I bought this book as I was working with a patient with needle phobia and had been unable to find a good conceptualisation specific to this elsewhere. This book has this and clear, detailed guidance on the key interventions and cognitions important in this area, as well as theoretical and some statistical information about each disorder (prevalence, etc). Having looked at the other chapters they appear to be equally clear and helpful.

Clearly a major reason for buying this book is for guidance on appropriate behavioural experiments and these are indeed very helpful. My reason for not giving 5 stars is that the experiments on phobias weren't exactly what I needed (not quite relevant to my client's problem) - having said that it gave me enough ideas to create my own experiments and there was a good range included. They can't include everything!

My absolute favourite parts of the book are the 'tales from the front line' stories of experiments not going quite to plan at the end of each chapter. In fact they are so entertaining that I went through the book reading all of these first! Some of them are about subjects I have wondered, "What would I do if that happened?" which is useful.

I would definitely recommend this book to both CBT trainees and to experienced practitioners.