Using Books, Workbooks and Journals with Your Clients

I got some questions recently about using other authors' books with your clients (whether individually or in a group setting), as well as writing your own books to use with them. Here are the takeaway points:

• Any author would love for you to use their books with your clients, as it increases sales, reviews and credibility for the author. Just make sure you don't give out any advanced copies you may have received for free that people now have to pay for, as you'll be taking those benefits away from the author. Also don't reproduce any portion of the book (other than for, say, an example used in discussion with students) without written permission from the author.
• Consider publishing your own book/workbook/journal for your clients to use. I released my first journal during my first year in business (though it was 20 years in the making) for this very reason. Just make sure that the content in the book is well researched, giving credit where credit is due to others, and if there are exercises in the book they should have been shown to be effective with more than a few clients. Also make sure that you're not including exercises that come from someone else's book; they should be of your own creation. If someone else is doing something similar, that's fine, just don't copy what they did - make it your own.
• Before embarking on your own book - which is a lot more work than you think it is, believe me! - ask yourself if you're trying to reinvent the wheel. See if there's already a book (this goes for recordings, too, by the way) that does what you want it to do for your clients. If there is, use that. If not, make your own. Spend your time getting experience and income and developing your thoughts. As you get more insights from your sessions, you'll come up with better, more creative ideas and exercises.

I think it's really cool to make unique contributions to our field and I hope to see you all do so at some point. Just do it right and don't be in a hurry. Take the time to research, refine and test your ideas, and in the mean time, take advantage of the options already available.