self-help and pop psychology...ok, mental health as a whole...have definite short comings. I don't really have a whole lot to add. I used to have severe anxiety, and a book a counselor recommended to me back in the day took a similar approach, and...nah. not so much.

A lot of psychology and psychiatry seem to have religious, moral elements. Thomas Szasz wrote about this extensively. Just because someone is an "expert" in mental health--which our culture regards as "scientific"--does not mean that their opinion is any more "scientific" (or valid) than, say, a Pentecostal minister's opinions+worldview.