A Practical Guide to Therapy, Making The Most of Your Mental Health and Personal Growth, by Julee Pinel
A Practical Guide to Therapy is a self-help book designed to accompany you on your therapeutic journey, providing context and clarity alongside your sessions. It complements, not replaces, professional guidance, offering accessible insights to help you navigate your path. The advice within is general and informational, not a substitute for therapy, medical advice, or crisis intervention. If you are in crisis, please seek immediate professional help. Each chapter is standalone, allowing you to begin at any point that resonates with your needs. At the end of many chapters, you’ll find prompt sheets and how-to guides with practical tools to support your progress. Whether you’re starting therapy or reflecting on how far you’ve come, this book celebrates your courage in seeking self-understanding and offers reminders of your worth through challenging times. For psychologists, this guide provides ready-to-use resources for clients. Chapters are designed for easy sharing, and the "Practical Skills" sections offer actionable strategies to help clients build lasting habits and coping mechanisms. References ensure each chapter is a complete, independent resource.
Julee has also published an accompanying Therapy Journal: The Therapy Journal is more than just talking—it’s about growth, insight, and real change. This guided journal is designed to help you engage deeply in the therapy process, making each session more meaningful and productive. With structured prompts, reflective exercises, and space for personal insights, The Therapy Journal empowers you to track your progress, process emotions, and apply what you learn in therapy to your everyday life. As a companion to A Practical Guide to Therapy, Making the Most of Your Mental Health and Personal Growth, this journal supports you in building self-awareness, strengthening resilience, and creating lasting change—one session at a time.
"Julee’s book provides practical information in a well structured manner. It highlights the complexities of therapy which is a process that requires patience, self-compassion, and a commitment to embracing uniqueness of our own experience while learning sustainable and effective coping strategies. Fabulous workbook for anyone wanting to help themselves or others to improve their mental wellbeing in a practical and sustainable way. Good job Julee!"
To purchase, please visit: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/juleepinel
About the Author: Julee Pinel, a practicing psychologist and registered nurse with over 40 years of experience, blends nursing strengths with psychological expertise to make therapy practical and empowering. Based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, her compassionate approach inspires clients to embrace self-discovery and personal growth.
Review of A Practical Guide To Therapy by Julee Pinel
It was a pleasure to review this book, written by a practising clinical psychologist with rich and diverse experience across broad fields of mental health care. The brief is ambitious covering the nature of therapeutic practice, client’s expectations and potential barriers to involvement, the therapeutic process and the provision of quite extensive practical tools for therapy and challenges in the therapeutic process. The author provides comprehensive handouts at the end of chapters to guide clients with practical tools and suggestions to aid the therapy journey. The therapeutic tools are quite broad in their origin with elements of the common therapeutic strategies the author outlines in the early stages of her book including cognitive, behavioural, mindfulness related and schema-based therapies. She also includes invaluable “pearls of wisdom” from her extensive practice. What is particularly evident in the text, is the author’s commitment to maximising likelihood of therapeutic engagement, with the handouts also providing practical ways for clients to approach their therapist about issues in the therapeutic relationship. Despite the book being quite concise, the breadth of information provided is impressive and very inclusive. The book is very well written, researched and referenced and achieves its daunting objective to be a practical guide to therapy.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone embarking upon psychological therapy and to colleagues as a very helpful resource for themselves and their clients.
Dr George Bruxner, Psychiatrist