If you are an ACT practitioner or mental health professional, this eagerly awaited resource is an essential addition to your professional library. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based therapy that has been successful in treating a variety of psychological issues, such anxiety, depression, substance abuse, trauma, eating disorders, and more. In contrast to other treatment options, ACT has proven extremely effective in helping clients who are "stuck" in unhealthy thought patterns by encouraging them align their values with their thoughts and actions. However, the ACT model is complex, and it's not always easy to use.

Traditionally, ACT is delivered with a focus around six core processes that are often referred to as the hexaflex: cognitive defusion, acceptance, contact with the present moment, observing the self, values, and committed action. Each of these core processes serves a specific function, but they are often made more complex than needed in both theory and in practice. So what if there was a way to simplify ACT in your sessions with clients? Edited by clinical psychologists and popular ACT workshop leaders Kevin L. Polk and Benjamin Schoendorff, "The ACT Matrix" fuses the six core principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) into a simplified, easy-to-apply approach that focuses on client actions and behavior as workable or unworkable, rather than good or bad. Most importantly, you'll learn how this innovative approach can be used to deliver ACT more effectively in a variety of settings and contexts, even when clients are resistant or unmotivated to participate.

This is the first book to utilize the ACT Matrix model, and it is a must-read for any ACT practitioner looking to streamline his or her therapeutic approach.

Close relationships are a vital part of people's daily lives; thus family members, friends, and romantic partners play an integral role in people's health and well-being. Understanding the ways in which close relationships both shape and reflect people's health and wellness is an important area of inquiry. Showcasing studies from various disciplines that are on the cutting-edge of research exploring the interdependence between health and relationships, this collection highlights several relationship processes that are instrumental in the maintenance of health and the management of illness, including interpersonal influence, information management, uncertainty, social support, and communication. Although the existing health literature is rich with knowledge about individual and ecological factors that are influential in promoting certain health behaviors, the relationship scholars featured in this volume have much to contribute in terms of documenting the interpersonal dynamics that are involved in experiences of health and illness.

This volume brings together basic research on the nature of stress reactivity with up-to-date research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness interventions. The chapters review the major research areas that elucidate the impact of stress reactivity on health, and explore the mechanisms and effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches for stress reduction and improved physical and emotional health. The first section examines biopsychosocial mechanisms of stress reactivity such as allostasis and allostatic load, neurobiology of stress, biology of the "fight-or-flight" and "tend-and-befriend" responses, and psychoneuroimmunology. This section concludes by addressing the roles of perception and appraisal, including the role of perceived threat in stress reactivity as well as the role that negative perceptions of the stress response itself play in compromising health. The second section opens with review of leading psychological models of mindfulness, including self-regulation, reperceiving, and the Intention, Attention, Attitude (IAA) triaxiomatic model. Subsequent chapters discuss mindfulness-based interventions and mechanisms of change for stress and related clinical conditions including chronic pain, traumatic stress, anxiety and related disorders, and clinical depression. The final chapter reviews possible neural networks and brain mechanisms associated with mindfulness meditation practice. As the research on stress reactivity and mindfulness-based stress reduction continues to proliferate, this book offers readers a single volume covering the most relevant information across this vast terrain. Other available volumes offer in-depth coverage of stress research with little mention of mindfulness and stress reduction. Conversely, many texts on the topic of mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions do not adequately cover the biopsychosocial processes of stress reactivity.

This textbook offers an excellent introduction to the variety of research methods used within the fields of clinical and health psychology. The book provides a detailed, yet concise, explanation of both qualitative and quantitative approaches and draws upon case-study examples to illustrate how these can be used in a variety of health-care settings, with special relevance to clinical disorders, disease prevention and health promotion.

Key features of the book include:

- A clear and concise narrative

- Real-life case studies and examples drawn from clinical practice.

- Revision questions in each chapter

- Boxes, diagrams and tables to highlight key points

- Chapter outlines, summaries and a glossary of useful terms to help students and researchers with independent study and learning.

Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology fulfils the demand for a textbook explaining how qualitative and quantitative methods can be used explicitly in a health psychology context. It will be invaluable reading for clinical and health psychology students, trainees and practitioners, as well as those in nursing, medical and other healthcare departments taking an advanced psychology option.

This timely edited collection presents a holistic and biopsychosocial analysis of LGBTQ People of Color well-being, focused on heart, brain, and mental health, and employs a unique incorporation of minority stress, intersectionality, and allostatic load frameworks. Bringing together established and emerging academics, its authors present a critical analysis of the latest research that encompasses the study of both risk and resilience factors in LGBTQ People of Color health. Across the book, they highlight the precise nature of the behavioral health disparities experienced by these communities, but further, they reveal the unique roles of intersectional discrimination and structural stigma as mechanisms for these disparities. With chapters also dedicated to federal policies and public health, this multidisciplinary work marks a seminal contribution that will pave the way for further advances in research, theory, and practice. It offers a valuable resource on an understudied population that will appeal to researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of health psychology, public health, epidemiology, sociology, health sciences and medicine.

Adding to a growing body of knowledge about how the social-ecological dynamics of the Anthropocene affect human health, this collection presents strategies that both address core challenges, including climate change, stagnating economic growth, and rising socio-political instability, and offers novel frameworks for living well on a finite planet. Rather than directing readers to more sustainable ways to structure health systems, Health in the Anthropocene navigates the transition toward social-ecological systems that can support long-term human and environmental health, which requires broad shifts in thought and action, not only in formal health-related fields, but in our economic models, agriculture and food systems, ontologies, and ethics. Arguing that population health will largely be decided at the intersection of experimental social innovations and appropriate technologies, this volume calls readers to turn their attention toward social movements, practices, and ways of living that build resilience for an era of systemic change. Drawing on diverse disciplines and methodologies from fields including anthropology, ecological economics, sociology, and public health, Health in the Anthropocene maps out alternative pathways that have the potential to sustain human wellbeing and ecological integrity over the long term.

The great saxophonist Charlie Parker once proclaimed "if you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn". This quote has often been used to explain the hedonistic lifestyle of many jazz greats; however, but it also signals the reciprocal and inextricable relationship between music and wider social, cultural and psychological variables. This link is complex and multifaceted and is undoubtedly a central component of why music has been implicated as a therapeutic agent in vast swathes of contemporary research studies. Music is always about more than just acoustic events or notes on a page. Music has a universal and timeless potential to influence how we feel. Yet, only recently, have researchers begun to explore and understand the positive effects that music can have on our wellbeing - across a range of cultures and musical genres. This book brings together research from music psychology, therapy, public health, and medicine, to explore the relationship between music, health and wellbeing. It presents a range of chapters from internationally recognised experts, resulting in a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and pluralistic account of recent advances and applications in both clinical and non-clinical practice and research. Some of the questions explored include: what is the nature of the scientific evidence to support the relationship between music, health and wellbeing? What are the current views from different disciplines on empirical observations and methodological issues concerning the effects of musical interventions on health-related processes? What are the mechanisms which drive these effects and how can they be utilised for building robust theoretical frameworks for future work? For the first time, research from disciplines including neuroscience of music, music therapy, psychophysiology and epidemiology of music, community music and music education is synthesised and presented together to further our understanding of music and health in one single volume, ensuring that closely related strands of research in different disciplines are brought together into a authoritative, comprehensive and robust collection of chapters. This book is a timely and unique response to an explosion of interest in the relationship between music, health, and wellbeing and will be invaluable resources for students, administrators and researchers in the humanities, social and medical sciences alike.

Psychologically Informed Physiotherapy is a key new textbook for those who need a trusted and comprehensive resource to guide them in applying psychosocial perspectives to their physiotherapy practice. The first of its kind, this textbook brings together an international and interdisciplinary team of leading experts in the field. Together they present an evidence-based range of ideas and concepts around the psychologically informed practice framework, bringing psychosocial aspects of physiotherapy to the fore alongside the established biomedical model. By applying these aspects to screening, exploration and triaging, physiotherapists are better able to identify the origins of pain and barriers to rehabilitation; and so are more likely to achieve consistently good clinical outcomes for their patients. Throughout, clinical case studies ensure that the theory is then grounded in a variety of practical scenarios after which some reflective exercises and clinically relevant scenarios reinforce learning and understanding. Chapters on: Psychology of professional identity in health care The biopsychosocial model Screening for red flags Adapting interactions with others to form empowering relationships and influence behavioural change Neuro-immune-endocrine interactions and clinical practice in stress, pain and recovery Care of the anxious patient through cognitive and person-centred strategies Alternative and evolving models of practice, including the clinical flag system The psychology of the athlete from the physiotherapist's perspective Using counselling and psychological strategies within physiotherapy Making evidence-based decisions and measuring effectiveness in practice Using psychological interventions as a student or new graduate First textbook of its kind for physiotherapists Ideal confidence booster for both students and practitioners new to the subject Illustrates the role social factors have on thoughts, emotions and behaviour in patients as well as the neurobiological manifestations of social stressors Presents key, evidence-based concepts from leading international academics, clinicians and researchers in the field and across a range of health professions, including counselling and psychology

This book offers a radically different perspective on the topic of health inequity. Carey, Tai, and Griffiths use Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) to deconstruct current approaches to understanding, investigating, and addressing problems of health inequity. In the book, the authors propose that health inequity is not a problem per se. Disrupted control, they argue, is the problem that needs to be addressed. From this perspective, research, policy, and health practices directed at addressing health inequity in isolation will offer only partial solutions to the problems created by disrupted control. Addressing problems of disrupted control directly, however, has the potential to entirely resolve issues that are created by health inequity. The authors have extensive clinical and research experience in a wide range of contexts, including: cross-cultural settings; rural, remote, and underserved communities; community mental health settings; prisons; schools; and psychiatric wards. Drawing on these diverse experiences, the authors describe how adopting a Perceptual Control Theory perspective might offer promising new directions for researchers and practitioners who have an interest in addressing issues of inequity and social justice. With a Foreword written by Professor Neil Gilbert this book will provide fresh insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of public health, psychology, social policy, and healthcare.

This book deals with recent perspectives on the panel of addiction behavior in a vast amount of population (young and adult). Thanks to the contribution of experts of the topic of addiction the volume will furnish new perspectives to formulate assessment, diagnosis and intervention in response to the increasing variety of addictions. It focuses the assessment of executive functions in substance and behavioral addictions. More specifically, this assessment consists of a new approach not only inherent to the diagnosis, but also to the treatment and prevention of addictions. In fact, there is a strict relationship between executive functions (EF) and addictive behavior: EF plays a remarkable role in significant phenomena for the treatment of addictions, such as craving, relapse and compliance to treatment.

Liminality has become a key concept within the social sciences, with a growing number of publications devoted to it in recent years. The concept is needed to address those aspects of human experience and social life that fall outside of ordered structures. In contrast to the clearly defined roles and routines that define so much of industrial work and economic life, it highlights spaces of transition, indefiniteness, ambiguity, play and creativity. Thus, it is an indispensable concept and a necessary counterweight to the overemphasis on structural influences on human behavior. This book aims to use the concept of liminality to develop a culturally and experientially sensitive psychology. This is accomplished by first setting out an original theoretical framework focused on understanding the 'liminal sources of cultural experience,' and second an application of concept to a number of different domains, such as tourism, pilgrimage, aesthetics, children's play, art therapy, and medical diagnosis. Finally, all these domains are then brought together in a concluding commentary chapter that puts them in relation to an overarching theoretical framework. This book will be useful for graduate students and researchers in cultural psychology, critical psychology, psychosocial psychology, developmental psychology, health psychology, anthropology and the social sciences, cultural studies among others.

This book shows how psychological aspects of individuals and of couple relationships can work as both protective or risk factors to the health of diabetes patients and their partners. Departing from a social psychologic perspective, it analyzes how individual attributes and personal relationships influence health, focusing on the impacts that diabetes as a chronic-degenerative disease has on the psychological state of the patient and on their most immediate social context. The volume is divided in three parts: the first focuses on the patient, the second on the partner and the third on the couple relationship. The first part examines how attachment styles, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy in emotional regulation, loneliness and rumination impact the stress experienced by the diabetic patient. The second part analyzes how the partner's altruism, affectivity, jealousy, criticism or indifference affects the physical health of the diabetic patient. Finally, the third part explores the relationship between negative emotions and the couple's motives of conflict, as well as the effects of the communication styles used, emotional warmth and empathy in the satisfaction with the relationship in couples where one of the members is a diabetes patient. Diabetes and Couple Relationship: Protective and Risk Factors will be a valuable resource for researchers, students and professionals in the fields of health and clinical psychology, social psychology and public health interested in better understanding how personal characteristics and relationships can affect the physical and psychological health of chronic disease patients, as well as their well-being and quality of life.

This book brings together various threads of research in the field of gender mainstreaming. It aids in further supporting and understanding the role of gender in health and safety research, practice, and policy. It looks at gender mainstreaming as being recognised as key in cultivating sustainable worker health and working systems due to it being a central component of many international policy initiatives. This book deals with gender mainstreaming being advocated at a policy level, while focusing on the limited recognition and discourse on the issue of gender and its direct and indirect association to workers' health in the field of occupational health and safety. This book addresses problems facing gender-sensitive policies and outlines and reflects upon current best practice principles and practices to support the development and implementation of policies, interventions, and research initiatives.

This book presents the main theoretical and practical tools provided by behavior analysis to diagnose and treat substance use disorders. Based on the theoretical framework of radical behaviorism, first developed by B.F. Skinner, behavior analysis offers a distinctive biopsychosocial approach to substance use disorders by considering both the biogenetic and environmental influences on behaviors associated with substance use, enabling the development of more integrative and effective diagnostic, prevention, and treatment strategies at the individual and collective level. The volume is divided in three parts. Part one presents an introduction to core concepts in behavior analysis and related disciplines, such as behavioral pharmacology, and their specific applications in substance use disorders diagnostics and treatment. Part two shows how different types of behavioral-analytical clinical and social interventions can be applied in practice to treat substance use disorders, such as: Contingency Management Exposure Therapy Functional Analytical Psychotherapy (FAP) Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Therapy by Contingencies of Reinforcement (TCR) Motivational Interviewing Finally, part three covers special topics, such as the interfaces between neurosciences and behavior analysis on drug use and dependence, effects of substance use in romantic relationships and their relationship with violence against women. Behavior Analysis and Substance Dependence will be a valuable tool for clinical and health psychologists, as well as other health professionals and social workers dealing with substance use disorders, by presenting, in one single volume, an overview of the tools offered by behavior analysis to deal with this serious health issue.

This is the first comprehensive guide to the design of behavioral randomized clinical trials (RCT) for chronic diseases. It includes the scientific foundations for behavioral trial methods, problems that have been encountered in past behavioral trials, advances in design that have evolved, and promising trends and opportunities for the future. The value of this book lies in its potential to foster an ability to "speak the language of medicine" through the conduct of high-quality behavioral clinical trials that match the rigor commonly seen in double-blind drug trials. It is relevant for testing any treatment aimed at improving a behavioral, social, psychosocial, environmental, or policy-level risk factor for a chronic disease including, for example, obesity, sedentary behavior, adherence to treatment, psychosocial stress, food deserts, and fragmented care. Outcomes of interest are those that are of clinical significance in the treatment of chronic diseases, including standard risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, and clinical outcomes such as hospitalizations, functional limitations, excess morbidity, quality of life, and mortality. This link between behavior and chronic disease requires innovative clinical trial methods not only from the behavioral sciences but also from medicine, epidemiology, and biostatistics. This integration does not exist in any current book, or in any training program, in either the behavioral sciences or medicine.

This book introduces a new theory on the substantial comorbidity that exists between many illnesses and disorders and concurrent symptoms such as pain, impaired sleep and fatigue. The specific illnesses and disorders discussed include obesity, diabetes mellitus type-II, medical illnesses including cardiovascular disease and sleep-disordered breathing, insomnia, disordered eating such as binge-eating disorder and night-eating syndrome, affective distress (anxiety and depression), and comorbidities that are linked to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The book posits that the comorbidities are the result of a complex bio-psycho-behavioral mechanism that includes circadian rhythm dysfunction. It examines the statistical and methodological (e.g. measurement) problems that can complicate the understanding of comorbidity and explores a broad range of novel, existing, and repurposed therapy approaches that could have utility in treating comorbid disorders. This book will be of great value to academics as well as practitioners working in the field of psychiatry, health psychology and medicine more broadly.

Existential phenomenology can be a particularly helpful philosophical method for understanding human experience. Starting from the perspective of the subject, it can clarify and problematize subtle everyday relations, enabling greater insight into difficult situations. Used by contemporary philosophers as a way of understanding the embodied experience of illness, this method has been helpful for understanding physical illness in the medical humanities, offering a fruitful way of reading the subjectivity of mental states. An Existential Phenomenology of Addiction examines how the experience of addiction engages both mental and physical phenomena within the existence of a particular human life, using the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Soren Kierkegaard. The book maps out an existential phenomenology of subject-in-relation. Both Levinas and Kierkegaard use decidedly psychological and theological language to situate their philosophy, discussing the subject through concepts of love, otherness, responsibility and hope, while played out in a situation of anxiety, suffering, desire and revelation. Combining existential phenomenological discourse with contemporary addiction discourse, Westin argues that the concept of subject as 'addict', as found in the Twelve Steps Program and disease models of addiction, ought to be replaced with the free and relational identity of subject as 'addicted'.

This book applies the concept of cultural safety to the field of health psychology in a US context as a means to achieve health equity. First developed in New Zealand by Maori midwives, cultural safety can be understood as both a philosophy and a way of working within a social model of health as an alternative approach to understanding health and illness. Health, social, and human service professionals are at the forefront of interactions with a range of people who often experience disparities in health and social outcomes. In thirteen chapters, the authors explore the social determinants of health; the practices and pitfalls of intercultural communication; and community capacity, resilience, and strengths as correctives to discourses of deficiency. The book concludes with a comparative look at cultural safety in different national contexts, and a discussion of the value of critical reflective practice. Complete with chapter objectives, scenarios, suggested readings and films, and questions for critical thinking, this book is an invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike in health psychology and related fields, and a vital contribution to the literature on cultural safety.

This book offers a snapshot of cutting-edge applications of mobile sensing for digital phenotyping in the field of Psychoinformatics. The respective chapters, written by authoritative researchers, cover various aspects related to the use of these technologies in health, education, and cognitive science research. They share insights both into established applications of mobile sensing (such as predicting personality or mental and behavioral health on the basis of smartphone usage patterns) and emerging trends. Machine learning and deep learning approaches are discussed, and important considerations regarding privacy risks and ethical issues are assessed. In addition to essential background information on various technologies and theoretical methods, the book also presents relevant case studies and good scientific practices, thus addressing researchers and professionals alike. To cite Thomas R. Insel, who wrote the foreword to this book: "Patients will only use digital phenotyping if it solves a problem, perhaps a digital smoke alarm that can prevent a crisis. Providers will only use digital phenotyping if it fits seamlessly into their crowded workflow. If we can earn public trust, there is every reason to be excited about this new field. Suddenly, studying human behavior at scale, over months and years, is feasible."

This book explores the social psychological aspects of trans women's experiences of living with HIV in the UK. Drawing on theories from social psychology, the author provides a fine-grained analysis of the EXTRA Study - one of the first in-depth empirical studies of trans women's experiences of living with HIV in the UK. Trans Women and HIV: Social Psychological Perspectives examines issues of identity, threat and coping among trans women - a key population in the HIV epidemic - and presents a model for describing and predicting health outcomes in this population. Underpinned by the Health Adversity Risk Model, this book examines the role of psychological constructs, such as identity, risk and stigma, in behaviour and psychological wellbeing. This informative and thought-provoking text is an invaluable resource for scholars, clinicians and students working in the fields of HIV and trans health.

Depression, a highly common clinical disorder, is an important and clinically relevant topic for both clinical researchers and practitioners to address, because of its prevalence, impact on the individual and society, association with other mental and physical health problems and the social contexts in which it develops. Depression ranks in Germany and central Europe as the third among the leading mental disorders and world-wide is a leading cause of disability. It is estimated that 8.3 % of the German population is depressed within a year (11.2 % women, 5.5 % men). These statistics mean that 4 million people per year are depressed in Germany alone (one year prevalence). According to the WHO, over 300 million people world-wide experience depression and in the USA the financial burden of this disorder, due to disability and work absenteeism, reaches Depression is also becoming more frequent over time and has a high risk of recidivism -particularly since its most common form, Major Depressive Disorder (DSM-5; ICD10) tends to occur in episodes. For example, 20% to 40% of people become depressed again within two years after their first depressive episode, meaning that a major aim of any therapeutic intervention should be to prevent future relapses. Depression also shows very high comorbidities with other mental and physical health conditions. Its overlap with anxiety pathology is so high that clinicians are concerned with whether the two disorder categories are indeed distinct or if they show substantial etiological overlap. Depression is also associated with heart disease and even cancer, making it a risk factor for mortality and morbidity that needs to be identified early and addressed effectively. In addition to Major Depressive Disorder, the often severe Bipolar Disorder, and the chronic form of Depression referred to as dysthymia are additional mood disorders that among them require careful differential diagnosis. They also lead to questions regarding their common or distinct etiological mechanisms. In order to gain a better understanding of Depression as a clinical disorder, one needs to look at it as a multifaceted phenomenon. Depression is a neurobehavioral condition, and one has to be up to date and have solid understanding of its biological substrate, at a genetic, neuronal, hormonal and pharmacological level. Depression is also a socio-demographic phenomenon, and one needs to examine its epidemiology, that might contain significant cues towards its clearer understanding. It is more prevalent, for example, in certain regions, climates, age groups and genders (much more prevalent in women, with age of appearance in young adulthood but also presents as a significant problem for youth and the elderly), is associated with stereotypes and stigma and can be the aftermath of crises, trauma and loss. The etiology of Depression remains under scrutiny, though recently much more knowledge is emerging from contemporary neuroimaging, genotyping and data science methods. Different neural and behavioral systems may be involved contributing to the significant heterogeneity within the disorder. Social roles, stressors, attachment patterns, family support and social networks, and individual (e.g. gender linked) vulnerabilities may contribute significantly towards increasing risk for developing depression. Different therapeutic approaches, like those stemming from the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspectives and those stemming from the cognitive/behavioral (2nd and 3rd wave) tradition focus on the components of etiology considered most dominant. As science progresses with clearer evidence regarding the important etiological factors and their interactions, these different perspectives, each with its own contribution, may need to take new developments into consideration, adapt and even begin to converge. These different aspects of the topic of Depression, which are central to the scientific aims of clinical scientists, but also permeate the way clinicians approach assessment, diagnosis, case formulation and treatment, become the focus of the present volume. Following a conference held at the University of Cyprus, in Nicosia, Cyprus in October 2019, which included presentations by internationally renowned experts in the field on these various aspects of Depression, the idea of extending the topics presented and discussed at the meeting into more elaborated and substantive chapters and synthesizing them into an edited volume was generated. The aim was to fill a substantive gap, with a volume that would be beneficial to a wider, interdisciplinary audience of clinicians, trainees and researchers with examine the different aspects of Depression. In this Edited volume, with contributions from prominent experts in the field, we propose to discuss the subject of conceptualizing and treating Depression and related conditions (e.g. Suicide, Bipolar Disorder) from different theoretical perspectives and after taking into consideration current research into the etiology and maintenance of this condition. Chapters on theoretical perspectives of treatment cover a wide range of approaches, that could be broadly clustered under behavioural and psychodynamic points of view. Perspectives discussed in this volume are psychodynamic therapy, 2nd waver CBT, acceptance and commitment therapy and mentalization therapy. Special topics with great relevance to treatment, include treatment in different levels of care (e.g. partial hospital setting; prevention of suicide; working with cancer patients). The book provides a unique combination of current empirical findings on etiology of depression and suicide, treatment considerations and practical recommendations, treatment in different settings and combination of different theoretical perspectives that can enrich a therapists' repertoire of tools for understanding and approaching depression. The book describes various theoretical approaches without adhering to anyone but with an effort to highlight common underlying themes like issues of loss, self-esteem, guilt, grief and emotion regulation as these permeate the various perspectives. In this way the book presents a combination of science and practice and of various views that constitute an excellent resource of researchers, clinicians and students of mental health professions. In a final chapter the two editors, Drs. Christos Charis and Georgia Panayiotou, make an effort to impartially integrate information from the various perspectives, highlighting the utility of each approach to address specific vulnerability and etiological factors discussed in the book. In this regard, the volume stresses the idea of the need for continuous and open dialogue between perspectives, theories, levels of investigation, research areas, practitioner needs and scientific views to help make progress in treatment and address this complex and multi-faceted phenomenon in the service of patients, their carers and societies in general.