5 Great Self-Guided Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Manuals

Of all the practices employed today to treat mental disorders, cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most common. Its focus lies in the improvement of a patient's overall quality of life, through addressing their needs as a person in a broad sense, instead of only treating a condition. Self-guided therapy can sometimes take the place of professional treatment, but proper guidance is always strongly suggested, in order to secure the best results.

Here are 5 great self-guided manuals for cognitive therapy:

Handbook of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Third Edition

This manual provides a highly acclaimed overview of multiple CBT practices, and is intended for personal practitioners and therapists alike. Its guidance allows for the personally directed therapy of a variety of different conditions, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress. This may be the only manual that many self-guided practitioners will require; otherwise, it is a strong choice for supporting material and further learning.

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, was the first form of CBT to conclusively demonstrate its effectiveness in managing borderline personality disorder. It has since gone on to demonstrate its usefulness in the treatment of a wide range of emotional disorders, including severe depression. This definitive work provides a strong working structure for dealing with such difficult challenges through the use of dialectical behavioral therapy.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Second Edition: Basics and Beyond

This training manual comes highly recommended for students and practicing therapists. It is not, in the strictest sense of the term, a self-guidance manual. What it is, however, is an excellent guidebook to cognitive behavioral theory. It presents the practice in terms which are easy to understand, and will help the self-guided practitioner to experience a greater benefit from their more specific manuals. Many individuals have reported considerable benefit to their own self-treatment after reading the second edition of Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Anxiety: A Transdiagnostic Treatment Manual

This is the highly reputable first edition of a treatment manual for anxiety disorders. The first thing that often comes to mind with regard to anxiety disorders is probably social anxiety, but the approach taken through this work confronts the underlying nature of the disorder, regardless of the focal point of the fear involved. It presents useful group-oriented treatments, which can be extremely helpful to individuals looking to guide themselves into a healthy pattern of social interaction. By following its guidelines, they will be able to build confidence and a healthy sense of self, as well as better preparing themselves to confront their fears.

Managing Chronic Pain: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach Workbook (Treatments That Work)

For many CBT manuals, the focus is almost entirely on treating mental illness, whether a single common condition or a range of related problems. This workbook is something a little different. It presents treatments for the management of chronic physical pain, a symptom which presents for a wide range of increasingly common ailments in the modern world. Chronic pain is something which has been shown to improve in response to guided behavioral therapies: now, finally, there is a constructive manual to help self-guided individuals understand how such a process works.

Would You Like to Know More?

Individuals with an interest in self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy are strongly encouraged to seek out authoritative information on this growing field of treatment. A good starting point for more information on the subject may be found in the online resources and training materials provided by the Beck Institute. There are also interactive training programs, many of them available for free online, which are designed to allow their uses to guide their own therapy as their needs dictate.