CBT Workbook Reccomendations?

March 4, 2013 3:06 PM

What is the best Cognitive Behavioral Therapy workbook (for depression) currently out there? I just did a search on Amazon and came back with an overwhelming number of results, and I trust MeFites more than I trust Amazon reviewers. Any and all suggestions welcome. I'm a complete newb when it comes to CBT.
posted by thereemix to health & fitness (9 answers total)

My therapist recommends Mind Over Mood.
posted by commander biscuit at 3:20 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

The traditional AskMe recommendation is Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, which is not billed as a workbook, but is full of useful exercises you work through on your own. There's also The Feeling Good Handbook, which I have not personally read/used, but which says that it contains practical exercises.
posted by decathecting at 3:43 PM on March 4 [6 favorites]

have you looked at moodgym? you do your work anonymously online - it's free, and they use the results to further their research
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:52 PM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Not a workbook, but I really like the iCBT phone app.
posted by sweetkid at 4:02 PM on March 4 [3 favorites]

I thought Change Your Thinking was very good.
posted by hot soup girl at 4:48 PM on March 4

I used Mind Over Mood when I was doing CBT in both an individual and group setting years ago and I thought it was very good and would highly recommend it.
posted by young sister beacon at 7:04 PM on March 4

My psychiatrist lent me his copy of this book written by one of the founders of the idea, and I found it extremely helpful. It is a textbook, or at least a quasi-textbook, for practitioners to learn how to do the therapy. But it is an easy read and I found that reading it from this perspective helped me much more than actually going to a therapist and trudging through at their pace.

The only caveats I give would be:

1- I had a tendency to identify with or empathize with the case studies. This very temporarily brought my mood down. But it also helped me recognize just how pervasive my negative thinking was. I mean, here's a whole book written about how to help people who were thinking the way I was thinking.

2- I am absolutely a "how does it work" and "get to the point" kind of person. In school, I was constantly reading ahead in textbooks because the pacing was too slow. But for some people not like me, some of the magic of CBT is in not knowing exactly what it going on and making the necessary discoveries along the way. But given that you are asking this question in this manner, I would guess that you are not one of these people and would find the book helpful.
posted by gjc at 3:56 AM on March 5

Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach (Treatments That Work) is quite solid.
posted by BeBoth at 4:59 PM on March 6

Although the title sounds odd, two of my friends have found "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies" really helpful.

I've borrowed it from one of them but have yet to work through it myself, but both of them were glowing in their recommendations of the book.
posted by inbetweener at 4:06 PM on March 8