Self-Coaching: The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression, 2nd Edition, Completely Revised and Updated Paperback – Illustrated, October 31, 2006

I have just finished reading "Self-Coaching: The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression," by Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D. I found this book insightful, powerful and practical at the same time. I highly recommend it.In this book, you will learn something that may seem surprising at first--anxiety and depression are habits of control that we develop and use to insulate ourselves from deep feelings of insecurity. The more insecure a person is, the more likely they are to worry, and to be come anxious and depressed.Our insecurity leads to habitual ways of trying to gain more control, which we believe will alleviate us from our insecurity. However, ironically, it is the controlling habits themselves that bring on the feelings of anxiety and depression. The good news is that learned habits can be unlearned, and anxiety and depression can be effectively managed. This is where Self-Coaching can really help.A few of the many things that you will learn from Dr. Luciani's Self-Coaching method include how to recognize and separate fact from fiction (and deal only with the facts), how to develop self-trust and life-trust, how to notice "time travel" (time travel is when you ruminate on the past or try to anticipate everything in the future rather than living spontaneously in the present), and so much more. The Seven Principles of Self-Coached Healing (Chapter 2) and the Three Steps of Self-Talk (Chapter 9) cover the basics, which are well fleshed out throughout the book.I do a lot of pastoral care and counseling in my work as an Episcopal priest, and I am often asked to recommend helpful resources for people dealing with negative emotions and personal problems, and I feel that Dr. Luciani's Self-Coaching method is so user-friendly and so effective that I can strongly recommend it to anyone dealing with anxiety and depression, as well as any other negative emotion. Also, his book "The Power of Self-Coaching," is amazing, and I highly recommend it as well. 5 stars!

There are some insightful points made in this book. Firstly it is hard to deny that thoughts precede emotions. Secondly, a lot of thinking patterns which might be considered 'good' in today's society, such as constant planning and controlling are pointed out as flaws and sources of possible meltdown. I thought, however, that he trivialised aspects of anxiety and depression. Perhaps anxiety and depression are the result of a 'child reflex' type of thinking but I'm not so sure that we have total control over anxiety and depression just through simply re-framing thoughts. For example, why do you get more depressed at certain times of the day etc? There is likely more going on than just poor cognitive judgement and I also think it's highly likely we inherit some of these traits. Overall, however, it appears to be a good stab at a 'fix yourself' book, hopefully the suggestions, if followed through correctly, will bring some respite.

I just ordered this book and was so eager to read it that I upgraded so I could read it online. I have not read the whole book but have read some chapters and skimmed others.One major fact the author points out is that depression and anxiety are habitual reactions to habitual ways of thinking. He does explain the difference between the two and how those suffering from each are different from one another.The author is extremely convincing, so I am sure that if a person persists in following the author's coaching, there will be immense improvement. Even if you are depressed and feel you have little energy, buy the book and ask an acquaintance to help you train.Much of the technique he is basing his ideas on is called Cognitive Behavior Therapy, (CBT). One of CBT's major in-depth proponents is Davis Burns, M.D. whose books "Feeling Good," and "The Feeling Good Handbook" are very popular. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated The Feeling Good Handbook Burns' books are more hefty and are daunting.HOWEVER this book very quickly and directly gets to the heart of matters, and his concept of self COACHING really is easy to grasp. He goes from convincing the reader to showing the difference between depression and anxiety and to the coaching techniques. He does not want to fool anyone into thinking it is easy or instant, but compares the program to athletic training using a coach.I highly recommend this book for sufferers and persons caring about sufferers of depression and anxiety. Even the caring persons can coach themselves.