A Year to Change Your Mind by Dr Lucy Maddox review – a way through

Twelve month's worth of smart self-help tips from someone you'd want on your team in a crisis

This charming self-help book is broken down into 12 seasonally appropriate themes. January is for future-facing resolutions. March is for spring cleaning - mental as well as physical. September is about re-engaging with work, perhaps seeing it differently it after a break. The guiding principle is that clinical psychology isn't just for fixing dysfunctional situations; you can also use it to improve functional ones. If you feel a bit off-kilter but not quite bad enough to spend hundreds of pounds on therapy, Maddox's tips and tricks from the consulting room could be for you. Not only do the book's modest claims make it likable, but the fact that it isn't trying to sell you some pumped-up, perfect version of yourself has the effect of making it seem trustworthy too.

A Year to Change Your Mind was written during the pandemic and is suffused with an air of staying calm while the world is having a freakout. Maddox feels like a solid companion. She self-discloses, but not too much - just enough to let you know that the person behind all the sensible advice has had a hard time too. She alludes to the hardcore problems she confronts in her work with young people in hospital settings, not to set up an us-and-them hierarchy of suffering, but to show what we can learn from people who face serious battles with their inner and outer circumstances. It's easy to see how these people might benefit from Maddox's insight and kindness. She doesn't show off at all - you can just deduce from her manner on the page that she's someone you'd want on your team in a crisis.