Self-Help in Mental Health: A Critical Review

They're fast, cheap, and promise amazing results—no wonder more people seek mental health advice from self-help books and sites rather than seeking therapy. Complicating this picture: many resources are inappropriate, ineffective, even dangerous. For the clinicians who would gladly recommend self-help for their clients, the challenge is finding reliable, evidence-based sources of help among the vast quantities available. Self-Help in Mental Health: A Critical Review guides readers through this plethora of materials, organizing it into useful order, evaluating popular approaches and trends, and recommending clinically valid, science-based resources for specific clinical and sub-clinical problems. Its authors explain how and why such methods work, offering innovative uses for self-help in prevention and promotion, therapy and rehabilitation, including strengthening therapeutic gains (akin to homework in cognitive-behavioral therapy) and encouraging self-reliance. While some may be tempted to write-off all self-help as quackery or therapy-lite, Harwood and L'Abate recognize the potential the self-help movement holds for countering the stigma associated with mental health treatments. Further, self-help resources represent a viable means of reaching under-served populations, and, for some individuals, they are preferable to conventional therapy.