Initially, this book confused me. Looking at the cover, the book's size and weight, I assumed it was a text for health professionals and was therefore very surprised to open it and find out that it is a self-help text intended for women with postnatal depression. However, it might also be helpful for close friends, family members or professionals. The five areas from the title are: altered thinking, altered feelings, altered physical symptoms, altered behaviour and life situation, people and events around us.

The book is one of a series that includes workbooks on depression and low mood, teenage depression and low mood, and anxiety, stress and panic. Each is soundly based on cognitive-behavioural therapy.

Part 1, on understanding how you are feeling, looks at how you will use the workbooks and encourages the reader to rate themselves in the five areas. Part 2 focuses on making changes and the workbooks here look at people and events, behaviours and activities, negative and upsetting thinking, changes to things that affect your bodily function and planning for the future. It is well laid out, with bullet points, plenty of space to make notes, with checklists and questions, highlighted key points and cartoon illustrations. There are frequent references to two websites, www.livinglifetothefull.com and www.fiveareas.com. Much of the first site, written by the first author, is free but both professionals and the public have to register to use it. Some of its resources are in formats for people who are blind or visually impaired. The other website has more resources, including short key skills booklets.

Professionals are given permission to copy pages for use in therapy and this book is indeed a valuable resource for those working with women who experience postnatal depression. However, patients might find the book in its current format too daunting and the workbooks would benefit from being in a more colourful, bite-sized format. The price is also a big chunk of the budget for women on very low incomes and the book and the websites are only available in English.