A workbook is a good fallback when therapy is out of reach, chosen once you know the patient's core problem. Our standbys are Feeling Great for classic depression, The Happiness Trap for ACT, and two ADHD workbooks, though working with a person still beats any book.
When we use them
We do not recommend a workbook until we have a good diagnostic idea of what is going on and a working idea of the patient's core problem.
“I don't usually recommend a workbook unless I have gotten a good idea diagnostically of what's going on with a patient. I still need to have a pretty good working idea of what their core problem is”
43:30Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025 If a patient cannot get to psychotherapy, have them at least work through a workbook. The two big ones we always recommend are Feeling Great (or Feeling Good) by David Burns, very nice for classic melancholic depression, and The Happiness Trap.
“the two big books that I always recommend is Feeling Great and then The Happiness Trap”
48:45What Patients Should Know When Diagnosed With DepressionSep 2026 Also said in 1 more episode
“if they can't go to psychotherapy i will at least have them work through a workbook of some kind you know feeling good slash feeling great from david burns is a very nice one for your classic melancholic”
43:51Treating Depression: Practical Tips & Pearls for Anti-Depressant MedicationsJan 2025
Books by problem
ACT: The Happiness Trap is our go-to and really good. ACT integrates a lot more mindfulness.
“I also like my ACT go-to book is The Happiness Trap. I don't know if you've come across that one. That one's really, really good. I think of ACT as a little bit, it integrates a lot more mindfulness”
45:43Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025 ADHD and executive dysfunction of any kind: Mastering Your Adult ADHD or the Executive Functioning Workbook for Adults. Frankly, though, the best thing is working with someone.
“Mastering adult ADHD is a good one. Executive functioning workbook for adults is a good one. But frankly, the best thing is if they work with someone”
36:46How to Decide When ADHD Is Actually ADHDNov 2025 Also said in 1 more episode
“for executive dysfunction of any kind, and ADHD. There's Mastering Your Adult ADHD or the Executive Functioning Workbook for Adults”
44:27Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025 DBT: not the skills training manual, which is written for clinicians and too detailed. It does have a set of handouts you can give patients.
“not the training manual because they're not clinicians. It's going to be too detailed. The DBT skills training manual does have a set of handouts that you can give patients”
41:28Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025
Pearls
Some ACT workbooks have a teen version with pretty much the same content. Even adults may find it more fun to read.
“they have a version for teens okay it's got pretty much the same content and even if you're an adult okay i think it's a lot more fun to read it because it's kind of cute”
46:56Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025
It also comes up on
- OCDWorkbooks do work for a highly motivated subset. For them, walk through ERP in the visit and then give the workbook.
- Generalized anxiety disorderSelf-help books are useful. The Happiness Trap is acceptance and commitment therapy, a lighter, easier, breezier form of CBT.
- Medication managementFor a highly motivated subset of OCD patients, workbooks do work. Walk them through ERP and give them the workbooks.
- Exposure and response preventionFor a highly motivated subset without access to formal ERP, explain ERP in the medication visit and give them workbooks.
- OCDWe are convinced OCD proper is much more a neurobiological problem than a psychological one, not just obsessionality that grew into bad habits. The more severe cases cannot be knocked out with a run through an ERP workbook.
From these episodes
- What Patients Should Know When Diagnosed With DepressionSep 2026 · 1 point
- How to Decide When ADHD Is Actually ADHDNov 2025 · 1 point
- Beyond Medications: The Best Lifestyle Treatments for Mental HealthFeb 2025 · 5 points
- Treating Depression: Practical Tips & Pearls for Anti-Depressant MedicationsJan 2025 · 1 point
Every point above is something said on the Psychofarm podcast, with the words as spoken and a link to the moment in the episode. It is education, not medical advice, and an episode reflects what we thought when we recorded it.