Overcoming Depression Client Manual Best Practices for Therapy
May 23, 2009 by Joint Venture Marketing
Overcoming Depression Client Manual Best Practices for Therapy
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Solid concepts and advice, but poorly written book
I feel the concepts and advice in this book are useful; however, I was very irritated by how poorly written the book was. I can only guess, but it seems that the author didn’t spend enough time re-writing and editing, or for that matter, thinking about how to present the information.
The examples are too numerous for me to give (and there are some basic mistakes: “activity” instead of “activities,” P. 49, etc.), but I’ll discuss three that have to do with the confused and confusing presentation of the material. (1) The author often includes two or more examples within one paragraph, without any transition (no “and,” “also,” or “however,” “but”). So I was often confused. Are the examples he is giving in a paragraph related to one concept? (Sometimes they seem to be; at other times the don’t seem to be.) Or are the three examples related to different concepts? I had no way to know. (This could have been made clearer by using separate paragraphs for different concepts, and/or transition words (”and,” “also,” for similar items, or “however,” “but” for different items). But as a reader, I couldn’t guess what the author intended. (2) The author included many lists, but they often seem random, a hodgepodge of ideas thrown together without much thought. For example, some lists contain ten or more items, but often two or more items within the list are essentially the same. (Had he thought about this more, he could have combined the similar items and then had a more manageable list). (3) Some of the sentences just don’t make sense (even though the vocabulary for this workbook is, I would guess, understandable by a high school student). Once again, I think this is due to the author hastily writing without first thinking about what he wants to say and how best to say it.
I give the two stars for the useful concepts in the book, but take away three from having to suffer through such dreadful writing. This is a pity, as the concepts don’t seem that difficult, they are just made so by the terrible writing.
I have used another book in the Best Practices for Therapy series, “Overcoming Situational and General Anger,” which I found most useful (I gave it five stars). It also follows a cognitive-behavioral approach, but with this main difference: it was clearly written and easy to follow.
