As I've already blogged about here on this site, I love to read and I love books. So what would be more appropriate than sharing some of my favorites and my thoughts about them? I've started today with just some of my favorites in the category of depression/anxiety/self-esteem. These books would be appropriate for the counselor, and well as a self-help book. I hope these books help you as much as they've helped me.
Depression/Anxiety/Self-Esteem
Burns, David D. (1999). The Feeling Good Handbook. New York: Plume
The Feeling Good Handbook is a companion piece to the author’s Ten-Days To Self-Esteem. This is a self-help book with the goal of helping people overcome depression, conquer anxiety, and enjoy greater intimacy in life. The first third of the book runs parallel to the self-esteem workbook, with chapters addressing and explaining symptoms of depression, anxiety, and panic; explaining how to change the way you feel; conducting mood inventories; illustrating ways to untwist distorted thinking and negative self-talk; revealing self-defeating beliefs; explaining how cognitive therapy works; and dealing with procrastination. This portion of the book can seem quite redundant to anyone participating in the self-esteem support group. However, the redundancy also serves as a good memory device for learning to concepts and skills.
The last two-thirds of the book differs from the self-esteem workbook somewhat, while incorporating much of that learning. There are chapters that address the fear of death, public speaking, interviewing, test and performance anxiety, dealing with difficult people, depression and anxiety medication, and good and bad communication, which are not addressed in the workbook. Each chapter integrates tools and techniques learned in the workbook and in the support group. However, these chapters apply the techniques to other areas of life and work not addressed in the workbook.
Burns, David D. (1993). Ten Days To Self-Esteem. New York: Quill
Ten Days to Self-Esteem is a workbook for groups developed by Dr. Burns in the Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia and used with inpatients in a psychiatric hospital. The concept is based on the cognitive approach, and links depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction to self-esteem and how a person feels about themselves. Originally developed as a ten-day treatment program, the workbook is now used with group over a ten-week period. The participants are asked to commit to group meetings and the homework each week. They are also required to complete three mood inventories each week, measuring progress in the areas of depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction. Each week focuses on a different dimension of self-esteem: procrastination, perfectionism, self-defeating beliefs, distorted thinking, and the idea that there is no such thing as self-esteem at all. The material is also centered on the idea that individuals can live successfully with depression and anxiety without the use of medication. The underlying premise of the curriculum is that you can change the way you feel by changing the way you think. This is one of my favorite resources and I use it in its entirety, as well as using individual chapters.
Hollander, Eric and Bakalar, Nicholas (2005). Coping with Social Anxiety: The Definitive Guide to Effective Treatment Options. New York: Henry Holt and Company
As I work with many clients who live with anxiety disorders, I have found Coping with Social Anxiety to be another good resource in this area of mental illness. Coping with Social Anxiety covers the familiar ground of who, what, when, where, and the why of anxiety; current resea
rch findings; treatment options; selecting the best treatment; and the link between depression and anxiety. The book spends time explaining the difference between shyness and social phobias, and includes shyness inventories, such as the Social Phobia Inventory, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Social Thoughts and Belief Scale, the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children, and the Brief Social Scale.
Other good reads in this category not yet reviewed:
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