**sites:
 

APA Help Center (American Psychological Assn.)  "offers information on coping with job insecurity and stress, family situations, the 'mind-body connection', mental health conditions, therapy and how to find a psychologist."

A.R.T.S. Anonymous  (Artists Recovering through the Twelve Steps)  "a fellowship of artists who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may recover from their common problem and help others to surrender to their creativity."

At Health  mental health resources

The Center for Highly Sensitive People

Counseling the Gifted

The Myth of the Gifted... To many, giftedness means a person has a special level of intelligence, which somehow makes them better than others. The myth then continues, and accuses any program devoted to the development of the gifted, of elitism, since it is expected that the gifted can take care of themselves, and extra help is just heaping unfair advantage onto unfair advantage.

The Reality... Gifted people do have special needs. While a person may be brilliant in the area of their gifts, rarely is a person gifted across the board. Gifted people often have difficulties in school, relationships, work, life in general. The gifted are likely to suffer from the frustrating ability to imagine the world in general, and their lives in particular, much greater than they are. Everything about the gifted makes them more complex. And gifted people need help navigating and succeeding in that complex life.   [site of Shulamit Widawsky, Educational Therapist]

Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center  "dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. We provide information about, and treatment resources for all forms of eating disorders. Our goal is to promote social attitudes that enhance healthy body image."

Educational Options - site of Deborah L. Ruf, PhD - "is about meeting the social, emotional, and academic needs of the intellectually gifted... people who do not fit the norms. It is about families, children, adolescents, and adults who have found this web site because something is not right... and it is the emotions, not the school or job performance, that tipped you off."

E-IQ Test (emotional intelligence) by Daniel Goleman [Utne Reader, Nov/Dec '95]

Existential Psychotherapy - "a form of psychotherapy which aims at enhancing self-knowledge in the client and allowing them to be the author of their own lives... Its philosophical roots are to be found in the works of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre and other existential thinkers as well as Husserl and phenomenologists.

Feminist Psychology and Psychoanalysis

Internet Mental Health
 
 

 
<< related video: A Message of Hope   "Documents certain effective natural medical treatments,
especially orthomolecular concepts, for psychiatric disorders."
 
 

Mastering Stress    program created by Roger L. Gould, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA - computer assisted counseling - "..help thinking clearly and systematically about whatever is bothering you... This program will guide and stimulate you to: Look at your problems from different perspectives; Recognize that you have options; Choose appropriate actions.."

The National Empowerment Center  "The mission... is to carry a message of recovery, empowerment, hope and healing to people who have been diagnosed with mental illness. We carry that message with authority because we are a consumer/survivor/expatient-run organization and each of us is living a personal journey of recovery and empowerment."

National Institute of Mental Health

Origami & Mental Health Therapy

The Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA)

A Philosophical Counseling Website - Peter B. Raabe, Ph.D.    'More than two thousand years ago Epicurus characterized philosophy as "therapy of the soul." He maintained that the arguments made by a philosopher are just empty if they do not relieve any human suffering. ... Philosophical counselors know that the majority of people are quite capable of resolving most of their problems on a day-to-day basis either by themselves or with the help of significant others. It is when problems become too complex -- as, for example, when values seem to conflict, when facts appear contradictory, when reasoning about a problem becomes trapped within a circle, or when life seems unexpectedly meaningless -- that a trained philosopher can be of greater help than the average friend or family member. The philosophical counselor often deals with individuals who are dissatisfied with other forms of counseling they have had. She sees individuals whose minds are sound but whose thinking is confused or obstructed. The philosophical counselor understands that most individuals live by many unexamined (rather than unconscious) assumptions and values that can affect thinking and behavior in puzzling or distressing ways."

RAINN  the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network

Therapist Coach Institute
"an advanced coach training school specializing in transforming psychologists, therapists and counselors to become world-class executive and business coaches.
 

~ ~ ~ ~

*articles:
 

A Couch for Authors in Need of One by Phoebe Hoban [NY Times]
But for those tortured souls whose highest-priority creative opus is not so much their writing as themselves, the Lucy Daniels Foundation here has created a different kind of refuge. ... a program that provides subsidized psychoanalysis for an unlimited time. It is a sort of writers' colony for the mind.

Arousing the Sleeping Giant: Giftedness in Adult Psychotherapy - by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen
As adults proceed through various stages of development, they inevitably seek a clearer sense of identity, integration, and purpose. Such tasks are replete with difficulties, particularly for those gifted adults whose drive toward realization is obstructed by mistaken self-concepts...      [Mary-Elaine Jacobsen is author of book The Gifted Adult : A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius]

Breathing Out Stage Fright  - by Linda Dessau

Counseling Issues with Recognized and Unrecognized Gifted Adults by Mary Rocamora
This article describes the issues most frequently encountered in therapy with gifted and talented adults, particularly those in the performing arts. A distinction is drawn between those clients who knew they were gifted and those who at first did not.

If You're So Smart, Why Do You Need Counseling?  by Deborah L. Ruf, PhD "A reasonably clear perception of self appears to be one prerequisite to advanced emotional development. For people who are outside the norm in any significant way, as gifted people are, obtaining accurate feedback about their abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and the acceptability of their personality characteristics is difficult. The current article gives examples of the confusing feedback that many gifted adults received during their childhoods, feedback that was often so harmful or confusing as to jeopardize the subjects' sense of both purpose and value. Such examples reveal some of the issues counselors of the gifted need to address in order to assist their clients toward the achievement of more accurate self-concepts and support them as they try to find meaning, purpose, and higher-level emotional development."

Metaphor and Image in Counseling the Talented  by Jane Piirto, Ph.D. "This example from my own life as an artist illustrates the use of metaphor in healing, and in creation. A metaphor stands for something else. It is symbolic. An image is a visual or aural representation that is metaphoric. Often these are coded. A code is a language that transmits a message. Creating metaphors and images that may be coded in ways the makers don't even realize, permits the emotion to be changed, to be released through a safe and therapeutic means."

Mis-Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children: Gifted and LD,
ADHD, OCD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder - By James T. Webb, Ph.D.
Many gifted and talented children (and adults) are being mis-diagnosed by psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other health care professionals.

Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy by Arthur J. Deikman, M.D.
Psychotherapy arose in response to human suffering, and, as far as we can tell, human suffering has always existed. The ancient lineage of psychotherapy is seldom appreciated because Western culture considers psychotherapy as a relatively recent development of psychiatry, one of its subdivisions. If we define psychotherapy as the treatment of mental distress through psychological means, we find records of such practices from the origins of civilization whenever priests, shamans, and witch doctors appear. .... Arthur J. Deikman is author of book The Observing Self

Reflections on Counseling Gifted Adults by Annemarie Roeper, Ed.D.
Even though I have worked with gifted people for many years, I continue to be surprised by the most unexpected expressions of intensity, passions, gentleness, empathy, and creativity as well as frustration, disappointment, and a certain puzzlement at the strangeness of the world. All these emotions exist in the Soul, the Self of the individual, which must try to find a place for itself in this most confusing world. Gifted people see life in the most brilliant colors and are capable of the greatest joy and the greatest desperation. They try to build all this into a functioning Self. [reprint from Advanced Development Journal, Volume 8, 1999]

Social & Emotional Needs of the Gifted (Adults and Children)  by Deborah L. Ruf, PhD "An intellectually gifted child begins life receiving feedback that she is a surprising delight to her family. She receives positive feedback for her speech and vocabulary and for how quickly she figures things out and learns to do things. I believe many gifted people spend much of their remaining life trying to recreate this positive feedback and wondering what they are doing wrong."

Sufism and Psychiatry by Arthur J. Deikman, M.D.
The questions, "What is the purpose of living?" and "Why do I exist?" haunt modern Western civilization and the absence of an adequate answer to them has given rise to the "illness" of meaninglessness or anomie. Psychiatrists, themselves, are afflicted with this same illness, partly because the problem of the meaning of life is solved by a special type of perception rather than by logic-psychiatry is trapped by its commitment to rationalism. Sufism, on the other hand, is a tradition devoted to the development of the higher intuitive capacity needed to deal with this issue. By taking advantage of the special science of the Sufis, Western civilization may be able to extricate itself from its dilemma and contribute to the development of man's full capacities. / Arthur J. Deikman is author of book The Observing Self

Tips for Selecting the Right Counselor or Therapist for Your Gifted Child - by James T. Webb, Ph.D.
"When should one seek counseling? Is it worth it? How do I find a counselor/therapist? ... Here are some helpful tips."
 

~ ~ ~

 

--books:
 
 

Elaine Aron.  The Highly Sensitive Person's Workbook

James F. T. Bugental Psychotherapy Isn't What You Think - Bringing the Psychotherapeutic Engagement into the Living Moment

David Burns  The Feeling Good Handbook
[amazon.com review:] "Dr. David Burns is one of the prime developers of cognitive therapy, a fast-acting, drug-free treatment for designed to help the clinically depressed. In The Feeling Good Handbook, he adapts cognitive therapy to deal with the wide range of everyday problems that plague so many (chronic nervousness, panic attacks, phobias, and feelings of stress, guilt, or inferiority)... Filled with charts, quizzes, weekly self-assessment tests, and a daily mood log, The Feeling Good Handbook actively engages its readers in their own recovery."

Paula Caplan  They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal  [interview]

Richard Carlson  You Can Feel Good Again : Common-Sense Therapy for Releasing Depression and Changing Your Life

Phyllis Chesler  Women and Madness   [from The WomanSource Catalog & Review:] "The single most important work on women and mental "health" and "illness," this book has revolutionized psychiatry since its publication in 1972. It is not an exaggeration to say that Phyllis Chesler gave birth to what is now known as feminist therapy through her analysis of how patriarchy shapes our definitions of madness, and of how psychiatry is used as a form of social control. What she shows is that women are defined as mad when they deviate from sex role stereotyping; that sex, class, race and marital status affect the likelihood of a woman being diagnosed as mad, and further determine her actual diagnosis or "type" of madness."

Chin-Ning Chu  Do Less, Achieve More   [book quotes from newsletter of Life On Purpose www.lifeonpurpose.com] "Letting go of your emotions doesn't mean to avoid feeling them or suppressing them. Suppressing your emotions can be harmful to your health, resulting in a myriad of physical ailments including heart disease, strokes and ulcers. Instead of suppressing your emotions, become unattached to them. How? One of the most effective ways I've found to become unattached to an upset is to actually 'cause' it. Having something happen that results in your automatically being upset is different from recognizing the upset and causing it in a responsible manner."

Alyce Faye Cleese, Brian Bates How to Manage Your Mother: Understanding the Most Difficult, Complicated, and Fascinating Relationship in Your Life [reader:] "Through the stories of the lives of famous public figures and unknowns alike, the writing of Alyce Faye Cleese and Brian Bates evokes painfully poignant as well as hilariously funny memories of childhood - you will shed tears of nostalgia and of joy. Whether you loved your mother or hated her, this book is for you. For me, it made sense of not only my relationship with my mother, but put my relationship with my own children in perspective too."

Signe A. Dayhoff.  Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe: Working Through Social Anxiety   "Self-help psychology book on social anxiety that addresses the sufferers' everyday needs and issues, writtenby a psychologist and former sufferer."

Arthur J. Deikman.  The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy
"Imagine that our awareness is a pond connected by a narrow outlet to the ocean. At the mouth of the outlet there is a standing wave -- the survival self -- that blocks the ocean currents from entering the pond. As the survival self subsides, more and more of the ocean currents can gain access to the pond which then begins to resonate with the ocean. The pond then 'knows' the ocean by resonating with it, in part becoming it." [Deikman is clinical prof. of psychiatry, UC San Francisco Medical Center]

John Donahue  Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom   [from book:] "The unconscious is a powerful and continuous presence. Every life lives out of and struggles with this inner night, which casts its challenging and fecund shadow over everything we do and think and feel. We are earthen vessels that hold the treasure. Yet, aspects of the treasure are darker and more dangerous than we allow ourselves to imagine. When the unconscious becomes illuminated, its darker forces no longer hold us prisoner. This work of freedom is slow and unpredictable; yet it is precisely at this threshold that each individual is the custodian and subject of their own transfiguration."

Mark Epstein. Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective   "Drawing upon his own experience as therapist, meditator and patient, Mark Epstein, a New York-based psychiatrist trained in classical Freudian methods, attempts to integrate Western psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism. Repressed memories, painful emotions, narcissism and destructive energies can all be uprooted through Buddha's teaching on suffering, delusion, wisdom and non-attachment. Epstein argues that in recognizing his or her self-created mental suffering, a patient can overcome neurotic behaviors and even overcome a deeply ingrained negative sense of self."

Lisa A. Firestone, PhD et al. Creating a Life of Meaning and Compassion: The Wisdom of Psychotherapy

Peter Fonagy, et al.  Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self

Bonnie Friedman. The Thief of Happiness : The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy

Frank Furedi. Therapeutic Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age
With its criticisms of the 'growth industry' of counselling and the spread of concepts such as 'self-esteem', the book has received strong interest across the political spectrum in the UK, and will be welcomed on both sides of the Atlantic by people disturbed by aspects of our shrink society. But as Furedi says, 'even many people who kick against therapy culture are prepared to use it' - and Therapy Culture is rather more than just another anti-counselling critique.

Furedi has for some time been concerned about the rise of emotionalism in politics and culture. But the problem, he insists, is not only that today's society celebrates emotion above achievement and reason - it's that it has created a regime that 'praises some emotions and stigmatises others', creating an authoritarian and destructive dynamic.

And Therapy Culture does not focus simply on the charlatans and crackpot theories within the profession. 'Every movement has its parasites', says Furedi, but the real problem with therapy is not its aberrances, but the way it 'most systematically expresses cultural norms'. To put this in non-academic speak: today's society has made therapy into a way of life, and that's what needs to be challenged.
    from review article Hooked on self-esteem - by Jennie Bristow, spiked-online.com, 13 October 2003

Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, et al. Does Psychoanalysis Work?

Barbara Ganim  Art and Healing : Using Expressive Art to Heal Your Body, Mind, and Spirit    "Artists have always known intuitively what science is just beginning to discover: that creating a visual image through any medium can produce physical and emotional benefits for both the creator as well as those who view it. Most important, you don't need to think of yourself as an artist or even believe you have any "talent" to tap into the healing powers of art."

Daniel Goleman  Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ for Character, Health and Lifelong Achievement

Daniel Goleman Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions and Health

Daniel Goleman  Vital Lies Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception

Daniel Goleman  Working With Emotional Intelligence

Miriam Greenspan  New Approach to Women and Therapy    "..Greenspan tells of her own experiences in therapy and those of many of her patients. These stories clearly illustrate how treatment approaches based on traditional male attitudes pathologize and devalue women. This critical study does more than expose the failures of male-biased psychotherapy-it offers a positive alternative treatment model which recognizes women's emotional pain and is based on an empowering therapeutic relationship. .. gives several case examples of feminist treatment techniques, explaining the rationale behind each and assisting readers in the search for a therapist who subscribes to them."

Jeanine Grobe.  Beyond Bedlam: Contemporary Women Psychiatric Survivors Speak Out

Linda H. Hamilton  Advice for Dancers: Emotional Counsel and Practical Strategies "A former Balanchine ballerina and popular "Dance" magazine columnist offers sensible advice for coping with the highs and lows, the achievements and challenges, the lifetime rewards and ever-present heartbreaks of the dance world."

Mary-Elaine Jacobsen  Liberating Everyday Genius : A Revolutionary Guide for Identifying and Mastering Your Exceptional Gifts "..psychologist Mary-Elaine Jacobsen's [book] draws on a wide range of groundbreaking research and her own clinical experience to show America's twenty million gifted adults who possess exceptional abilities how to identify and unlock their extraordinary potential."

Kevin J. Kelly, PhD, Becoming Your Own Therapist Practical Effective Strategies For Managing Your Moods and Behavior 
[link to book site: instant pdf download] F> contents include Feelings; Thoughts; The Cognitive Model; reducing anxiety and taking effective action; Why We Worry; Making Better Decisions /etc

Diane Klein.  In The Name of Help : A Novel Exposing Psychiatric Abuse
[excerpt:] "More medication was administered immediately to calm her down. More consultations with doctors were held, to sort out the differing opinions. These were followed by a diagnosis of terms: paranoid schizophrenia, dementia praecox, -- words, meaningless words.... More questions, more observation, more discussion, more theories. Then, still more medication, and a marked degeneration of both her level of awareness and her self-determined will .... Less sanity .... But, they always told Cathryn that they were going to help her..."

Tim Le Bon.  Wise Therapy: Philosophy for Counsellors
[from reader review:] ".. a concise, well-written book organized around two philosophical themes: Ethics and The Meaning of Life. Individual chapters discuss such topics as the nature of well-being, theories of right and wrong, and the relationship between emotions and reason. These topics are covered mainly from three basic viewpoints, existential-phenomenological counseling (EC), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and philosophical counseling (PC), and are related to both client and counselor issues."

Robert Mitchell Lindner.  The Fifty Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales

Marsha Linehan.  Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Deborah Lott  In Session: The Bond between Women and Their Therapists  [excerpt of review by Shari Roan, LA Times:] "Lott finds that even confident and intelligent women can find themselves abdicating their power in a therapeutic relationship... [the book] is a wonderful guide to understanding how therapy can and should succeed despite the inherent difficulties that the relationship imposes."

Philip Martin  The Zen Path Through Depression    "Depression brings to us strong feelings of hopelessness, a sense of worthlessness, and a more insistent awareness of death," writes Philip Martin, who has worked as a psychiatric social worker and case manager.. for 15 years. "Depression is in many ways like suffering from a broken heart." Using meditations and visualizations he has developed as a practitioner of Buddhist psychology, the author cuts a path through this malaise of body, mind, and spirit that afflicts more than 20 million Americans. Depression enables individuals to look more closely at fear, self-disgust, separation, the judging mind, pain, apathy, and the futility of trying to control things." [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Peter B. Raabe, Ph.D. Philosophical Counseling : Theory and Practice

Cheryl Richardson  Take Time for Your Life  "Making a daily or weekly practice of finding stillness in order to experience the power of silence is a key way to support your overall mental and physical health. We need noiselessness to return to our center. Stillness and solitude are curative -- a necessary balm needed to support a more spiritually oriented, authentic life." [from Cheryl Richardson's newsletter: Life Makeover For The Year 2000, April 24, 2000 -- from her site]

Anne Wilson Schaef  Living in Process : Basic Truths for Living the Path of the Soul

Jason Shinder  Tales from the Couch: Writers on Therapy
'..19 mostly original essays by well-known authors who recount the time they spent in various forms of therapy. All of them agree--some lightheartedly, like poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman, and others with a more somber sense of recognition--that the key to productive therapy is the patient's willingness to become vulnerable. Mura credits the process not only with saving him from "sexual[ly] acting out" and breaking up with his future wife, but with helping him to discover a different approach to writing--one that freed him from writer's block. Several of the other essayists, including fiction writer Meg Wolitzer, playwright Ntozake Shange and novelist Carole Maso, also feel that therapy helped them with their creative processes. Not all of the writers, however, are fans of "the talking cure." Adam Gopnik, in a witty and entertaining piece, describes his therapy as "one of the last, and easily one of the most unsuccessful, psychoanalyses that have ever been attempted." After seeing a therapist who behaved like an editor and another whom he felt he had to amuse with stories, George Plimpton never went back. Despite the variety of therapeutic approaches, from Gopnik's orthodox psychoanalysis to Rebecca Walker's experience with a very supportive and responsive listener, the effectiveness of the healing process appears to be driven by a good match between therapist and patient.'

Linda Silverman  Counseling the Gifted and Talented

Margaret Thaler Singer, Janja Lalich. Crazy Therapies : What Are They? Do They Work?
[reader:] Crazy Therapies surveys the disreputable world of therapy charlatans and wackos who base their methods on untenable theories and promote ideas that range from absurd to dangerous. The work is useful for anyone to read, though it is primarily directed at current or prospective patients. While an immediately appealing aspect of the book is its anecdotal recounting of the ridiculous (alien abduction, past-lives regression, the inner child), its competence and commendability lie in the practical guidelines it provides to those seeking therapy, in order to avoid harm and fraud at the hands of incompetent practitioners. An embarrassing but necessary review of the current state of psychotherapy. Sure to enrage.

Marion Solomon, PhD., Robert J. Neborsky, MD, et al.  Short-Term Therapy for Long-Term Change

Lauren Slater, et al. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women

Drawing on the latest thinking in psychiatry and psychology, and written for women of diverse backgrounds, this trade reference guide to women"s mental health provides a comprehensive and readable overview to the psychological issues that concern women most.

Arguing that women want and need to understand their mental health as more than a question of disorder or normality, it begins with the life cycle, helping women understand the major issues and biological changes associated with young adulthood, middle age, and old age. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women also specifically addresses the psychological importance of women's sexuality and relationships, and discusses how social contexts, such as poverty and racism, affect mental health.

Part Two explores specific mental disorders, including those, like postpartum depression, related to times when women are particularly vulnerable to mental illness. Part Three takes a closer look at treatments, including the use of antidepressants and other drugs, and various types of psychotherapy, from cognitive behavioral treatments to EMDR and beyond. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women ends with a section on life enhancements that discusses some of the activities that can help us live fuller lives. [Amazon.com summary]

Misdiagnosis And Dual Diagnoses Of Gifted Children And Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, Ocd, Asperger's, Depression, And Other Disorders - by James T. Webb, et al.

John Welwood  Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path Of Personal and Spiritual Transformation

Ken Wilber  Integral Psychology : Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy
"While attempting to include the best of modern scientific research on psychology, consciousness, and therapy, [this book] also takes its inspiration from that integral period of psychology's own genesis (marked by such as Fechner, James, and Baldwin, along with many others..). ... includes a discussion of around two hundred theorists, East and West, ancient and modern, all working, in their own way, toward a more integral view."

Irvin D. Yalom.  Love's Executioner: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy

....

> more books: mental health 

  ~ ~ ~ ~

 
> related pages:***counseling: page 1............counselors............depth psychology*********

.........nurturing mental health............nurturing mental health resources : list of pages with articles/sites/books..............

.......... 

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