Who Would Like a Handout?

Reviews the book, Sourcebook of interactive practice exercises in mental health by Luciano L'Abate (see record 2011-03973-000). In this book , L’Abate has provided a collection of practice exercises for clients that allows for an extension of the therapeutic session. The goal of the book is to provide a broad spectrum of exercises that can be used with a variety of clients—a library tool kit. The Sourcebook is a collection of exercises that have been developed by the author based upon clinical experience, clinical and DSM–IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) symptoms and diagnostic criteria, and formats of different assessment instruments. The content areas of the book are included in five sections: Interactive Practice Exercises for Psychiatric Classification; Relational Self-Help Practice Exercises for Couples and Families in Conflict; Self-Help Practice Exercises for Individual Lifelong Learning; Relational Self-Help Practice Exercises for Lifelong Learning of Couples and Families; and Self-Help Practice Exercises From Lists and Single- and Multiple-Score Tests. Worksheets cover such topics as anxiety, anger, procrastination, and troublemaking. L’Abate’s book is a resource for professionals primarily in counseling settings, coaching, and self-help practices. In addition, the target clinical population would appear to be counseling oriented and without significant pathology. L’Abate has produced a book that is almost exactly what it says it is: a collection of practice exercises in mental health. It is an admirable effort based upon his clinical experience. The exercises in L’Abate’s book are presented with limited context, and there are questions as to how well typical psychotherapy patients might actually understand and complete them. Last, the cost is substantial, and given the availability of other, more evidence-based content, one would have to evaluate carefully what this book might add to a practitioner’s tool kit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)