Robert L. Leahy – författare

Find lasting freedom from difficult emotions with skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) andemotional schema therapy. If you struggle with difficult emotions, you should know that you aren't alone. Many people feel sad, worried, or stressed out-whether as a result of depression, anxiety, or simply dealing with the common struggles of daily life. Emotions are a natural and healthy part of being human. It's how we cope with these difficult emotions that reveal our true capacity for happiness, love, and joy. Don't Believe Everything You Feel offers a groundbreaking approach blending CBT and emotional schema therapy to help you explore your own deeply held personal beliefs about emotions, determine if these beliefs are helpful or harmful, and find the motivation to adopt alternative, healthier coping strategies. Each chapter contains exercises such as self-assessment, expressive writing, or guided questioning to help you manage your emotions more productively. There's no such thing as a "bad," emotion. But if you're experiencing sadness, anger, or anxiety most of the time, you need to find balance. This book will show you how to better cope with your emotions and live a full, meaningful life.

Could jealousy be a positive thing? In this groundbreaking book, Robert L. Leahy-author of the hugely popular self-help guide, The Worry Cure-invites you to gain a greater understanding of your jealous feelings, keep jealousy from hijacking your life, and create healthier relationships.We've all heard tales of the overly jealous spouse or significant other. Maybe we've even been that jealous person, though we may not want to admit it. It's hard to imagine anyone sailing through life without either having feelings of jealousy or being the target of someone's jealousy. But what if jealousy isn't just a neurotic weakness? What if it signals that your relationship matters to you? In short-what if jealousy serves a purpose? In The Jealousy Cure, renowned psychologist Robert L. Leahy takes a more nuanced approach to tackling feelings of jealousy. In this compelling book, you'll uncover the evolutionary origins of jealousy, and how and why it's served to help us as a species. You'll also learn practices based in emotional schema theory, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness to help you overcome the shame jealousy can bring, improve communication with your partner, and ultimately make room for jealousy while also making your relationship more meaningful. You will learn that confronting jealousy in your relationship does not have to be a catastrophe, but can redirect you and your partner to build more trust, acceptance, and connection.We often feel jealous because we fear losing the things or people that matter to us the most. With this insightful guide, you'll discover how jealousy can both help and hurt your relationship, and learn proven-effective skills to keep jealousy in its place.

Although the therapeutic relationship is a major contributor to therapeutic outcomes, the cognitive behavioral psychotherapies have not explored this aspect in any detail. This book addresses this shortfall and explores the therapeutic relationship from a range of different perspectives within cognitive behavioral and emotion focused therapy traditions.The Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies covers new research on basic models of the process of the therapeutic relationship, and explores key issues related to developing emotional sensitivity, empathic understanding, mindfulness, compassion and validation within the therapeutic relationship. The contributors draw on their extensive experience in different schools of cognitive behavioral therapy to address their understanding and use of the therapeutic relationship. Subjects covered include: · the process and changing nature of the therapeutic relationship over time· recognizing and resolving ruptures in the therapeutic alliance· the role of evolved social needs and compassion in the therapeutic relationship· the therapeutic relationship with difficult to engage clients· self and self-reflection in the therapeutic relationship.This book will be of great interest to all psychotherapists who want to deepen their understanding of the therapeutic relationship, especially those who wish to follow cognitive behavioral approaches.

Treatment Resistant Anxiety Disorders: Resolving Impasses to Symptom Remission brings together leading cognitive behavioral therapists from major theoretical orientations to provide clinicians with a greatly needed source of information, skills, and strategies from a wide range of CBT approaches.It describes how to combine empirically-based findings, broad based and disorder specific theoretical models, and individualized case conceptualization to formulate and apply specific strategies for varied aspects of resistance during treatment of anxiety disorders.

Do you worry that you'll say the wrong thing, wear the wrong outfit, or look out of place? Or maybe that you'll make a mistake at work, disappoint your partner, or overlook a serious health problem? Or perhaps you just worry too much - constantly running what-if scenarios through your head? Of course you do - we all do. Worry is a central issue in many people's lives; 38% of people say they worry every day. In this groundbreaking book, Dr Robert Leahy offers new insight, advice and practical techniques for everyone who has ever had a sleepless night. Using the most recent research and his 25 years of experience treating patients, Dr Leahy helps us understand why we worry and how best to defeat it. In his easy-to-follow-programme, he tells you how to: Identify productive and unproductive worry; Accept reality and commit to change; Turn 'failure' into opportunity; Use your emotions rather than worry about them. Combining stories from his practice with unique approaches to reducing worry, The Worry Cure is an essential companion for everyone who is anxious.

Although the current economic crisis creates a sense of urgency, we have always had and will always have a large number of people who are unemployed. For many, it is the most difficult time that they have ever faced. Without help, the unemployed face an increased risk of binge drinking, depression, anxiety and suicide. For many, there is a decreased quality of mental health, life satisfaction and objective physical wellbeing. Most feel alone and helpless.Dr Robert Leahy has worked with many unemployed people over the years, examining the psychological consequences of unemployment and exploring ways to help people cope with the emotional fallout of losing their job. This book gives readers psychological tools to handle their period of unemployment and simple, self-help strategies that can be used immediately to help them feel better and act better. The book draws on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as well as practices such as mindfulness to help readers boost their self-esteem and confidence, decrease anxiety and feelings of helplessness, and develop resiliance and strength going forward.

Emotional Schema Therapy: Distinctive Features offers a concise overview to what is distinctive about this new approach to helping clients cope with "difficult" emotions. Written by a researcher with many years of clinical experience, it provides an accessible, bitesize overview. Using the popular Distinctive Features format, this book describes 15 theoretical features and 15 practical techniques of Emotional Schema Therapy. Emotional Schema Therapy will be a valuable source that is written for psychotherapists, clinical, health and counselling psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists, and all who wish to know more about the role of emotions and emotion regulation.

Emotional Schema Therapy: Distinctive Features offers a concise overview to what is distinctive about this new approach to helping clients cope with "difficult" emotions. Written by a researcher with many years of clinical experience, it provides an accessible, bitesize overview. Using the popular Distinctive Features format, this book describes 15 theoretical features and 15 practical techniques of Emotional Schema Therapy. Emotional Schema Therapy will be a valuable source that is written for psychotherapists, clinical, health and counselling psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists, and all who wish to know more about the role of emotions and emotion regulation.

Treatment Resistant Anxiety Disorders: Resolving Impasses to Symptom Remission brings together leading cognitive behavioral therapists from major theoretical orientations to provide clinicians with a greatly needed source of information, skills, and strategies from a wide range of CBT approaches.It describes how to combine empirically-based findings, broad based and disorder specific theoretical models, and individualized case conceptualization to formulate and apply specific strategies for varied aspects of resistance during treatment of anxiety disorders.

Highly practical and clinician friendly, this book provides evidence-based tools for tailoring psychotherapy to the needs of clients with bulimia nervosa or eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS), including binge-eating disorder. It offers specific guidance for conducting thorough clinical assessments and conceptualizing each case in order to select appropriate interventions. A proven cognitive-behavioral treatment protocol is presented and illustrated with a chapter-length case example. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes a session-by-session treatment plan and 20 reproducible forms, handouts, and worksheets that clinicians can photocopy or download and print for repeated use.

This book presents innovative tools for helping patients to understand their emotional schemas--such as the conviction that painful feelings are unbearable, shameful, or will last indefinitely--and develop new ways of accepting and coping with affective experience. Therapists can integrate emotional schema therapy into the treatment approaches they already use to add a vital new dimension to their work. Rich case material illustrates applications for a wide range of clinical problems; assessment guidelines and sample worksheets and forms further enhance the book's utility.

This indispensable book has given many tens of thousands of practitioners a wealth of evidence-based tools for maximizing the power of cognitive therapy and tailoring it to individual clients. Leading authority Robert L. Leahy describes ways to help clients identify and modify problematic thoughts, core beliefs, and patterns of worry, self-criticism, and approval-seeking; evaluate personal schemas; cope with painful emotions; and take action to achieve their goals. Each technique includes vivid case examples and sample dialogues. Featuring 123 reproducible forms, the book has a large-size format for easy photocopying; purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.New to This Edition*Numerous additional techniques and reproducible tools, including 48 new or revised forms.*Chapters on decision-making problems, intrusive thoughts, and anger management issues.*Incorporates the latest theory and research as well as cutting-edge techniques drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), behavioral activation, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), emotional schema therapy, and the metacognitive model.*Significantly revised chapters on emotion regulation and worries.*Filled-out examples for many of the forms.

From leading experts in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)--including CBT originator Aaron T. Beck and many who have worked closely with him--this book provides an overview of where the field is today and presents cutting-edge research and clinical applications. Contributors explain how Beck's cognitive model has been refined and tested over the last 45 years and describe innovative CBT approaches that integrate mindfulness, imagery, emotion-focused interventions, and other strategies. Chapters on specific clinical problems cover the conceptualization and treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, insomnia, suicidality, substance abuse, couple and family problems, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and personality disorders.

This book presents innovative tools for helping patients to understand their emotional schemas--such as the conviction that painful feelings are unbearable, shameful, or will last indefinitely--and develop new ways of accepting and coping with affective experience. Therapists can integrate emotional schema therapy into the treatment approaches they already use to add a vital new dimension to their work. Rich case material illustrates applications for a wide range of clinical problems; assessment guidelines and sample worksheets and forms further enhance the book's utility.

It’s hard to envision a life without some regrets.You imagine what might have been if you had taken a different path at some key juncture, whether about a past relationship, a missed job opportunity, or choosing where to live. Regret can be immobilizing, filling us with disappointment and shame--but it also can be a powerful tool for self-knowledge and change. In this uplifting guide, renowned psychologist Robert Leahy demonstrates how to make regret work to your advantage. Using cutting-edge skills based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, Dr. Leahy shows how to get unstuck from regret and make decisions with more clarity and confidence. Downloadable practical tools help you implement the strategies in the book. You are the author of your life, so go out and write the next chapter--and then live it.

It’s hard to envision a life without some regrets.You imagine what might have been if you had taken a different path at some key juncture, whether about a past relationship, a missed job opportunity, or choosing where to live. Regret can be immobilizing, filling us with disappointment and shame--but it also can be a powerful tool for self-knowledge and change. In this uplifting guide, renowned psychologist Robert Leahy demonstrates how to make regret work to your advantage. Using cutting-edge skills based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, Dr. Leahy shows how to get unstuck from regret and make decisions with more clarity and confidence. Downloadable practical tools help you implement the strategies in the book. You are the author of your life, so go out and write the next chapter--and then live it.

Since its development thirty-five years ago, the practice of cognitive therapy has been extended well beyond the treatment of depression. It is now effectively used with substance abuse, marital conflict, sexual dysfunction, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, paranoid delusional disorders, and a variety of other affective, anxiety, and personality disorders. Each chapter in this volume presents state-of-the-art treatment by one of the field's leading practitioners, demonstrating interventions in rich clinical detail for the therapist interested in why the method works and how to apply it. We also see how other theoretical orientations are integrated into the cognitive framework."One cannot help but be impressed with the ability of these clinicians to adapt the cognitive therapy model to the needs of individual patients," comments the founder of the model, Aaron Beck, who called Robert Leahy's earlier book, Cognitive Therapy: Basic Principles and Applications, "a treasure trove for clinicians, scholars, and researchers."

Today, under pressure from managed care companies as well as from patients who are demanding briefer and more focused treatments, therapists are creatively combining cognitive and psychodynamic approaches and obtaining unprecedented therapeutic results. In this volume, Robert Leahy describes Aaron Beck's seminal model of depression, anxiety, anger, and relationship conflict and shows how each of these problems is handled by the cognitive therapist in the context of an interactive therapeutic relationship. Leahy demonstrates how uncovering resistance to change and using the therapeutic relationship enhances recovery and promotes rapid change. With concrete examples he shows how to implement all of the basic cognitive techniques, including:—activity scheduling—graded task assignments—exposure hierarchies—response prevention—challenging underlying schemas—thought monitoringDrawing from cognitive and dynamic orientations and taking into account the complexity of countertransference and resistance, this book is for today's clinicians who, rather than being wedded to a specific approach, are committed to a quick and successful therapeutic outcome. A Jason Aronson Book

Despite the efforts of therapists and patients, many patients in cognitive-behavioral therapy--or any therapy--do not improve. This unique book is designed to help the clinician better understand and work with patients who seem unable or unwilling to make needed changes. Integrating ideas from a range of psychotherapeutic approaches, the book presents a multidimensional model of resistance. It enumerates the specific impediments to change that may arise in the cognitive therapy context and brings each one to life with realistic clinical illustrations. Clinicians learn practical strategies and interventions to deal with a number of types of resistance, from reluctance to comply with basic cognitive procedures to risk-aversion and self-handicapping. Also addressed are countertransference issues, including workable ways that clinicians can modify their own responses to patients to overcome impasses in treatment.

This practical guide presents Leahy's multidimensional model of resistance in cognitive therapy. Richly illustrated with case examples and session vignettes, the book addresses a variety of ways that clients may resist basic therapeutic procedures: noncompliance with agenda setting and homework assignments, splitting transference with other therapists, inappropriate behavior, and premature termination. Underlying processes of resistance are explored, from the desire for validation to risk aversion and self-handicapping. Also highlighted are ways that the therapist's own responses may inadvertently impede change. Provided are innovative tools for getting treatment back on track, including targeted interventions, in-session experiments, and questionnaires and graphic models to share with clients.

Why do standard, evidence-based interventions fail to work for certain clients or in certain situations? What tools do cognitive-behavioral theory and therapy offer for managing difficult cases? This cutting-edge volume brings together an array of leading practitioners to address these and other critical questions that are often overlooked in the CBT literature. Each research-based chapter addresses a specific kind of roadblock, exploring how and why it arises and suggesting effective, practical solutions. Topics include overcoming obstacles in the treatment of specific disorders, new directions in case conceptualization, working with emotional and metacognitive processes, and applications to couple and family therapy.

Everyone waits till the last minute sometimes. But many procrastinators pay a significant price, from poor job performance to stress, financial problems, and relationship conflicts. Fortunately, just as anyone can endlessly delay, anyone can learn how to stop! Cognitive-behavioral therapy expert Monica Ramirez Basco shows exactly how in this motivating guide. Dr. Basco peppers the book with easy-to-relate-to examples from recovering procrastinators--including herself. Inviting quizzes, exercises, and practical suggestions help you: *Understand why you procrastinate. *Start with small changes that lead to big improvements. *Outsmart your own delaying tactics. *Counteract self-doubt and perfectionism. *Build crucial skills for getting things done today.

Highly practical and accessible, this unique book gives therapists powerful tools for helping patients learn to cope with feared or avoided emotional experiences. The book presents a menu of effective intervention options--including schema modification, stress management, acceptance, mindfulness, self-compassion, cognitive restructuring, and other techniques--and describes how to select the best ones for particular patients or situations. Provided are sample questions to pose to patients, specific interventions to use, suggested homework assignments, illustrative examples and sample dialogues, and troubleshooting tips. In a large-size format for easy photocopying, the volume is packed with over 65 reproducible handouts and forms. Purchasers also get access to a companion website where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

This widely used book and accompanying CD-ROM are packed with indispensable tools for treating the most common clinical problems encountered in outpatient mental health practice. Chapters provide basic information on depression and the six major anxiety disorders; step-by-step instructions for evidence-based assessment and intervention; illustrative case examples; and practical guidance for writing reports and dealing with third-party payers. In a convenient large-size format, the book features 74 reproducible client handouts, homework sheets, and therapist forms for assessment and record keeping. The CD-ROM enables clinicians to rapidly generate individualized treatment plans, print extra copies of the forms, and find information on frequently prescribed medications. New to This EditionThe latest research on each disorder and its treatment. Innovative techniques that draw on cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness- and acceptance-based approaches. Two chapters offering expanded descriptions of basic behavioral and cognitive techniques. More than half of the 74 reproducibles are entirely new.

Do you avoid social situations? Do you dread public speaking? Would you rather stay in a job you hate than go through the interview process? If so, you may have social anxiety-and you aren't alone. People who struggle with social anxiety have an overwhelming fear of social situations. And as a result, could end up missing out on life's opportunities-such as getting their dream job, meeting new friends, or finding the perfect mate. If you're tired of social anxiety holding you back, this book can help. In CBT for Social Anxiety, you'll learn how to conquer your fears using research-proven skills from one of the world's leading CBT experts. In addition to overcoming avoidance of social situations through understanding how your social anxiety works, you'll also learn how to engage in "social mishap exposures"-humorous social scenarios that you practice on your own terms, as you learn to see how well you're able to cope with your anxiety in the moment. As you gradually realize that your worst fears are unfounded, you'll gain the self-confidence needed to start really enjoying social interactions. Avoidance may lessen your social anxiety in the short-term, but it can actually make anxiety worse in the long run. Using the skills outlined in this book, you'll learn how to face your social anxiety head on-so you can get on with your life.