Book Review
Anxiety Disorders 
Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Strategies. Eve Lipchik. New York: Richard G Heimberg, Robert E Becker. New York: The Guilford Press; 2002. 334 p. US$40.00.
Reviewer
rating*: Excellent
Review by Michael Van Ameringen MD, FRCPC
Hamilton, Ontario
This book is written by Dr Richard Heimberg, the world’s leading author and researcher on group cognitive- behavioural therapy for social phobia. His book has been long awaited by many researchers and clinicians, including myself, who have for years used the authors’ previous unpublished manual in the treatment of social phobia. Dr Heimberg and colleagues’ empirically validated group cognitive-behavioural treatment is the gold standard psychological treatment for social phobia.
The book is divided into 2 sections. Part 1 focuses on the nature of social phobia, and Part 2 is a detailed group cognitive- behavioural treatment manual. In Part 1, the initial chapters provide a descriptive overview of the clinical aspects of social phobia, including epidemiology, etiology subtypes (without neurobiology), comorbidity, and functional impairment. The middle chapters review the empirical and theoretical underpinnings for the basis of cognitive-behavioural treatment in social phobia, highlighting the dysfunctional cognitive styles and information processing used by individuals with social phobias. The authors also include a chapter with a theoretical framework for understanding social phobia. This framework is discussed within the context of a clinical case, making it easy for readers to grasp the concepts. The final chapter in Part I reviews practical self- report and clinician-administered assessment measures for social phobia. Some of these measures have been conveniently reproduced for ease of use.
In this book’s preface, the author observes that SFT has gone on to become “world famous but often misunderstood and even trivialized,” mainly because of “an overemphasis on the techniques and the loss of the theoretical framework.” Her aim in writing is to “restore an interactional context to the techniques.”
Part 2 of the book consists of a detailed 12-session treatment manual. The manual includes everything required to know about initiating and running group cognitive-behavioural treatment for social phobia, including how to select patients for this type of group treatment, how to do in-session exposure, cognitive restructuring, and developing homework assignments. The authors demonstrate many of the treatment techniques using sample dialogues with special notations made throughout the manual of clinical pearls that emphasize certain aspects or adaptations of the treatment. The book is filled with forms to be used with homework assignments.
The manual concludes with an excellent section guiding the clinician on how to troubleshoot through problems that arise in group cognitive-behavioural treatment. The book covers all aspects of this group treatment for social phobia in a very practical and user-friendly manner. The text is coherent and well organized and would be an invaluable resource for clinicians (that is, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and social workers) who are administering cognitive-behavioural treatment for patients with social phobia. Although the manual is written for use in a group format, it would not be difficult to adapt the format for individual patients. Given the cost of comparable treatment manuals, this book is a great value for the price.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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