Many people with depression believe they are defective, unwanted, or inferior, and this feeling of being flawed and inadequate often leads to a strong sense of shame. Written by experienced clinicians, this workbook provides readers with practical, proven-effective skills based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), so they can identify and alleviate shame-based, self-defeating beliefs, and learn to create a more fulfilling life.

Conquer your self-defeating beliefs and create a more fulfilling life! Do you feel like you’re broken? Are you depressed because you believe that you’re somehow defective, unwanted, or inferior? Do you feel self-conscious and insecure, constantly comparing yourself to others? Are you sensitive to criticism, or terrified of rejection? Feeling flawed and inadequate often stems from negative childhood experiences. If you grew up in a highly critical environment, you might feel unworthy of being loved, or have a deep sense of shame about your perceived defects. You may tell yourself there is something inherently wrong with you that prevents you from forming satisfying relationships, finding happiness, and succeeding in life. So, how can free yourself from the self-defeating beliefs that keep you trapped in the depths of depression? Grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), this workbook will give you the tools to identify and dismiss your core beliefs of personal defectiveness, and build a life based on positive choices and values that bring vitality and a sense of personal fulfillment. You’ll discover ways to develop psychological flexibility, freeing yourself from old habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and alleviating symptoms of depression. Finally, you’ll learn to see yourself in all your wonderful complexity, with kindness and compassion. The truth is you are not broken, and painful memories of the past do not have to dictate your future. If you’re ready to heal and treat yourself to the care and compassion you deserve, this book will show you how.

There are hundreds of books that will try to help you ''overcome'' or ''put an end to'' depression. But what if you could use your depression to change your life for the better? Your symptoms may be signals that something in your life needs to change. Learning to understand and interpret these signals is much more important than ignoring or avoiding them - approaches that only make the situation worse. This workbook uses techniques from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to offer a new treatment plan for depression that will help you live a productive life by accepting your feelings instead of fruitlessly trying to avoid them. The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Depression will show you, step-by-step, how to stop this cycle, feel more energized, and involve yourself in pleasurable and fulfilling activities that will help you work through, rather than avoid, aspects of your life that are depressing you. Use the techniques in this book to evaluate your own depression and create a personalized treatment plan. You'll enrich your total life experience by focusing your energy not on fighting depression, but on living the life you want.

Introducing the first self-help workbook for moral injury, featuring a powerful approach grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you heal in the midst of moral pain and connect with a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. If you’ve experienced, witnessed, or failed to prevent an act that violates your own deeply held values—such as harming someone in an automobile accident, or failing to save someone from a dangerous situation—you may suffer from moral injury, an enduring psychological and spiritual pain that is often accompanied by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, substance abuse, and other mental health conditions. In order to begin healing, you need to (re)connect with your values and what really matters to you as a human being. Written by a renowned team of PTSD and trauma professionals, this workbook can help. The Moral Injury Workbook is the first workbook of its kind to offer a powerful step-by-step program to help you move beyond moral pain. With this guide, you’ll learn to work through difficult thoughts, emotions, and spiritual troubles; (re)connect with your deeply held sense of self, values, or spiritual beliefs; and gain the psychological flexibility you need to begin healing and live a full and meaningful life. Links to downloadable worksheets for veterans and clinicians are also included. Whether you’ve experienced moral injury yourself, work in the field of mental health, or are a pastoral advisor seeking new ways to help facilitate moral healing, this workbook is an effective and much-needed resource.

Don’t let anxiety and depression keep you from living life to the fullest. If you suffer from co-occurring anxiety and depression, you may experience an overwhelming urge to avoid difficult emotions and emotional experiences. The last thing you want to do is kick the hornet’s nest you carry around with you. However, the latest research in psychology emphasizes the importance of approaching—rather than avoiding—your emotions. Avoiding emotions works in the short term, but in the long term it only teaches you to believe you can’t handle your feelings. What you need is a solid set of tools that will allow you to feel a full range of emotions with confidence. This book will provide just the tool set you require. In this workbook, psychologist Michael Tompkins offers evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) skills to help you target and tear down the emotional avoidance barriers that drive your anxiety and depression. By engaging with the emotions you’ve been seeking to avoid, you’ll learn, “I can handle this feeling.” You’ll also find strategies to help you stay calm during emotional situations; and discover relaxation and mindfulness techniques to deal effectively with difficult thoughts and feelings, and improve your mood and well-being. The tools in this workbook help you learn this important lesson: You can handle emotions, even unpleasant ones. When you believe you can handle feeling anxious and depressed, you’re less likely to avoid those feelings, creating space for you to be more willing to do the things that you want to do in your life.

Psychological research suggests that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), used alone or in combination with medical therapy, is the most effective treatment for depression. Recent finding, though, suggest that CBT for depression may work through different processes than we had previously suspected. The stated goal of therapeutic work in CBT is the challenging and restructuring of irrational thoughts that can lead to feelings of depression. But the results of recent studies suggest that two other side effects of CBT may actually have a greater impact that thought restructuring on client progress: Distancing and decentering work that helps clients stop identifying with depression and behavior activation, a technique that helps him or her to reengage with naturally pleasurable and rewarding activities. These two components of conventional CBT are central in the treatment approach of the new acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). This book develops the techniques of ACT into a session-by-session approach that therapists can use to treat clients suffering from depression. The research-proven program outlined in ACT for Depression introduces therapists to the ACT model on theoretical and case-conceptual levels. Then it delves into the specifics of structuring interventions for clients with depression using the ACT method of acceptance and values-based behavior change. Written by one of the pioneering researchers into the effectiveness of ACT for the treatment of depression, this book is a much-needed professional resource for the tens of thousand of therapists who are becoming ever more interested in ACT.

“Trauma-Focused ACT is going to go down as one of the great contributions to the field of trauma-informed care.” —Kirk Strosahl PhD, cofounder of ACT Trauma-Focused ACT (TFACT) provides a flexible, comprehensive model for treating the entire spectrum of trauma-related issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, moral injury, chronic pain, shame, suicidality, insomnia, complicated grief, attachment issues, sexual problems, and more. Written by internationally acclaimed ACT trainer, Russ Harris, this textbook is for practitioners at all levels of experience, and offers exclusive access to free downloadable resources—including scripts, videos, MP3s, handouts, and worksheets. Discover cutting-edge strategies for healing the past, living in the present, and building a new future. With this compassion-based, exposure-centered approach, you’ll learn how to help your clients: Find safety and security in their bodies Overcome hyperarousal and hypoarousal Break free from dissociation Shift from self-hatred to self-compassion Rapidly ground themselves and reengage in life Unhook from difficult cognitions and emotions Develop an integrated sense of self Resolve traumatic memories through flexible exposure Connect with and live by their values Experience post-traumatic growth