Your thoughts are trapping you — what if you could learn to take back control?
You overthink. You expect the worst. You put yourself down. You know your reactions are disproportionate, but you can't seem to change them. You feel trapped in patterns that keep repeating, despite your best efforts.

It's not a lack of willpower — it's a cognitive pattern you can change. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most scientifically validated approach for lasting transformation of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This book gives you the tools.

Written by a CBT psychotherapist, this guide offers a structured, progressive, and immediately actionable method, enriched with insights from ACT therapy and Young's Schema Therapy.

What you will discover in this book
Understanding how your thoughts trap you:

The 15 cognitive distortions — all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, overgeneralization, personalization, negative filtering, and 10 other mental traps decoded
Young's Early Maladaptive Schemas: 18 schemas that have governed your reactions since childhood
Beck's ABC model: situation, automatic thought, emotion — understanding the chain that imprisons you
Cognitive biases: why your brain systematically distorts reality
The thought-emotion-behavior vicious cycle and how to break it

Concrete tools to get better:

Cognitive restructuring: systematically challenging your automatic thoughts
Behavioral activation: breaking free from inaction and avoidance step by step
Gradual exposure: facing your fears in a safe, progressive way
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy): embracing your emotions instead of fighting them
Cognitive defusion: creating distance from your toxic thoughts
Behavioral experiments: testing your beliefs against reality

A deeply practical book
This is not a theoretical book. Each chapter contains:

Detailed case studies — 15 clinical stories (Claire, paralyzed by perfectionism; Mehdi, trapped in rumination; Pauline, avoiding all social situations out of fear of judgment; and 12 other transformation journeys)
Practical exercises — 8 exercises per chapter: cognitive restructuring worksheet, automatic thought journal, exposure hierarchy, ACT defusion exercise, Young's schema identification, behavioral activation plan
Verified scientific references — Every technique is supported by the latest publications in clinical psychology

Who is this book for?

You overthink, put yourself down, and want to learn to think differently
You suffer from anxiety, stress, or depression and are looking for concrete tools
You avoid certain situations out of fear and want to regain control
You want to understand your behavioral patterns and transform them
You are a mental health professional looking to expand your CBT toolbox

"You are not your thoughts. You are the one who observes them — and who can choose to stop believing them."

About the author

Gildas Garrec is a CBT psychotherapist (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Author of over 470 articles on psychologieetserenite.com, he has developed 68 psychological tests and ScanMyLove, a couple's conversational analysis tool based on 14 clinical models.

"The Essentials of Applied Psychology" collection — 13 books to understand, take action, and move forward.

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!