CBT

Mental Health @ Home book review: The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook

Book Review: The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook

The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook by Kathryn Hope Gordon aims to support people experiencing thoughts of suicide to help manage their emotional pain, drawing on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) strategies. The book begins by guiding the reader through worksheets to reflect on reactions to the suicidal thoughts and identify risk factors and elements in the environment …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is rational emotive behaviour therapy. Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) was developed in the 1950s by psychologist Albert Ellis, and it’s an early form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). A fundamental belief is that people are usually not …

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Therapy tools for mental health

Therapy Tools for Mental Health

I don’t currently do therapy and haven’t had a lot of success with it in the past, but I’m very pro-therapy in general. I’ve picked up a collection of therapy tools from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and various others that are handy to pull out of …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The Anxiety and Depression Workbook by Michael A. Tompkins

Book Review: The Anxiety and Depression Workbook

The Anxiety and Depression Workbook by Michael A. Tompkins incorporate cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques to help you improve emotional flexibility. This is defined as “the ability to respond to life’s challenges with an appropriate level of emotion, and then to recover as these situations change.” Sounds pretty good to me. Somewhat like Overcoming Avoidance, …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Calm & Sense by Wendy Leeds

Book Review: Calm & Sense

Calm & Sense by psychotherapist Wendy Leeds is aimed at women dealing with anxiety. The author takes a very realistic perspective, encouraging readers to do what works best for them. She acknowledges that what works best may include medication, and doesn’t insist that any specific strategy will work for everyone. I always find that kind …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Overcoming Avoidance Workbook by Daniel F. Gros

Book Review: Overcoming Avoidance

The Overcoming Avoidance Workbook by psychologist Daniel F. Gros aims to help you stop avoiding and start living. It takes a transdiagnostic approach, meaning it focuses on specific behaviours rather than the diagnoses in which they occur. The cover says that it’s for anxiety, depression, or PTSD, but the focus is on anxiety and depression. …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD

Book Review: The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD

The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD by Jon Hershfield and Tom Corboy has just been released in its second edition. I was curious what a mindful approach to OCD would look like, but, as the subtitle says, this is a mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in combination book; it’s not a pull up a cushion …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… a CBT Behavioural Experiment

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is behavioural experiments. Behavioural experiments are a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) technique to test out beliefs in real-world conditions. It’s like being your own social scientist. Behavioural experiments are commonly used in the treatment of anxiety disorders to test …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Don't Believe Everything You Feel

Book Review: Don’t Believe Everything You Feel

Don’t Believe Everything You Feel by Robert L. Leahy uses an emotional schema approach to help you manage anxiety and depression. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) tools are used as part of this approach. It’s set up as a workbook, with a substantial amount of text interspersed with worksheets. Some of the worksheets are fairly structured, …

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The Should Monster: The Problem with “I Should”

Who is the Should Monster? It’s that voice inside your head telling you what you should do to live up to expectations—your own expectations of yourself, as well as what you think that others (and the world in general) expect of you. Shoulds can consume a lot of mental energy, so let’s chat about them. …

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