Readers will note that there are many (hundreds, in fact) books on the market for coping with anxiety. One need only visit the “Self-Help” section of your local bookstore to find a wide array of different offerings, each promising to help ease your anxious mind. The Mindful Way through Anxiety by Susan Orsillo and Lisabeth Roemer (both professors of clinical psychology with years of experience researching and treating anxiety), stands out among them for its solid scientific foundation and pragmatic approach. The book focuses on scientifically-supported principles for coping with anxiety, developed form the authors’ own program of research. (This is not to say that all other self-help books for anxiety are non-scientific; there are actually a number of very good offerings written by experienced scientists and clinicians. There are, however, many more that are not.)

What The Mindful Way through Anxiety offers is not only based on cutting-edge research, it’s also very approachable. The authors present a solid rationale for using Mindfulness, which involves noticing and accepting feelings of anxiety (as opposed to avoiding and judging them), to help live a rich and fulfilling life in spite of anxiety. They also provide a program of mindfulness exercises which grows increasingly specific and challenging throughout the book. Instead of focusing only on theory (as many similar books have done), Orsillo and Roemer provide many tangible examples from their own practice. This combination of practical exercises and real-world examples makes for a book that is both interesting and easily understood by non-therapists.

Mindfulness has shown great promise in treating anxiety; multiple clinical studies have show its efficacy in treating a variety of anxiety disorders. Many of the examples provided in this book are specific to social anxiety (and some even touch on anxiety in dating situations). Although the focus of the book is more general, people who struggle to interact with potential romantic partners (both in initial meetings and on dates) can benefit from the authors’ approach. As a bonus, the exercises described in the book are available for free as mp3 files at the accompanying website.