Sometimes everything sucks. This unique, illustrated guide will help you move past negative thoughts and feelings and discover what truly matters to you.

If you struggle with negative thoughts and emotions, you should know that your pain is real. No one should try to diminish it. Sometimes stuff really does suck and we have to acknowledge it. Worry, sadness, loneliness, anger, and shame are big and important, but they can also get in the way of what really matters.

What if, instead of fighting your pain, you realized what really matters to you—and put those things first in life? If you did that, maybe your pain wouldn’t feel so big anymore. Isn’t it worth a try?

Stuff That Sucks offers a compassionate and validating guide to accepting emotions, rather than struggling against them. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn to prioritize your thoughts, feelings, and values. You’ll figure out what you care about the most, and then start caring some more! The skills you’ll learn are based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Yes, there are a few written exercises, but this isn’t a workbook. It’s a journey into the stuff that sucks, what makes that sucky stuff suck even more, and how just a few moments each day with the stuff that matters will ultimately transform the stuff that sucks into stuff that is just stuff. Make sense?

Maybe you want to be more creative? Or maybe you simply want to do better in school or be a better friend? This book will show you how to focus on what you really care about, so that all that other sucky stuff doesn’t seem so, well, sucky anymore.

You can buy the book here

(please note there are two different covers, but I've only written one book so far)

“Put simply, Stuff That Sucks is good stuff! Short and to the point, it can help teens from thirteen to at least forty-nine learn to handle life’s yucky stuff in a way that will help them get to the good stuff. Far from being a stuffy psych book, this is a concise how-to guide to the stuff that really counts: living a life free from getting stuffed by the stuff that sucks.”

—Benjamin Schoendorff, MA, MSc, founder of the Contextual Psychology Institute in Montreal, QC, Canada; international acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer; and coauthor of the recent The Essential Guide to the ACT Matrix and The ACT Practitioner’s Guide to the Science of Compassion

“I love Stuff That Sucks ! It is a pithy, genuine, and skillful application of ACT for adolescents. As a compassion-focused therapy (CFT) practitioner, I think this book is a wonderful way to help adolescents meet the stuff that sucks in their lives with acceptance, self-compassion, and the courageous willingness to get their lives moving toward the things that matter to them. I can guarantee that I’ll be using it with my own clients. Highly recommended!”

—Russell Kolts, PhD, professor of psychology at Eastern Washington University, and author of CFT Made Simple and The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Managing Your Anger

“Undoubtedly, sometimes life sucks. It can be difficult, painful, and filled with big scary things. And within this realization, opens up a whole new way to approach these experiences—one without constant fighting and struggling with thoughts and feelings that are often out of our control. In this book, Ben brings together the cutting-edge ideas from psychology to help you mindfully choose the life you want. It’s written in a simple and fun way to make it useful for young people and parents alike. Written with wisdom and wit, this outstanding book is set to become a self-help classic.”

—Joe Oliver, PhD, director at Contextual Consulting, and coauthor of ACTivate Your Life

“In Stuff That Sucks , Ben Sedley takes the key elements of ACT, and presents them in ways that are immediately accessible, relatable, and actionable. Indeed, I would rate it as a must-have for every adolescent’s bookshelf.”

—Tiffany Rochester, clinical psychologist at The Charles Street Clinic in North Perth, Australia

“I love this book! It’s a great gift for parents to give their teenage kids, and a fantastic resource for therapists working with adolescents. Ben admirably pulls off the hat trick of making ACT simple, practical, and very entertaining. Stuff That Sucks is really stuff that rocks!”

—Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap and ACT Made Simple

“Fast-paced, fun, and useful, this book shows how to deal with stuff that sucks. It’s all scientifically based, but you’ll be having too much fun to notice. This book absolutely, positively, does not suck.”

—Steven C. Hayes, PhD, codeveloper of ACT, and author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life

“Ben Sedley has written a wonderful book for teens. A must-have for the collection.

Stuff That Sucks delivers with powerful images, clear messages on what it means to be a human, and lots of ideas for helping teens. A fabulous book.”

—Louise Hayes, PhD, coauthor of The Thriving Adolescent and Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life for Teens