The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Move Through Depression and Create a Life Worth Living

There are hundreds of books on the market that try to help readers 'overcome' or 'put a stop to' depression. But what if depression isn't a 'thing' to be gotten rid of? What if depression is a behaviour that, in the context of the life of someone who is depressed, serves an important function or acts as a signal that something needs to change? Learning to understand the function and interpret the signal of depression would, then, be a much more important goal than finding out how to simply make it go away. Living well even with feelings of depression would be a more productive-and probably more attainable- goal.This workbook marks a major development in the treatment of depression. Based on the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), an emerging new model of psychotherapy, "The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression" offers a new approach to depression. The central idea is that feelings of depression are not problems in themselves. What is a serious problem is the avoidance of pleasurable, productive activities. At first depression may set the sufferer up for this avoidance, but sooner or later the process becomes a cycle, and the avoidance behaviours start causing more depressed feelings. When readers use the techniques in this book to evaluate their own experiences of depression, they will find out how to make changes that may or may not decrease their depressed feelings but will most certainly enrich and improve their total life experience.

About the Author :
Kirk Strosahl, PhD, is cofounder of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a cognitive behavioral therapy that has gained widespread adoption in the mental health and substance abuse community. He is author of numerous articles on the subjects of primary care behavioral health integration, using outcome assessment to guide practice, and strategies for working with challenging, high-risk, and suicidal clients. Patricia J. Robinson, PhD, is director of training and program evaluation at Mountainview Consulting Group, Inc., a firm that assists health care systems with integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings. She is co-author of Real Behavior Change in Primary Care and The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression. After exploring primary care psychology as a researcher, she devoted her attention to dissemination in rural America, urban public health departments, and military medical treatment facilities. Robinson lives in Portland, OR.

Review :
Grounded in ancient wisdom and the newest scientific evidence, this book provides a host of tools for those suffering from depression. Strosahl and Robinson invite us to take a wholly new view of what depression is, and how to deal skillfully with it through strategies born of acceptance and self-compassion. Their book shows the pathways into and out of depression and gives us a vital map to see clearly where genuine peace and freedom lie. --Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Grounded in ancient wisdom and the newest scientific evidence, this book provides a host of tools for those suffering from depression. Strosahl and Robinson invite us to take a wholly new view of what depression is, and how to deal skillfully with it through strategies born of acceptance and self-compassion. Their book shows the pathways into and out of depression and gives us a vital map to see clearly where genuine peace and freedom lie. Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford"