Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy New
$10.80
Qty:1
  • List Price: $15.95
  • Save: $5.15 (32%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
The Happiness Trap: How t... has been added to your Cart
Want it tomorrow, June 22? Order within and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT Paperback – June 3, 2008

by
Russ Harris (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Russ Harris Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Russ Harris (Author), Steven Hayes (Foreword)
4.6 out of 5 stars 364 customer reviews
See all 8 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$9.57
— —
Paperback
"Please retry"
$10.80
$7.18 $5.96
Best Books of the Month
See the Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
$10.80 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT
  • +
  • Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (A New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)
  • +
  • ACT Made Simple: An Easy-To-Read Primer on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (The New Harbinger Made Simple Series)
Total price: $45.74
Buy the selected items together

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 71%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. Learn more.
For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now lets you buy the Kindle edition for $2.99 or less. (Textbooks available for $9.99 or less.)
  • Thousands of books are eligible, including current and former best sellers.
  • Look for the Kindle MatchBook icon on print and Kindle book detail pages of qualifying books. You can also see more Kindle MatchBook titles here or look up all of your Kindle MatchBook titles here.
  • Read the Kindle edition on any Kindle device or with a free Kindle Reading App.
  • Print edition must be purchased new and sold by Amazon.com.
  • Gifting of the Kindle edition at the Kindle MatchBook price is not available.
Learn more about Kindle MatchBook.
Image
Interested in the Audiobook Edition?
If you’re the author, publisher, or rights holder of this book, let ACX help you produce the audiobook.Learn more.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Trumpeter; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1590305841
  • ISBN-13: 978-1590305843
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (364 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Important Information

Ingredients
Example Ingredients

Directions
Example Directions

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWarning: This book will not make you happy.
By Peter Hanley on June 5, 2008
Format: Paperback
I don't generally like books with happiness in the title. They tend to be trying to tell me how I can be happy, or otherwise they're so vague and new-age that I wonder whether the author is for real. This book was very different.

This book is practical, very well written, and genuine in its approach. It doesn't make grandiose claims. Instead, it is based on a very solid theoretical and empirical foundation, yet it doesn't get caught up in unnecessary jargon. It's also a great example of how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be applied to every day life. The importance it places on living a life that you value is excellent, and avoids many of the pitfalls of the contemporary cultural assumption that happiness (or lack of unhappiness) is the goal of self-help/life.

People who will find this book most helpful:
- Anyone who suffers from depression or anxiety
- Anyone who wants to be happy, but always fails to achieve it
- Anyone who wants to learn about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Anyone who struggles with their thoughts/thinks too much.
- Anyone who's seeking to grow
4 Comments 247 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA Guide to Valued Living
By Robert D. Zettle on June 3, 2008
Format: Paperback
According to the Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness" is one of our "inalienable rights." As Russ Harris masterfully points out in this book, however, the pursuit of values over the long haul, rather than happiness, is more likely to lead to a full and meaningful life. The overall approach within the book is based upon acceptance and commitment therapy or ACT, which has increasingly been shown to be helpful in alleviating a wide range of human suffering. Rather than being a stodgy, stuffy presentation of ACT (and believe me, having written some of those myself - I know one when I see one!), the book reads more like a series of short stories which Dr. Harris presents in a conversational and engaging style to ilustrate how all of us can adopt a more kind and compassionate approach to our struggles with self-doubts, unwanted emotions, and worrisome thoughts. Indeed, the book could have just as easily been entitled "ACT for Dummies" not because it oversimplifies the approach, but because it makes it so accessible, understandable, and easy to apply. If you've heard about ACT and would like to know more about it, or have never heard of it, but want to check out what all the fuss is about, this is the place to start. I highly recommend the book to not only those of us who have fallen into the "happiness trap," but also to our friends, loved ones, and mental health professionals who have tried to liberate us from it. It can be usefully read and applied by itself or as an introduction to ACT before moving on to workbooks in the area such as "Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life." Don't wait for the movie!
3 Comments 142 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best self-help book I've ever read
By Dianne Salvador on June 30, 2008
Format: Paperback
My jargon/headache-free gateway to the delights of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris. Before reading The Happiness Trap, I knew of ACT as some framework to do with values and mindfulness but the language was all a bit foreign to me and I wasn't enticed to delve into it. I read The Happiness Trap in one sitting, disobeying all the suggestions to not rush, because I couldn't put it down. There are these irresistible little carrots dangling at the end of each chapter, snippets about what's coming next, making it compulsively readable. By the time I got to the end I had thoroughly defaced it, underlining all the good bits, all the bits that resonated with me and articulated the suspicions I had about traditional Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and an agenda of control. Reading it I laughed, I cried, I changed. I felt awakened and freed. And I was hungry to know more. It would be no exaggeration to say I could divide my life professionally and personally into Before The Happiness Trap and After The Happiness Trap. Moreover it prepared me for and eased me into the more technical writing about ACT and Relational Frame Theory (RFT) on which ACT is based. An extra special thing about The Happiness Trap is the use of a conversational and interactive writing style. It was as though I was engaging with a therapist through the pages of the book, a therapist who walked me with kindness and gentleness and empathy through the processes and techniques and having some fun along the way. The Happiness Trap is the recommended reading for clients at my psychology practice as I am confident that anyone who is literate can absorb its contents, `get' ACT first time around and be empowered to create their own ACT toolkit for living well.
Comment 82 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best self-help book for everyone
By Dung Nguyen on June 7, 2008
Format: Paperback
I recommend this book to all my clients and colleagues. In a very accessible and captivating way, Dr Russ Harris made us understand how our mind can sometimes be an enemy to living a rich, vital and meaningful life. The book is full of EFFECTIVE, evidence-based strategies to effectively respond to our distressing emotions, thus reducing their impact on us. It also gives us strategies to disentangle ourselves from self-defeating thoughts. As we are able to free ourselves from the impact of unhelpful thoughts and feelings, we stop figthing them, and can invest our energy in living our life. As I read the book, I realize that life is not about having happy, pleasant thoughts and feelings. It is about living a meaningful life consistent with our values. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy gives us the needed tools to just do that: FREE ourselves from our MIND and have the energy to live a meaningful life.
The Happiness Trappy is the most accessible, easiest to understand book on ACT therapy. It is the first book I recommend you to read on ACT. And if you become passionate about ACT like me, you can continue with many other fantastic and helpful books on ACT by other authors.
Dung Nguyen, Psychologist, Adelaide, Australia
1 Comment 74 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGood book easy to read

Good book, a super easy read! Like a comic book on a serious subject, good stuff.

Published 3 days ago by C. J. Rose
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Very helpful but one needs to read it slowly and carefully. It is not something one can race through

Published 9 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

It is a great ACT commitment program.

Published 13 days ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsA Whole New Approach to Pursuing Living and Happiness

Have no read it yet but my therapist very much recommends it.

Published 16 days ago by Patricia Cone
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Really good advice.

Published 17 days ago by Mochawarrior
5.0 out of 5 starsIt came in very good time.

I bought it for a friend - I will be reading it later. It came in very good time. Val

Published 20 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsConcise & Effective Summary on Acceptance & Commitment/mindfullness

I have been working though some physical issues over the last 6 months. I have found mindfullness to be extremely valuable. Read more

Published 1 month ago by D. DeDecker
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great book!

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsvery happy with this product

we are an organization that uses this material for our group therapy and it works well. very happy with this product.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Star

The book was just as described and was sent In a timely manner. So glad I purchased. Will do it again.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.