Author
Russ Harris
The doctor and therapist who turned acceptance and commitment therapy into plain books about fear, happiness and confidence.
1 book on BookYol
The story and the impact
Russ Harris is a medical doctor who moved from general practice into psychotherapy and became one of the most active trainers in acceptance and commitment therapy, teaching the method to clinicians internationally.
The Happiness Trap, published in 2007, brought the method to a general reader; The Confidence Gap followed in 2010, applying it to the wait to feel ready, and The Reality Slap in 2011 to loss and setback.
He continues to train therapists and to write, and his books are used in clinics and workplaces as introductions to the method's core moves: defusion, acceptance, values and committed action.
The signature
Harris writes like a clinician who has run out of patience with reassurance: short chapters, exercises on every page, and a refusal to promise that the fear will go away. His signature is the reversed sequence, actions first, feelings later, and the prefix 'I'm having the thought that…'.