Suite101.com, 12/3/08
“An excellent action based book that offers solutions on how to turn your children around if they’re stuck in a negative thinking spiral.”

This is a tome of a book. It’s like interviewing a top-level specialist! It’s got great information, but I write books that overwhelmed parents can immediately use, and I have some suggestions:

First of all, look at the table of contents. See how it only mentions one level down in the chapters? Well that’s not true. The material goes down several levels Because of this, you might want to copy down the sections you like on an index card so that you can remember them.

Each of the chapters has really valuable information. Again, you might want to take a piece of paper and write down three things from each chapter that you’re going to try. Then in two months, do it again, selecting three different actions.

I offer these suggestions because I bought the book and despite the fact that I kind of do this for a living, it was kind of too much for me. Parents who are overwhelmed with emotions and situations don’t always have time to read 300-plus pages, but TRY. Even if you just take one idea from each section, this book has wonderful content

Tamar Chansky, Ph.D., founder and director of the Children’s Centre for OCD and Anxiety, has also written Freeing Your Child from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Freeing Your Child from Anxiety. She lives in Philadelphia.