The Practical CBT Guide
Tools, Distortions, and Cognitive Restructuring
By Gildas Garrec · 260 pages · 2025
About this book
A practical CBT workbook on cognitive distortions and thought patterns. Explore cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation and gradual exposure exercises.
Do you know something's off in how you think, but have no idea how to actually change it? This practical Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) manual — the approach developed by Aaron Beck, validated by a meta-analysis covering over 400 clinical trials and 52,000 patients — hands you the tools CBT practitioners use in session, so you can practice them at home between sessions or on your own. Eight progressive chapters take you from theory to action: spotting the fifteen most common cognitive distortions, identifying your early schemas according to Jeffrey Young, practicing cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation and graded exposure, then discovering what ACT and mindfulness have to offer. Every chapter comes with worksheets and concrete exercises, built around mental training rather than passive reading. The final chapter walks you through building your own personal therapy plan. A workbook, not just a theory lecture — to help you understand your thoughts and, above all, learn to change them.
Table of contents
- 1Aaron Beck and the Cognitive Model
- 2Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
- 3The Thoughts-Emotions-Behaviors Triad
- 4The Three Waves of CBT
- 5The Therapeutic Alliance: The Engine of Change
- 6The Effectiveness of CBT: What the Science Says
- 7The 15 Cognitive Distortions
- 8The Mechanics of Distortions
- 9The Cascade Effect: When Distortions Chain Together and Reinforce Each Other
- 10Identifying Your Most Frequent Distortions
- 11What Is an Early Maladaptive Schema?
- 12How Schemas Form in Childhood
- 13The 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas
- 14The Schema Maintenance Mechanisms
- 15Schema Modes: Understanding Our Emotional States
- 16Schema Chemistry in Relationships
- 17Socratic Questioning
- 18The Art of Socratic Dialogue with Yourself
- 19Behavioral Experiments as Cognitive Tests
- 20Examining the Evidence
- 21The 5-Column Restructuring Chart
- 22When Action Precedes Motivation
- 23The Mechanism of Depressive Withdrawal
- 24The Behavioral Model of Depression
- 25The Pleasure-Mastery Rating: A Daily Compass
- 26Values-Based Activation
- 27Activity Planning
- 28Principles of Progression
- 29The Mechanism of Habituation
- 30The Neurobiological Basis of Habituation
- 31The Fear Hierarchy
- 32In Vivo versus Imaginal Exposure
- 33Interoceptive Exposure: When Fear Comes from Within
- 34Adapting Exposure by Disorder
- 35The Golden Rules of Exposure
- 36The Six Core Processes of ACT
- 37The Hexaflex: A Map of Psychological Flexibility
- 38Deepening Defusion: A Repertoire of Techniques
- 39Deepening Values: Beyond the Compass
- 40Mindfulness: The Foundations
- 41Functional Analysis: Understanding the "Why" of Your Behaviors
- 42The Four Questions of Functional Analysis
- 43The In-Depth SECCA Model: A Comprehensive Analytical Framework
- 44Building Your Personal Therapy Plan
- 45What CBT Does Not Promise
- 46When to See a Professional
- 47A Final Word
- 48Foundational Works
- 49Scientific Articles with PubMed References
- 50Standardized Questionnaires and Tools
- 51Works in French
- 52In the Same Collection
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