Stephen Palmer & Cary Cooper

London: Kogan Page, 2007.
(Part of The Sunday Times ‘Creating Success’ series)
164 pages. Paperback. £8.99.
ISBN: 978-0-7494-4866-0

Reviewed by Anna Allan

Written by the country’s two leading stress management experts, this contribution to the self-help genre approaches the topic from a cognitive behavioural perspective. Manifestly aimed at the busy executive (the book is part of The Sunday Times sponsored ‘Creating Success’ series) the layout lends itself to being ‘dipped into’ rather than a cover-to-cover read. Self-evaluation questionnaires and other self-reflection activities are liberally interspersed among short paragraphs which introduce key concepts. The book’s main premise is that the way we think both adds to our stress and provides the solution to managing it.

The book’s key message is that much of the stress we experience is a result of thinking errors. Psychologists will be familiar with the ABC model introduced to explain how such thinking leads to stress, while the lay reader can understand this more fully by completing the stress-inducing beliefs indicator which follows. A description of the 15 common thinking errors that contribute to stress, coupled with a Thinking Errors Audit, enable a fuller exploration of these ideas.

Once thinking errors have been identified, the authors are able to make suggestions for change. The first of these is to tackle negative imagery. Four aspects are considered in turn - coping, self-motivation, time projection, and relaxation. Having changed thinking the next two chapters discuss changing behaviour. Following an assessment of behaviour against the Type A and B model, the reader is encouraged to consider the appropriateness of improving assertiveness and time management skills. The authors also identify how improved physical health can support stress reduction. While none of these topics are given the detailed coverage that the cognitive aspects merit, they do provide useful additional ideas for readers wishing to explore broader options.

A basic introduction to the biology of stress is provided at the beginning of the book, together with a list of potential psychological, behavioural and physiological responses from which the reader is encouraged to pick the ones he recognises as true for himself. Working through the various checklists in this book, it is possible for most of us to conclude we are stressed. What is more valuable, therefore, is the final chapter on how to develop a stress action plan to change things.

As an adjunct to a stress management workshop or coaching session, many of the activities in this book would prove useful. Designed to enhance self-knowledge and selfunderstanding, they are quick to complete and provide a simple snapshot of a client’s current situation. Having said that, I would like to enter a personal plea that activity 13 - ‘Who is to blame?’ - be removed from subsequent editions of the book. Acknowledging the existence of blame cultures in many organisations, the authors suggest this technique can be used to move away from such cultures. I remain doubtful and suspect the exercise may simply serve to reinforce the notion of blame for many readers. On the topic of work, a short chapter on dealing with work-related stress sits a little uneasily near the end of the book. On the plus side, it does introduce key concepts such as the HSE stress standards, but more cross referencing to relevant material in other chapters would have been useful.

The only point on which I take issue with the authors is their apparent reduction of meditation and yoga to simple methods of relaxation. Not only are these Eastern techniques becoming increasingly popular, but they are also powerful stress control methods in their own right. For example, the American stress expert Jon Kabat-Zinn has been pioneering the use of mindfulness in stress management at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center for the last 20 years. In the UK the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University is offering increasing evidence of how Buddhist psychology is being integrated into Western therapeutic practices. Indeed, from the mindfulness perspective of current moment living, the imagery techniques proposed as solutions by Palmer and Cooper (and which focus on future events) become the 16th item on the list of common thinking errors. A cursory nod of recognition to this emergent theme would have made available to the reader a further powerful stress management option without any damage to credibility.

Given the pedigree of the two authors, coaching psychologists may be disappointed to learn that this book adds nothing new to our understanding of the stress debate. Having said that, it does deliver on its promises to be a self-coaching tool, designed to enable recognition of stress symptoms and their understanding of how these are largely self-created.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2004). Full catastrophe living. London: Piatkus.

52 The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2008 Book Reviews