Managing Social Anxiety forms part of the American series, Treatments That Work, each based on the American Psychological Association's Division 12 Task Force criteria for empirically-supported treatments. As such, clinicians can have confidence in the treatment's likely efficacy. Written by experts in social anxiety, and based on a previously validated treatment manual, it provides a structured 16-session protocol for the treatment of individuals with social anxiety. For clinicians new to CBT, this book will be particularly useful as its clear, structured approach holds the newcomer's hand through the stages of assessment, formulation and treatment of socially anxious individuals.

As with all books in this series, targeted texts exist for both therapist and client. The Therapist Guide provides the clinician with a solid theoretical background with which to formulate and a clear rationale for each step in the treatment. This is backed up by the take-home Client Workbook, which incorporates client-friendly explanations and exercises practising key cognitive-behavioural skills. With each text reinforcing the other, matched session-by-session, neither therapist nor client need ever get lost.

The Therapist Guide is divided into two parts. Part 1 covers the background on social anxiety and assessment issues. Part II follows a session-by-session format that is mirrored in the Client Workbook. The treatment proceeds in a fairly standard CBT order, with the scene being set first of all with psycho-education, construction of the fear and avoidance hierarchy and then self-monitoring. Interventions commence with cognitive restructuring, with exposure work interwoven alongside. The final phase of therapy includes supplemental treatment sessions on specific issues such as public speaking fears. The book ends with core belief work, preparation for ending and relapse prevention.

Strengths of the book include its successful balance between rigorous referencing of the evidence base in the Therapist Guide and the simple, yet comprehensive, nature of the Client Workbook. For example, treatment credibility is addressed early on. Particular care is taken to prepare the client for therapy by checking motivation and presence of any contraindications. Also, clients are thoroughly prepared for testing out Negative Automatic Thoughts by a skilfully woven mixture of cognitive and exposure work, the “Be Your Own Cognitive Coach Worksheet” making this a virtually fail-safe exercise. Another nice feature of the Client Workbook that encourages the independence so important in CBT is the quiz at the end of each chapter. These devices make self-help a real possibility for those clients without access to a therapist. A website provides further materials, although as yet little appears on it.

Weaknesses of the books include the restrictive copyright; only the worksheets are able to be photocopied, a shame considering how useful the explanations are in the Client Workbook. It appears that the authors assume the client will have their own copy of the workbook, a somewhat unrealistic expectation in NHS settings. Second, whilst the book's structure is a strength, this can also feel prescriptive. When using some of the ideas within it with one of my own clients, I quickly found myself deviating. Real clients are complex, and few in my experience would be able to follow every step of its protocol. Also, it relies upon a high level of literacy and motivation in the client to complete the programme successfully in 16 sessions.

Overall, this text will prove to be a valuable resource for cognitive therapists in training, and may become a staple on supervisors' shelves to settle the anxieties of their trainees' first attempts at treating clients with social anxiety. As with all security blankets, however, this one I suspect will gradually be left aside as therapists' experience and confidence grows.