Applied Exercise Psychology

This is the first applied handbook for practitioners who want to help patients begin and maintain an exercise program as a lifestyle change. Mental health practitioners (MHPs) often earn a trust that not many other professionals do with their patients. It is with this trust that MHPs are able to encourage and help their clients begin a healthy and active lifestyle through exercise programs. This book, with easy to understand language, provides a simple introduction for mental health practitioners and clinicians to help their clients achieve better mental and physical health through exercise and learn how effective the psychological aspects of exercise can be. The book helps MHPs obtain the background of ways to achieve proper fitness, and to go through the process of obtaining information about the client's individual needs, and finally to prescribe an exercise program that is compatible with those needs. A fundamental knowledge of applied principles of exercise physiology provides additional credibility to the prescribed exercise regimen. The coverage includes: applied exercise psychology; motivation technique; theories and models in health psychology; fundamental applied exercise physiology; specific cognitive and behavioral strategies; program interventions; recommended books and journals; list of exercise and health organizations; and exercise checklist. This book will be of use to all mental health providers, including psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and consultants, whose relationship with clients provides a particularly unique opportunity to gain entry for proposing lifestyle changes.