Book excerpt: Here is a valuable book intended to help those occupational therapists working in mental health settings to refine their critical thinking about the group activities they select and the protocols they design. Experts focus on practicing sound clinical reasoning and clinical decision making to ensure careful assessment of which activities, structured in what fashion, are appropriate for particular populations. They also address the topic of providing services that are relevant, practical, have already delineated goals and objectives, produce outcome data, and can be replicated across settings. Group Protocols: A Psychosocial Compendium offers readers a systematic approach to the assessment and design of group protocols, plus a wide variety of sample protocols from which treatment strategies may be drawn. Because this volume represents a style of thinking rather than a singular theoretical frame of reference, it will be useful to any occupational therapist for whom groups are an essential aspect of professional practice.