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I'm not supposed to feel like this

A Christian self-help approach to depression and anxiety

A welcome wind of change

I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE THIS
A Christian self-help approach to depression and anxiety
By Chris Williams, Paul Richards and Ingrid Whitton
Hodder & Stoughton. 279 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 78639 6

I welcome this excellent book, and I hope it will be widely read and used. It seems to me to be the first book which really succeeds in applying CBT (which stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), but might just as well be called Christian and Biblical Therapy when explained from a Christian standpoint.

It has two consultant psychiatrists and a Baptist pastor as authors. They have worked together in Leeds: their expert knowledge is guaranteed. The result is a book which shows how we feel when we are ill, and what we can do to get well. A difficult subject is lit up with a practical and Christian light. Key points, diagrams, a summary and a prayer are in each chapter. How CBT works is clearly explained, step by step.

The book uses a 'five areas approach' to show this: our life situation, altered thinking, feelings and bodily symptoms, and altered behaviour and activity. Examples from the Bible and from modern life are used, and clarity is an outstanding feature.

In the last chapter, church leaders are asked to look at whether they are 'part of the problem or part of the solution'. But all the chapters explain very clearly how Christians should use other expert help in both medication and other forms of medical care, and how healing should be sought without recourse to such extremes as those which demonise depression. I feel very hopeful that, if both pastors and those in our churches who need help were to use this book, huge benefits might result for needy Christians.

To read it is not a breeze: the reader has to work at it, but it is very worthwhile. A wind of change might alter the climate in many churches and create a setting where, instead of rejection and condemnation of those who suffer, there is acceptance, understanding and day-to-day caring of them.

While the book is clearly set out for Bible-believing Christians for whom their local church is vital, I believe new editions could also appeal to a wider spectrum of Christians. It carries no unwanted baggage from Freud or Jung. It is a book in the honourable tradition of Christian teaching about spiritual self-examination, and going on to 'work out our salvation' in our health needs and the well-being of our bodies and souls now, as well as in eternity.

Gaius Davies, London