This is a very rare example of a book that is perfect for a practicing therapist (i.e., informative and can be assigned to clients) while being ideal for a “self-help” purpose, where anyone can pick up the book and make a notable change to his or her life just by reading it and completing its exercises. To the latter point: this is also a book that stands far above 80% of the “self-help” books you may find in the big chain stores or on online retailers, promising calm through Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Incan, Aztecan, Ancient Persian, or Klingon methods. It is, instead, a very simple, non-condescending introduction to the basic structure of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Look at the person who wrote the foreword if you doubt me – he is the founding father of CBT. It doesn’t do much to contribute to the proliferation of widely spread but constantly misused psychobabble, such as “gaslighting”, “toxic”, “dissonance”, and about a thousand other terms making up a seemingly sturdy but deeply flawed “personal truth”. No. This is the real stuff, difficult to deal with as it may be dismissed as too elementary right away, but stop a second, strip away that disdain and disbelief, and there lays difficult work for you to do. Anybody would benefit by reading this.