT,
The book covers a huge range of psychological problems, and how to test out the negative thoughts related to them.
Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy
Dr Albert Ellis, the author of Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Method for Treating Human Disturbances, Revised and Updated (Birch Lane Press), is the true founding father of cognitive behavioural therapy. The rational emotive behaviour therapy approach described in this extensive volume, was the first fully developed cognitive behavioural theory and treatment, dating back to the mid-1950s. This version of Ellis’ seminal text gives an insight into the philosophy underpinning the approach and Ellis’s phenomenal mind. Anyone interested in how reason and philosophy can be applied to reduce human suffering would do well to read this book.
Reinventing \lour Life
Reinventing Your Life: How to Break Free from Negative Life Patterns By Jeffrey E. Young, and Janet S. Klosko (Penguin Putnam Inc, USA) gives an introduction to a variant of CBT called ‘schema focused therapy’. This therapy focuses on the ‘maps’ we develop of the world, ourselves, and others from early in our lives. The book aims to help readers identify their unhelpful longstanding thinking patterns and suggests ways of tackling them.
Status Anxiety
Status Anxiety By Alain De Botton (Hamish Hamilton Penguin Books) explores what De Botton describes as ‘the universal anxiety about what others think of us’. The book looks at where our status worries come from historically, showing how society encourages us to link self-worth to achievement.
A Woman in \lour OuJn Right
A Woman in Your Own Right By Anne Dickson (Quartet Books) is a classic self-help book on becoming more assertive. It gives clear and practical guidance on overcoming the need for approval, effective communication, and dealing constructively with criticism. And yes, men can benefit from it too!