"Super Simple CBT: Six Skills to Improve Your Mood in Minutes" by Martha Davis, Matthew McKay, and Patrick Fanning is a highly accessible introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques. The authors distill complex psychological concepts into straightforward, actionable skills that can be implemented in just minutes. This book is a valuable resource for individuals seeking practical tools to manage their emotions and improve their overall well-being.

One of the book's standout features is its simplicity and practicality. The authors provide clear and concise instructions for each of the six CBT skills, making it easy for readers to incorporate them into their daily lives. The exercises are designed to be easily accessible and can be implemented in various situations, allowing individuals to address negative thought patterns and improve their mood in real-time.

The book's focus on CBT, a widely recognized and effective therapeutic approach, adds credibility to the techniques presented. The authors draw on their expertise to explain the underlying principles of CBT in a way that is understandable and relatable. They also provide relatable examples and case studies to illustrate how these techniques can be applied in real-life situations.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for a full and frank review.

I don't feel the book itself can be reviewed as it is on how one learns the techniques and derives coping mechanisms from it. I learned a lot from it and felt it explained things better than any other book I have read around this topic. I enjoyed it and felt that I learned from it also.

Super Simple CBT is exactly what it sounds like! This book is so readable and didn’t require a psychology degree to understand just a desire for self improvement. I love that the book includes recordings of the exercises so you can fully immerse yourself in it.

Incredibly useful and informative! Ive learnt so much from this book and was written in a great, easy to follow way

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This book is a self-help book that talks about quick skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that help you to find lasting relief from the painful thoughts that drive anxiety, depression, and more. It is a short, and well-written read.

Super Simple CBT contains six chapters other than the introduction and conclusion, followed by a helpful list of resources for further reading. With valuable insight into CBT, this book is most helpful as an introduction to people interested in CBT.

As someone who loves non-fiction and self-help books, I loved that this is short, simple, and to the point. A worthy read for anyone interested in this topic!

4 / 5 ⭐

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the book!

3.5 stars rounded up
This is a very good and useful book to have at hand. I have tried CBT before and it wasn't very successful for me. This book made it easier for me to understand.  At the start I struggled a little to grasp it but by chapter 2 I was on a roll. I loved the way it is set out and found the examples extremely useful. You could definitely tell this book was wrote by someone with great experience. Personally I would of loved to see pictures of the printable resources this book contains. I am more of a visual person and often get stressed typing in web addresses. I have even recommended some of these examples to help out a friend.
Many thanks to the author and publishers for creating this very useful guide to help people alleviate the horrid symptoms of depression. 
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Simple but very helpful. This book helped me understand the different kinds of limited thinking. It's great that it provided techniques on how to deal with my limited thoughts. This book makes me appreciate CBT more.

Really simple but effective ideas in this book, I found it very helpful.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

This is a nice book that covers cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT in clear and easy to understand language. CBT is not new to me but it's good to get reminders from time to time and I can say this book can be a good resource to have on hand for reference. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Enjoyed this book, lots of useful information and some things to think about and implement :)
I think this book might be useful for someone like me, who is already in therapy and use this as a side-help, sort of!

At the very core of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is the truth that thoughts cause feelings, and we can control our thoughts thus controlling our feelings.
I've already come across this principle, although not so in depth and not with such a scientific approach – the author explains not only all the different ways we could think (often mixed together in individuals), which per se is already something, but all the way in which, a step at a time, we can change our way of thinking (which is tailored to us) and we can improve our lives.
The book closes this brief journey into our minds with two chapters for self-care: one about relaxation techniques, the other with worry control ones. The very last chapter is about how people prone to depression (or anyone, really) should approach the issues, scheduling activities so they re-descover the forgotten pleasure and gain hope again.

I needed this book. I am in my late 20s and am trying to work on myself, how I perceive others and my hypervigilant stress response. I am in therapy but I've found I really enjoy reading about topics discussed in therapy. Super Simple CBT was amazing. It breaks down something that is complex, into relatable bits of knoweldge that are easy to understand. If you don't understand yourself, it is hard to change yourself. The six skills discussed are automatic thoughts, limited thinking, hot thoughts, relaxations, worry control and getting mobilized. I am a firm beleiver that if you change your thinking you can change your life. I have a brutal habit where I assign faulty meaning to people's statements. If somebody asks me if I have completed a task for example, I assume they are asking because they think I am lazy or am not good enough to complete said task. I am well aware this thinking is unhealhty but I struggle with changing my thoughts. Super Simple CBT was a tremendous help and goes along well with therapy. I will refer to this book for many years to come.

Co-authored by Martha Davis, Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning, Super Simple CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) has enjoyed some favour amongst clinical psychological therapists. Used as a treatment of various mental health disorders, CBT is most effective for those with depression and/or anxiety. CBT examines the interplay between a person’s beliefs, thoughts, and feelings in order to understand the problem and resulting actions. Super Simple CBT has six chapters as well as an introduction and conclusion. It also has a helpful list of resources for further reading. With valuable insight into CBT, this book is most helpful as an introduction and readers may need to seek professional counselling to fully realise the benefits of CBT. Overall, a well written, easy to read book with some useful tips and a four-star rating. With thanks to New Harbinger Publications, Inc. and the author, for an uncorrected proof for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given, with some previous professional knowledge of the subject matter.

Super Simple CBT by Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, and Patrick Fanning provides a quick and easy introduction to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). While it addresses depression and anxiety, it’s not diagnosis-specific; rather, it provides strategies that are useful for dealing with difficult thoughts and emotions in general.

The book consists of six chapters, one devoted to each skill area: automatic thoughts, limited thinking, hot thoughts, relaxation, worry control, and getting mobilized. The introduction explains the basic CBT perspective that thoughts cause feelings, and changing thoughts can produce changes in feelings.

The first three chapters are focused on recognizing and challenging problematic patterns of thinking, and the authors recommended using a thought journal for this purpose (there’s a template on the publisher’s website that can be downloaded for this). The chapter on limited thinking goes through common cognitive distortions that are based on faulty assumptions, like polarized thinking, overgeneralization, mind-reading, and catastrophizing. The book explains how to go through the process of looking at evidence for and against hot thoughts (automatic thoughts that are particularly distressing), coming up with more balanced alternatives, and creating action plans.

The second half of the book focuses more on behaviour. The chapter on relaxation includes strategies like abdominal breathing and progressive muscle relaxation to calm down the body. The final chapter on getting mobilized encouraged people who are feeling depressed to push through and do activities that are pleasurable and give a sense of mastery.

I thought the authors did a good job of keeping the book short and to the point, with clear examples. I can see it being easy to follow even if readers have no familiarity at all with CBT. The focus was on things you can do rather than just imparting knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It’s a quick read, with short sections that make it easy to follow along. While the book’s subtitle is “6 Skills to Improve Your Mood in Minutes,” the authors are realistic that these strategies take time to practice in order to get the full benefit.

I can see this book being particularly useful as a starting point for people who are having some mood issues but aren’t necessarily looking to or needing to start mental illness treatment. It really does deliver on the title’s promise of super simple CBT.



I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

I think this book is great. It gets right to the point and to the exercises so the reader can get to feeling better. It was very helpful to me and something I will keep on hand to continue to practice CBT.

This is the first self-help book I’ve read, and I must say it is very informational and useful. Expressing how the past couple years have been a whirlwind would be an understatement, and this book gave me tools I can use in my daily life. I was skeptical by the title stating this is “super simple” but it really is pretty simple and anyone could benefit from this information.

This book is a perfect rundown of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy!

I was in a CBT group in 2017. Followed by DBT. In the CBT group I learned all of the things this book offers! It was an excellent refresher to the knowledge.

If you do not have access to therapy due to time restraints or other issues, then this book is for you! It's the perfect reference guide and gives detailed information and examples, without being wordy or overwhelming.

I highly recommend this title to anyone looking to make changes and unlearn behaviour that's holding you back.

Simple CBT... it really is! This book identifies and explains troubling behaviour, why it becomes troubling and gives you the tools to overcome such behaviours. On a personal level, it's enabled me to identify parts of the troubling thoughts I have, I can normalise and label the irrational worries much more simply now. I've been having CBT sessions for the last 2 years and reading this has given some really solid background knowledge to the techniques and how important they are to keep practising - even when i'm not in 'high threat anxiety mode'. I like that it's a practical book, with examples and ideas that never comes across preachy - infact it even acknowledges that some of the tasks may become boring, but this means they're working!

The book has supportive resources listed in the back and there are free sheets to download and use for some of the recording activities.

Super Simple CBT is exactly what it says it is...."super simple". This is why it's worth reading. Any book that goes on and on and on about why you feel the way you do and how to fix it is just too much for me, and. I want to cut to the chase, get to the point. This book does that. I opened the book this morning and was immediately pleased to find a short, simple, to the point book that identifies thought patterns and tells you how they affect you, and then suggests ways to think and feel better right now, not eventually...now. I can guarantee that when reading through the thoughts we hurt ourselves with everyone will find at least one where they think, "yeah...I do that". You can read this book cover to cover in an hour. This is not an overwhelming "self-help" book about the inner-child, personality types, your parents, your ex. This is just about you and it's simple, which is just right!

I really, really like this CBT book. I am familiar already with some of the CBT exercises mentioned such as worry time. The chapters I found particularly useful were on those on relaxation exercises and getting mobilized through activity scheduling. This is something I can see myself putting into practice.

I also loved this quote in the book which really hit home - ‘ Many of these exercises are boring, But they work. Practicing them becomes the trade off: a few weeks of boredom in exchange for years of freedom from unwanted symptoms. This is the choice you may have to make every day when you do these exercises.’

I really hope and want to commit to doing the exercises in this book. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy. This book will help so many people.