Publications
Dr. Sheri Turrell’s New Book
by Sheri L. Turrell PhD & Mary Bell MSW RSW
Relationships are tough. Family, friendships, romance - they've all got their own complications. So, what can you do?
We're all wired differently and programmed to think and react in certain ways. Are you a people-pleaser or someone who trusts too easily? Do you find it hard to put your guard down or often compare yourself to others? This book helps you to see how your programming affects the way you communicate and relate to others, and gives you the tools to upgrade it.
Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a positive, practical approach for getting in touch with who and what matters to you and learning to take your thoughts and feelings with you to reach your goals, this book will give you the tools to get to know your own values, build healthy boundaries, and boost your communication skills. It will help you to better understand yourself so that you can build happy, healthy relationships.
The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Teen Anxiety
by Sheri L. Turrell PhD, Christopher McCurry PhD, Mary Bell MSW RSW
Move past anxiety and discover what really matters to you. Written by three experts in teen mental health, this powerful workbook offers evidence-based activities grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you cope with anxiety, build resilience, stop avoiding the things you fear, and lead a fuller, happier life.
Anxiety is what we feel when we’re scared about some future event that may or may not happen. When you’re struggling with anxiety your mind is trying to protect you from danger, so it’s busy telling you about all the things you can’t do. Along with these thoughts come a host of feelings and bodily sensations-such as sweaty palms, restlessness, lightheadedness, and stomach aches. But it’s not the anxious thoughts that make anxiety a problem. It’s the actions we take, or don’t take, as a resultof these thoughts.
In The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Teen Anxiety, you’ll find helpful alternatives to the ineffective strategies and habits you’re currently using to deal with anxiety, such as avoidance. You’ll find basic information about anxiety to help you recognize what it looks and feels like, mindfulness tips to help you stay in the moment when you feel worried about the future, and tips to help you connect with your own values so you can start putting the important things in life first.
Testimonials
This is a truly excellent self-help book for teens struggling with anxiety-which, as far as I can see, means just about every teenager on the planet! In teen-friendly language, this book takes readers step by step through a wealth of powerful tools and strategies, to help them develop resilience, courage, and confidence to cope with the many challenges of this difficult phase of life. So, if you want to help teens live mindfully, be more self-compassionate, get on well with their peers, and act effectively guided by their own core values, this book will make it a whole lot easier for you to do that: a great resource both for parents to use with their kids, and for therapists to use with their clients.
Russ Harris
Author & Educator, The Happiness Trap and ACT Made Simple
The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Teen Anxiety by Turrell, McCurry, and Bell is an excellent resource for anxious teens and the adults who want to help them. The book is divided into two main sections: Parts I and II, which provide psychoeducation; and Parts III through VII that cover skills such as defusion, valuing, and more. Chapter layouts are consistent and aesthetically pleasing. Each chapter includes didactic information, stories, and activities that normalize and concretize difficult ideas. The acronyms used throughout the book(e.g., DOTS, LLAMA) are quite catchy and useful for adolescent readers. Links to audio files will benefit adolescents too! Highly recommended!
Amy R. Murrell, PhD
Associate professor in the Department of Psychology, at the University of North Texas
Coauthor of The Joy of Parenting and author of I See Me
ACT for Adolescents
Treating Teens and Adolescents in Individual and Group Therapy
by Sheri L. Turrell PhD and Mary Bell MSW RSW
In this much-needed guide, a clinical psychologist and a social worker provide a flexible, ten-week protocol based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help adolescents overcome mental health hurdles and thrive.
If you’re a clinician working with adolescents, you understand the challenges this population faces. But sometimes it can be difficult to establish connection in therapy. To help, ACT for Adolescents offers the first effective professional protocol for facilitating ACT with adolescents in individual therapy, along with modifications for a group setting.
In this book, you’ll find invaluable strategies for connecting meaningfully with your client in session, while at the same time arriving quickly and safely to the clinical issues your client is facing. You’ll also find an overview of the core processes of ACT so you can introduce mindfulness into each session and help your client choose values-based action. Using the protocol outlined in this book, you’ll be able to help your client overcome a number of mental health challenges from depression and anxiety to eating disorders and trauma.
If you work with adolescent clients, the powerful and effective step-by-step exercises in this book are tailored especially for you. This is a must-have addition to your professional library.
This book includes audio downloads.
Testimonials
Sheri Turrell and Mary Bell have developed a step-by-step approach to using acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with teenagers, in individual and group treatment, brimming with new exercises and metaphors, and creatively adapted traditional ACT interventions. Amongst the strengths of this book are its integration of self-compassion training and the powerful ACT matrix model.
Benjamin Schoendorff
International ACT Trainer, Director, of the Contextual Psychology Institute in Montreal, QC, Canada; and coauthor of The Essential Guide to the ACT Matrix
Hats off to Turrell and Bell for giving us a high-quality manual to support clinicians’ use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with adolescents! They’ve tested and refined their interventions over years, and now provide specific instructions on how to use them in both individual and group treatments. The ACTion group protocol follows a ten-session model, and it’s filled with teen-friendly metaphors and supported by online mindfulness exercises. Bravo! Truly what we needed.
Patricia J. Robinson, PhD
Director of training and program evaluation, at Mountainview Consulting Group; international ACT trainer; author of numerous articles, chapters, and books; and coauthor of Inside This Moment and Real Behavior Change in Primary Care