About the Book
This volume constitutes the first solidly research-grounded guide for practitioners wending their way through the new maze of self-help approaches. The Handbook of Self-Help Therapies summarizes the current state of our knowledge about what works and what does not, disorder by disorder and modality by modality. Among the covered topics are: self-regulation theory; anxiety disorders; depression; childhood disorders; eating disorders; sexual dysfunctions; insomnia; problem drinking; smoking cessation; dieting and weight loss. Comprehensive in its scope, this systematic, objective assessment of self-help treatments will be invaluable for practitioners, researchers and students in counseling psychology, psychiatry and social work, health psychology, and behavioral medicine.
Table of Contents:
Watkins, Self-Help Therapies: Past and Present. Rosen, Barrera, Glasgow, Good Intentions are Not Enough: Reflections on Past and Future Efforts to Advance Self-Help. Clum, Self-Help Therapies: Mapping the Role of Self-administered Treatments in Healthcare. Febbraro, Clum, Self-regulation Theory and Self-Help Therapies. Hirai, Clum, Self-Help Therapies for Anxiety Disorders. Karpe, Scogin, Self-Help Therapies for Depression. Elgar, McGrath, Self-Help Therapies for Childhood Disorders. Winzelberg, Luce, Taylor, Self-Help Therapies for Eating Disorders. van Lankveld, Self-Help Therapies for Sexual Dysfunctions. Currie, Self-Help Therapies for Insomnia. Kypri, Cunningham, Self-Help Therapies for Problem Drinking. Schare, Konstas, Self-Help Therapies for Smoking Cessation. Concepcion, Watkins, Self-Help Therapies for Dieting and Weight Loss. Winett, Tate, Anderson, Wojcik, Winett, Preventing Weight Gain with Internet Programs. Fisher, Glasgow, Gabriele, An Ecological Perspective on Self-Help: The Case of Diabetes. Vincent, Walker, Katz, Self-Help Therapies in Primary Care. Self-Help Therapies: Retrospect and Prospect.
About the Author :
Patti Lou Watkins, George A. Clum
Review :
“Self-help is ubiquitous, internationally recognized both as an alternative to and as a critical element of professionally administered therapies. Commercial hype, blatant self-promotion, and lack of empirical evaluation, however, have resulted in professional disdain, marring what should be integral to effective therapy. What has been sorely missing is a comprehensive examination of the entire self-help domain, based on sound evidence, common sense, and clinical acumen. Skilled clinical scientists Patti Lou Watkins and George A. Clum and their assembled authors have delivered us an outstanding, erudite, and innovative handbook to meet exactly this long-standing need.”
- Ian M. Evans, PhD, FRSNZ, Head of School and Professor of Psychology, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
“Watkins and Clum have assembled an impressive cast of contributors to produce a scholarly and comprehensive volume on self-help therapies. This book is a must-read for any serious scholar of self-directed therapies. Evidence-based practitioners will find Watkins and Clum’s book a valuable resource when considering recommending self-help materials to their clients.” - Jeffrey E. Hecker, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, University of Maine
“This is a very much needed handbook that definitely fills a gap in the literature. The issues selected for review are right on target; and the chapters are authoritative and well written both by invited contributors and the editors. I therefore highly recommend Watkins and Clum's Handbook of Self-Help Therapies for professionals in the field and graduate students alike.”
- Michel Hersen, PhD, ABPP, Professor and Dean, School of Professional Psychology, Pacific University, Hillsboro
"Although the book's content is well integrated from chapter to chapter, individual chapters are self-contained, and, thus, the book could be used either as a complete text or as a reference tool for specific disorders or modalities. The chapter authors are highly expert and credible in their content areas. There is little variability in the quality from chapter to chapter. As a moderately knowledgeable reader of the self-help literature, I found this text generally to be of superior quality."
-Patricia L. Wolleat in PsycCRITIQUES, October 22, 2008, Vol. 53, Release 43, Article 8
