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A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear ^{Top Rated}
Stanley Popovich endured his share of fear and anxiety over the years. Unable to find the help he needed, the author decided to undertake his own research. The result is "A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” - an easy to read book based on a combination of research and personal experience. The author writes:

Looking for all of the answers in how to manage your most persistent fears and anxiety? I deal with fear on a personal level and I found it difficult to find all of the answers in managing my anxieties. I read some anxiety books and talked to various professionals, however I still had trouble dealing with certain fears and anxieties. Eventually, I wrote a book that presents all of the ways to help manage those hard to manage fears and anxieties. Let me explain the process of how I found those answers.

I first went to my local bookstore to find those books that dealt with fear and anxiety. I looked for those books that reviewed the techniques in how to manage certain fears and anxieties. As I read these books, I wrote down some notes on those techniques that I found most useful in managing my fears. I noticed that each book said something different and there wasn't always a complete review of all the techniques to manage fear and anxiety. As a result, I started a notebook and every time I found a technique that was useful in managing my fears, I would write it down in my small notebook.

Secondly, I talked to various psychologists and clergyman and they provided me with additional information. Again, I would write down the information that the professionals gave me that I felt was most useful in managing these fears. The professionals were very helpful, however there were times they were not able to answer all of my questions. Although I had a lot of good information, I still had trouble dealing with certain fears and anxieties. I realized that it would have to be up to me to find the solutions to some of my problems. The first thing I did was to review my notebook of all the techniques that I learned from my research. I then started to practice using these techniques. I made it a point that every time I would experience a fearful or anxiety related situation, I would use the information in my notebook to help me. After the anxiety would go away I would write down in my notebook what techniques worked and which ones didn't work. In every anxiety related situation I experienced, I began to learn what worked, what didn't work, and what I needed to improve on in managing my fear and anxiety.At the same time, I would continue to talk to various professionals to learn and improve to become better at managing the many types of fears and anxieties. I would review what I have learned with these professionals and they would provide me with additional information so that I would be better able to deal with my fears in the future. I did this research for around fourteen years and during this time, I gained a lot of valuable information on how to manage fear and anxiety. I eventually realized that my notes contained a lot of information and personal experiences that could help a lot of other people deal with their fears. I eventually wrote a book that focuses on result oriented techniques in managing fear.

The main point of this article is that no matter how difficult it is to manage your fear and anxiety, the answers are out there if you look hard enough. It might take some hard work and persistence, but it is possible to find those techniques that work for you.


Preview Website - 28-Jul-2004 - Hits: 969 - Rate This | Details

Active Treatment of Depression ^{Top Rated}
Addressing his fellow professionals in the mental health field, O'Connor argues that the current state of understanding of the causes and treatments for depression are woefully inadequate and quite often counterproductive. He argues that no single theory can adequately explain the causes and no single treatment plan can successfully be applied universally to depressed patients. He also calls upon his colleagues to recognize that although incidents of depression may sometimes be successfully treated, all too often depression is a chronic disease that is not improved by one-time interventions of pharmaceuticals or other therapies. O'Connor advocates for an "active" treatment that holistically explores multiple causes of depression and looks to all treatment modalities to find the proper combination of methods that can be applied to each unique case.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 1255 - Rate This | Details

After Rape: Changing Faces/A Never Ending Love Story
This is a true story between the author and her boss's husband, who repeatedly sexually harasses by telephoning her constantly, and making visits to the office, threatening her to remain silent. As she continues to decline his request for sexual favors, he is determined to draw a wedge between her boss, implying that she's treating him badly, by not giving in to his sexual request and threatens her to remain silent.

She finds herself distraught, as he consistently, toys with her emotionally, until she finds herself lost and has a nervous breakdown at work. Committed to the psychiatric unit, his wife takes her personal possessions and accompanies her to the hospital. During her stay, she is diagnosed with depression and believes with medication she can cope with the situation better and looks forward to returning home to her children.

As she returns home, she realizes she does not have her key, so, she climbs through a window. That day changes her life forever! Like a animal stalking its prey, he waits and waits for an opportunity and eventually rapes her!

“Who will believe you?”, he whispers. The threats of his voice, “Don’t tell....!”

As a single parent, raising two children, the author writes the pages as she copes with silence; that changed her life forever! Part One.
Preview Website - 17-Aug-2004 - Hits: 490 - Rate This | Details

An Incomplete Education
You'll find everything you forgot from school--as well as plenty you never even learned--in this all-purpose reference book, an instant classic when it first appeared in 1987. The updated version takes a whirlwind tour through 12 different disciplines, from American studies to philosophy to world history. Along the way, Judy Jones and William Wilson provide a plethora of useful information, from the plot of Othello to the difference between fission and fusion. It's not a shortcut to cultural literacy, the authors write in their introduction, but it's an excellent "way in" to the building blocks of Western civilization: the "books, music, art, philosophy, and discoveries that have, for one reason or another, managed to endure." Think of it as finishing school for your brain; study up and you'll gain a lifetime's worth of cocktail conversation--as well as a new list of books you simply must read.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 452 - Rate This | Details

As You Desire Me ^{Top Rated}
The psychology of multiple personality
by E. T. Aul
Softcover: J.H. White Publishing Co (ISBN: 1889206253)

Divided into 15 chapters, this is a very personal, detailed account of one woman's life living with multiple personality disorder. Certainly an interesting and insightful journey, this book lets others who also have this problem know they are not alone. Clinicians might enjoy the book from the "other side" perspective. 232 pages.
Preview Website - 2-Apr-2000 - Hits: 705 - Rate This | Details

Authentic Happiness: Using Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential ^{Top Rated}
Over a decade ago, Martin Seligman charted a new approach to living with "flexible optimism." Now, in his most stimulating and persuasive book to date, the bestselling author of Learned Optimism introduces the revolutionary, scientifically based idea of "Positive Psychology." Positive Psychology focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses, asserting that happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Seligman teaches readers that happiness can be cultivated by identifying and using many of the strengths and traits that they already possess - including kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity. By frequently calling upon their "signature strengths" in all the crucial realms of life, readers will not only develop natural buffers against misfortune and the experience of negative emotion, they will move their lives up to a new, more positive plane. Drawing on groundbreaking psychological research, Seligman shows how Positive Psychology is shifting the profession's paradigm away from its narrow-minded focus on pathology, victimology, and mental illness to positive emotion, virtue and strength, and positive institutions. Our signature strengths can be nurtured throughout our lives, with benefits to our health, relationships, and careers. Seligman provides the Signature Strengths Survey along with a variety of brief tests that can be used to measure how much positive emotion readers experience, in order to help determine what their highest strengths are. The life-changing lesson of Authentic Happiness is that by identifying the very best in ourselves, we can improve the world around us and achieve new and sustainable levels of authentic contentment, gratification, and meaning.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 798 - Rate This | Details

Being Digital
As the founder of MIT's Media Lab and a popular columnist for Wired, Nicholas Negroponte has amassed a following of dedicated readers. Negroponte's fans will want to get a copy of Being Digital, which is an edited version of the 18 articles he wrote for Wired about "being digital." Negroponte's text is mostly a history of media technology rather than a set of predictions for future technologies. In the beginning, he describes the evolution of CD-ROMs, multimedia, hypermedia, HDTV (high-definition television), and more. The section on interfaces is informative, offering an up-to-date history on visual interfaces, graphics, virtual reality (VR), holograms, teleconferencing hardware, the mouse and touch-sensitive interfaces, and speech recognition.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 287 - Rate This | Details

Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families ^{Top Rated}
In this book for persons with bipolar disorder and their families, Dr. Frank Mondimore offers a comprehensive and compassionate guide to the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and causes of this potentially devastating psychiatric illness, formerly known as "manic-depression." He offers practical advice for getting the most out of the various treatments that are now available - from medication, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive treatment to new approaches such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. For each, he discusses advantages, disadvantages, side effects, and other information to help patients make informed decisions about treatment options. He also describes what it is like to live with bipolar disorder and discusses how lifestyle changes can improve quality of life. Throughout, he focuses on the importance of building a support system, of planning for emergencies, and of giving one's self permission to seek help.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 983 - Rate This | Details

Call Me Crazy ^{Top Rated}
Everyone knows Anne Heche most famously from her role as half of the Ellen DeGeneres/Anne Heche gay couple. Yes, she's starred in a few movies, some of which have done well, others not so much, from her background as a soap opera star. So it was a bit disappointing to pick up this book and read it from cover to cover only to discover so little written about the years she was with Ellen DeGeneres. Only after page 211 (of a 248 page book) do we get about a dozen pages of her life with Ellen, and that only as a fleeting, passive description.

Okay, I understand. This is a book about a woman (who just happens to be famous) who has dealt with years of abuse as a child and many more years as a young adult desperately trying to come to terms with that abuse and her own sense of self. So if you pick up this book to want to read more about "Ellen-n-Anne" (as she refers to that time in her life), don't; no beans are spilled and little insight is given as to how Anne so easily fell into a lesbian relationship as readily as she fell into a traditional marriage shortly after their breakup.

What the reader does find is over 200 pages of Anne's personal life, laid bare for all to digest. Included in this journey is her childhood, her time as a soap star, and all the relationships inbetween. It isn't so much a coherent telling of someone's life story... Rather it is more of a personal account of someone's life, told in the way people tell the story of their life. Details are important, feelings are emphasized, and a cogent connection from point A to point B are often glossed over. And that's okay, because this wasn't written in conjunction with some ghost writer -- these are Heche's own words. Raw, emotional, and focusing on what was (or is) important to her.

This book seems as much to act as form of therapy for Heche (who spent much time in therapy as an adult) as it a telling of her life story. In the forward, she tells the reader that she hopes by sharing her story with us, others will not have to live through the living hell of child abuse with as much difficulty as she did. It is a noble reason to write such a book, and I hope that readers who have gone through childhood abuse take some strength from her story. That it is possible to survive the abuse, to make it through life, and come out the other side whole, stronger, intact, and full of life and love.

At times, admittedly corny and heart-felt, the book is a genuine unique work of art. I think Heche sums it up best when she writes, "I hope that people get the courage to talk about their abuse before they find themselves wandering through dark caves of insanity and into the homes of strangers seeking God."
Preview Website - 5-Apr-2003 - Hits: 395 - Rate This | Details

Counseling in Genderland
by Niela Miller
Different Path Press (ISBN: 0-9626262-6-0)

This is an excellent beginner's guide for any therapist who is working with a transgendered client for the very first time. It is comprehensive in its breadth and is well-written in an easy-going and straight-forward style. It begins in the first section of the book dealing with initial engagement of the client who is trying to explore their gender identity. These individuals face a number of unique issues that are often found in clients who present with other problems in living. Stages of development and the client's agenda is also discussed in this section, among other topics.

In the second section of the book, the author offers a wide range of techniques and helpful ideas on how to best address therapy with transgendered clients. She spends a fair amount of time discussing experiential methods, including visual imagery, dreams and fantasies in this section, as well as body signals and role playing. Group work is also touched upon. The third section of the book discusses relationships, including some help for couples and helping the client inform others of their transformation.

In the fourth section, the author presents three case histories, including a cross-dressing husband and wife and two transsexuals. The last section deals with future trends in counseling with this population. The Appendix includes bibliographies on gender and humanistic, Jungian and dream topics, as well as a brief description of humanistic psychology. There is also a list of gender-related resources. If there is one failing in this book, it is only that it doesn't go into enough depth and detail with some of the topics. It does draw on the author's own rich experiences in working with these people, though, which easily makes up for it. 200 pages, softcover, large print.
Preview Website - 5-Apr-2000 - Hits: 545 - Rate This | Details

Cult Information Recovery Resouces and Books
An independent bookstore offering a selection of books, videos, brochures, and reports on psychological manipulation and abuse, cults, new religious movements, sects, the new age movement, and others.
Preview Website - 5-Feb-2002 - Hits: 404 - Rate This | Details

Dealing with Children's Mental Health
A publishing company specializing in illustrated books that help children learn about mental disorders and illness.
Preview Website - 22-May-2001 - Hits: 472 - Rate This | Details

Depression is a Choice
In our culture, it is taken as an unquestionable fact that depression is a disease, that it is quite common, and that it is the explanation for everything from lethargy to conditions and actions that are much more serious. In her thoughtful and at times explosive new book, A. B. Curtiss takes a look at these assumptions, exploring them from a philosophical, psychological, and often a deeply personal point of view. She tells us that for many, depression is a choice. Using a technique the author labels "directed thinking," Curtiss creates a road map for converting the energy we put into being depressed into a strength that can ultimately lead us out of depression.

As someone who has suffered from depression herself, and who is also a practicing psychotherapist, Curtiss is uniquely qualified to pose these questions. For example, she asks whether, in the name of depression, we excuse ourselves of responsibility in certain areas of our lives. While acknowledging the seriousness of depression, she asks whether at times we falsely classify what we are feeling as depression, the disease, when in fact we are simply experiencing the difficulties that are part and parcel of the human condition, part of the process of living.

Curtiss suggests that we are living in a culture that is deeply "psychologized," and that psychological terms and perspectives have become so imbedded in who we are and how we categorize people and things that at times we may rest on those categories, and therefore give up the chance to overcome them, on our own.

Curtiss takes the available research on depression and the brain, and makes a convincing case that just as individuals who are depressed reside in their depression -- to the point where it becomes their focus -- that focus can be turned on its head and into a determination to find our way out.

The book's website (see below) will put you in touch with some entirely new thinking about depression which began with the publication of the book Depression is a Choice: Winning the Battle without Drugs by A. B. Curtiss. On this site you can read some of the latest writings about depression from many thinkers who look beyond prescription drugs for a cure for depression; thinkers like Paul McHugh, Psychiatrist-in-Chief of Johns Hopkins University, and Martin E. Seligman, the father of positive psychology. On this site you will find some helpful do's and don'ts for when depression hits. You will also find a section of mental exercises that can help change the habitual neuronal connections in your brain which contribute to depression.

You can also visit this book's website at www.depressionisachoice.com.
Preview Website - 1-Jul-2002 - Hits: 902 - Rate This | Details

depressionmanaged.com
"FIGHT YOUR DARK SHADOW: Managing Depression with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy" explains depression, the symptoms and how to manage it an easy to read format with colourful cartoons visualising each topic. This book is an ideal resource for patients of all ages suffering from depression and for their families and carers to better understand the problem.
Preview Website - 21-Apr-2008 - Hits: 21 - Rate This | Details

Do One Thing Different ^{Top Rated}
Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life
By Bill O'Hanlon

You can move quickly from "stuck" to "smooth sailing" in all aspects of your life using Bill O'Hanlon's ten easy Solution Keys, Humorous, direct, and effective, they help you change how you view and "do" your problems-from difficult relationships to enhancing sexuality and resolving conflicts of all kinds. The next time you have a problem, try one of these solution Keys: Break Problem Patter: Change any one of what you usually do in the problem situation-i.e. do one thing different! Example: If you usually get angry and defensive, sit quietly and listen.

Find and Use Solution Pattern: Import solutions from other situations where you felt competent. Examples: what do you know on the golf course that you forget when you get behind the wheel of your car? What do you say to resolve a problem with an angry customer that you don't say to your angry partner?

Shift Your Attention: Focus what you would like to have happen rather than on what is happening.

Grounded in therapeutic practice, this bold and funny book will put you back in control of your emotions and your life.
Preview Website - 29-Mar-2005 - Hits: 677 - Rate This | Details

Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life ^{Top Rated}
The theory behind the title of this book is solution-oriented therapy. Rather than probing the past and analyzing causes and effects of psychological problems and troubles, therapist O'Hanlon advises making changes in behavior in the present in order to feel better sooner rather than later. Using 10 "solution keys," he challenges readers to focus on the here and now and adjust behavior to change the situation. The author uses plenty of examples to show solution-oriented therapy in action. There is something to be said for taking action in times of trouble rather than wallowing in the many negative feelings that arise.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 896 - Rate This | Details

Doing Psychotherapy Effectively.
Psychotherapy is a $2.5 billion business in the United States, but no one can answer the basic questions of how therapy works. No watchdog groups rank therapists for potential consumers; no one school of thought has proven to be superior to another. And no method has emerged for determining what makes therapy successful for some but not for others. Doing Psychotherapy Effectively proposes much-needed answers to the puzzling questions of what therapists actually do when they are effective. Mona Sue Weissmark and Daniel A. Giacomo offer a unique mode of evaluation that focuses not on a particular school of therapy but on the relationship between therapist and patient. Successful therapy follow a pattern of behaviors that can be identified and quantified. as the authors demonstrate through clinical research and videotaped sessions of expert therapists. Likewise, positive changes in the patient, observed through client feedback and case studies, can be described operationally. Weissmark and Giacomo explain and ground these principles in the practice of psychotherapy, making Doing Psychotherapy Effectively an accessible and pragmatic work which will give readers a tool for measuring therapeutic effectiveness and further understanding human transformation.
Preview Website - 11-Dec-2001 - Hits: 413 - Rate This | Details

Dr. David Reuben's Quick Weight-Gain Program ^{Top Rated}
Safe, easy weight gain for every age and situation
by Dr. David Reuben

You won't find too many books on the market today telling people how to safely and easily gain weight, but this is one of them. Dr. Reuben walks people through the steps of how to tell if you're underweight, to discussing weight-gain strategies and how to pick the right foods. Throughout, he informs the reader with interesting and useful tidbits of information. It drives the reader to want more and Dr. Reuben easily meets our needs -- not only providing more information but also more healthier eating tips.

Dr. Reuben discusses the 17 secrets of putting on pounds fast within this book, as well as offering a few recipes and menus for suggested eating habits. Includes a chapter on how to help your child put on weight through behavioral techniques and another chapter specifically written for older adults. The Appendix includes information on how to calculate your Body Mass Index the easy way. This book was filled with useful and accurate information and is readily recommended for anyone looking for help in gaining weight. It may not work for everyone, but Dr. Reuben offers such sensible tips that it's worth giving a try. Indexed. 217 pages, hardcover.
Preview Website - 4-May-2000 - Hits: 1267 - Rate This | Details

Dr. Tom Linden's Guide to Online Medicine
by Tom Linden, M.D. and Michelle L. Kienholz
McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-038055-4)

What can I say about this book? It offers a personal guide to many, many medical resources found available online, including the big commercial services. And it doesn't limit itself to just the Web, but includes discussion groups as well as regional BBS's that address specific problems and disorders. It's a fascinating travel guide to the online world, and offers step-by-step "how-to's" for the beginner. It even breaks up the monotony of simply listing resources by offering personal reviews of each resource, as well as personal stories by the people who maintain or use the resources (including yours truly).

Preview Website - 4-May-2000 - Hits: 379 - Rate This | Details

Dr. Weisinger's Anger Work-Out Book ^{Top Rated}
by Hendrie D. Weisinger
William Morrow & Co (ISBN: 0688041140)

My favorite recommended workbook for people who are looking for effective, down-to-Earth strategies for learning to cope with their anger. The approach is hands-on, so be prepared to do some writing and actively put into practice the suggestions and exercises the author outlines in every chapter.

The author explains how anger works in our lives, how it perpetuates, and how to recognize it not only in your own life, but in others as well. Once you begin to recognize the types of things which make you angry ("triggers"), the author provides helpful exercises to find more effective ways of expressing your feelings, controlling, or reducing the anger.

The great thing about this book is that these are all skills you could easily learn in therapy.

Preview Website - 4-May-2000 - Hits: 719 - Rate This | Details

Essentials of Private Practice ^{Top Rated}
Essentials of Private Practice: Streamlining Costs, Procedures, and Policies for Less Stress
Author: Holly A. Hunt, Ph.D.

This book offers mental health professionals a valuable resource in establishing and maintaining their practices. This highly useful information is not typically provided in graduate programs or continuing education courses. Practical suggestions will help practitioners achieve a successful practice by increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Three main strategies are emphasized: lowering overhead expenses, simplifying daily procedures, and implementing efficient client policies. Along with nuts-and bolts information on simplifying insurance paperwork, managing appointments, and handling billing, readers will learn how to keep more income, preserve their time and energy, and minimize stress in their day-to-day practice. These streamlining steps require less investment of resources compared to marketing efforts, and promote financial viability whether working full-time or part-time, seeing insured and/or self-pay clients. W.W. Norton & Co, 2005, $18.95, ISBN 0-393-70448-3.

Learn more about the book at the author's website: http://essentialsofprivatepractice.com/.
Preview Website - 4-Mar-2005 - Hits: 287 - Rate This | Details

Evening Sessions
A website with excerpts from and description of EVENING SESSIONS WITH DR PRIESTLY, a new book about the power of psychoanalysis to heal, as told by a patient.
Preview Website - 1-Apr-2008 - Hits: 15 - Rate This | Details

Evening Sessions with Dr Priestly
Written by an analysand, EVENING SESSIONS WITH DR PRIESTLY is a vivid portrait not only of the transforming experience psychoanalysis can be but also of the connection between personal and universal myths. Bringing the reader into the dreams and sessions of a patient who begins as dreamless and spiritually lacking, the work reveals how in the course of treatment, the patient is able to to dream a sequence of sometimes breathtaking archetypal dreams. The imagery of her dreams and visions---with its unusual twist on Exodus and Passover, the binding of Isaac, the story of Jacob and the Angel, Rachel and the stolen idols, and the crucifixion/resurrection of Jesus-- offers the patient a transcendent parallel narrative to her own exile from self and her ultimate coming into being.
Preview Website - 6-May-2008 - Hits: 5 - Rate This | Details

Everything You Always Wanted to Ask Your Gynecologist
by Dr. R. Scott Thornton and Dr. Kathleen Schramm
Houghton Mifflin Co. (ISBN: 0395892627)

This well-written guide provides answers to over 200 questions commonly asked by women. Sixteen easy-to-read chapters cover every gynelogical concern, from menarche to menopause. Dr. Scott Thornton, a gynecologist, and his wife, Dr. Kathleen Schramm, a psychiatrist, provide a unique perspective on women's health, answering such commonly asked questions as How should I choose a gynecologist?, What can I do if I have PMS?, and When will I reach menopause?. This book is highly recommended for any woman interested in knowing how her body works. These down-to-earth explanations are sure to dispel many of the myths and misconceptions that have been passed down through many generations.

Preview Website - 4-May-2000 - Hits: 930 - Rate This | Details

Family Therapy and Mental Health Innovations in Theory and Practice, Edited by Malcolm M. MacFarlane, Haworth Press, 2001
This book explores the application of family therapy approaches to the treatment of a variety of mental health problems. A variety of treatment modalities are used with patients and their families to address these problems, including family psychoeducational approaches, the McMaster Model, cognitive behavioral family therapy, brief therapy, and systemic and narrative approaches. Each chapter of Family Therapy and Mental Health examines the gender and cultural issues that are relevant to the population and model it describes, and includes a case example. In addition, each chapter describes how the model is integrated with psychiatric services and examines the use of medication in each case. This volume presents a variety of family therapy approaches to conditions that include: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, suicide, and addictions. There are also complete chapters describing family therapy approaches to special issues such as: women and mental health, brain injury, and aging The text of Family Therapy and Mental Health: Innovations in Theory and Practice is written with a strong clinical focus and will be helpful and informative for frontline clinicians as well as students in graduate programs. The book's broad range, covering the mental health issues that clinicians typically encounter in the real world, ensures that they will find information they can use today and every day, and wisdom that students can carry with them through their careers.
Preview Website - 10-Oct-2003 - Hits: 352 - Rate This | Details

Family Treatment of Personality Disorders: Advances in Clinical Practice, Edited by Malcolm M. MacFarlane, Haworth Press
This book examines the application of marital and family therapy approaches to the treatment of a wide range of personality disorders. Valuable on its own and doubly useful as a companion volume to Family Therapy and Mental Health: Innovations in Theory and Practice (Haworth), the book integrates traditional individual models with family systems models to provide a multidimensional approach to treating personality disorders. Each chapter is written by a family therapist with extensive experience treating personality disorders and includes a case example, an exploration of the impact of the disorder on family members, a look at cultural and gender issues, and an examination of how the model is integrated with traditional psychiatric services and the use of medication. Family Treatment of Personality Disorders is a single, accessible source for significant contributions to the emerging literature on family treatment approaches that, until now, have been scattered through journals representing a variety of disciplines. The book’’s strong clinical focus provides a concise summary of relevant theory and interventions for effective treatment, including discussion of how to manage crises and acting out behavior. Edited by a practicing frontline clinician, the book provides an overview of the personality disorders field, examines the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model and the Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy approach, and presents detailed descriptions of key concepts and treatment approaches. Family Treatment of Personality Disorders focuses on specific DSM-IV personality disorders, including: borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, obsessive-compulsive, passive-aggressive, avoidant, dependent and paranoid. A solid resource for clinicians treating mental health problems and for academic work in family psychopathology and family therapy and mental health.
Preview Website - 10-Oct-2003 - Hits: 533 - Rate This | Details

Feeling Good Handbook ^{Top Rated}
Depression is a crippling and often misunderstood disorder in today's society. While many people advocate a purely medical model of this problem (and label it a "disease," like cancer), others find it more helpful to explore the depths of depression and other possible causes. Since medication isn't right for everyone with this disorder, and not everyone can afford to attend weekly therapy sessions, David Burns has written a book for those people looking to help themselves through this disorder.

This excellent how-to manual leads people who are depressed on a journey of understanding and self-discovery. Beginning with an easy to read and understand overview of the cognitive theory of what causes people to become depressed, it goes on to discuss the multitude of methods and techniques used to help treat depression. You don't have to believe in everything the cognitive theory of depression tells us about this disorder to attain a great deal of benefit from the techniques found throughout the book. The daily homework assignments coupled with the elaboration of the kinds of cognitive mistakes everyone makes everyday (for instance, overgeneralizing one bad thing which happens to you to mean that you are a bad person) are especially helpful. It is really chock full of useful and down-to-earth explanations and things which people can do everyday to try and help themselves. Based upon Aaron Beck's cognitive work in researching depression.

This book is on my bookshelf for good reason. It is not only a good read once, but you can pick it up time and time again to reference and refer to items which you may have forgotten. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is currently suffering for depression, or as a gift to someone who you know is suffering from this terrible disorder. While not everything in it may make sense to everyone who reads it, there is really something for almost anybody who suffers from depression. Softcover, 220 pages.
Preview Website - 5-Apr-2000 - Hits: 1097 - Rate This | Details

Find the Love of Your Life
A Step-by-step guide to finding a great love relationship, the book is based on strategies the author used to find her husband, plus other real-life strategies. "I met Dave, just three weeks after I created a powerful goal to find a great love relationship. Three weeks! And then I learned that he was blind - which taught me to be careful what you ask for! But always ask!" Readers are taught to create their own goals for love, clarifying what they really want in their relationship, healing past relationships that might be getting in their way, and affirming and rehearsing their best selves to attract the love they want. The book is additionally poignant because the author's husband died suddenly just after the manuscript was completed. The book contains a touching tribute to his memory and the lasting legacy of his love.
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 553 - Rate This | Details

Fostering Changes: Treating Attachment-Disordered Foster Children
"'Fostering Changes' is an excellent resource for training foster parents. It gives a clear, easily understood format for foster parents that want to learn more about the children in their care." - Bonnie McNulty, Foster Parent for 33 years, Region VIII Vice-President of National Foster Parent Association, CEO of Presidio, Inc. "It would have been great to have had this book five years ago, when I started foster care. It is such a useful tool for sorting out the many odd behaviors, not normally experienced in society's so-called normal homes."
Preview Website - 7-Jan-2003 - Hits: 453 - Rate This | Details

Freedom From Fear Forever
by Dr. James V. Durlacher, Roger J. Callahan, & Guy McGill
1st Edition (ISBN: 0964571315)

Billed as the "21st Century alternative technique effectively eliminating your fears, phobias, anxieties, addictions, post-traumatic stress and self-sabotage and those of your family and friends," I can't vouch for any of the techniques (since I haven't used them!). I can say, however, that this was a very interesting book to read, putting forth easy-to-understand theories about these problems in life and some alternative methods for healing them. I liked it because it wasn't filled with technical jargon and offered helpful illustrations and pictures of some of the techniques. I can't say I agree with everything the author has to say about these problems and their respective causes, but if you're looking for something different and holistic in treatment, try this book.
Preview Website - 27-Mar-2000 - Hits: 696 - Rate This | Details