New ADAA Member Books: Summer 2024

Visually Impaired, ADAA Member Envisions a Book to a Happier Life for Herself & Others

A uncommon visible impairment doesn’t cease ADAA member Ashley Smith, PhD from seeing clearly relating to looking for and making a happier life, not only for herself however for her shoppers and readers. Her new guide, The Way I See It: A Psychologist’s Guide to a Happier Life, is a product of her personal private experiences in addition to her skilled data and observe as a medical psychologist, public speaker, and creator.  

The co-founder of Peak Mind: The Center for Psychological Strength has skilled loss and adversity however makes use of her private journey of worsening eyesight and struggling to embark on a deeper understanding of the science of happiness and the sphere of life design. Despite having to cease driving due to her situation, Dr. Smith takes the wheel in her new guide, decided to study extra and impart knowledge and abilities to assist others discover happiness.

“I was terrified, devastated, and convinced I was destined to be miserable the rest of my life,” Dr. Smith stated, “but with my background in clinical psychology and anxiety, and knowing how our minds work and how they shape our life experiences, I began to write.”

The Kansas City-based psychologist advised ADAA that she needed to write down one thing for the general public that was accessible and significant, permitting her to share her data, insights, and lived expertise with the hope of serving to others endure much less and study to steer daring, blissful lives.  

While publications on happiness, discovering pleasure, and the examine of contentment abound, Dr. Smith has written a guide that stands out for its strategy and format. A compilation of brief classes that span plenty of matters associated to residing life, The Way I See It shouldn’t be a information or step program. Weaving storytelling and science in a conversational and compelling means, Dr. Smith says it’s a guide that may be learn in any means readers want – out of order, in a single sitting or bits at a time, and filled with nuggets of knowledge and perception supposed to make a constructive impression on their high quality of life.

“As a seasoned psychologist as well as an individual who’s had to come to terms with a disability,” Dr. Smith stated, “I know that it’s not necessarily what happens to us, but what we do as a result – even if it’s just our attitude about it – that matters. We can make our minds work for us.”

Recalling the expression “mind over matter,” The Way I See It reminds us that we can’t management the whole lot, however we will train management over one thing, and turn out to be savvy about how our minds work and try to make them work for us.

According to Dr. Smith, “we will navigate our feelings and relationships with knowledge and talent. We could make the powerful decisions and do the onerous issues to carve out a life we’re happy with – one which displays who we’re and who we need to be. And in doing all of these items, happiness is the inevitable consequence.”  

Order The Way I See It here.

New Book Aims to Improve Lives of Families Affected By Treatment Avoidance

It is often the case that a mental health disorder or challenge doesn’t just affect the individual but that person’s family, friends, and loved ones. This is especially true of children, but even as adults we are interdependent and a mental health disorder in a loved one can take its toll on that person’s entire support network.  

ADAA members and mental health professionals Melanie VanDyke, PhD, and C. Alec Pollard, PhD know firsthand how a mental health condition in one person can jeopardize the physical health, psychological well-being, socioeconomic stability, and even happiness of the entire family.  

A new book by Dr. Pollard, founding director of the Center for OCD & Anxiety-Related Disorders at Saint Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute, and Dr. VanDyke, a psychologist at the center as well as a clinician at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, focuses on treatment refusal and how to help an individual while helping those who help that individual.

When a Loved One Won’t Seek Mental Health Treatment: How to Promote Recovery and Reclaim Your Family’s Well-Being, also co-authored by Gary Mitchell, LCSW, Heidi Pollard, RN, MSN and Gloria Mathis, PhD, with a foreword by Gail Steketee, PhD, is the first book to describe the Family Well-Being Approach (FWBA), a method developed by the authors for families whose lives are affected by recovery avoidance.  

Explaining why efforts to change the “recovery avoider” have failed and how to approach avoidance more effectively, the book aims to prepare families emotionally and strategically to succeed. Dr. Pollard stresses the importance of focusing on what families can control rather than trying to control the person.

“Planning for crises, recapturing the valued activities that families have lost, disentangling their lives from recovery avoidance, and – later – using strategic incentives to promote recovery are all things the family can control,” the former chair of ADAA’s Clinical Advisory Board told ADAA.

Dr. VanDyke agrees with Dr. Pollard that trying to force or enabling the individual won’t work, but families dealing with recovery avoidance often feel trapped. “If they try making life easier for the person, they perpetuate dependency and entitlement,” she said, “If they push for treatment, they are met with resistance or even animosity. Their hope for a better life rests on someone who appears to be making no effort to recover and often when they reach out for professional help they are told nothing can be done unless the person wants help.”

The book is intended for families who have loved ones who refuse treatment or otherwise engage in recovery avoidant behavior. But the authors hope it will also be used by therapists wanting to expand their practice to assist these families who they say are largely ignored by the healthcare system.

“These families are the neglected victims of untreated mental health problems,” said Dr. Pollard, adding that he hopes the book “helps those whose needs have been largely ignored and who would otherwise be left to struggle on their own with the potentially devastating impact of recovery avoidance.”  

Dr. Van Dyke has an identical hope: that households who’re battling restoration avoidance discover clear, accessible steering on this guide to reinforce their relationships and enhance their lives.

Order When a Loved One Won’t Seek Mental Health Treatment right here.

New Workbook Integrates Philosophy of Socrates into Good Mental Health & Well-Being

History’s nice philosophers proceed to show us a factor or too. Socrates, particularly, stays some of the outstanding in his affect on trendy considering. The historic Greek thinker, often known as the daddy of western philosophy, was a proponent of asking and answering the massive questions and valued inner examination as a means to enhance oneself and one’s high quality of life. Stressing self-awareness in addition to ethics and morals, Socrates’ simple impression on philosophy continues immediately.

But what of his impression on the sphere of psychology? And how can he and Stoicism assist these struggling with psychological well being challenges and issues? One solution to discover out is to learn the brand new guide by ADAA members R. Trent Codd, III, EdS, and Scott Waltman, PsyD, ABPP.  

The Stoicism Workbook: How the Wisdom of Socrates Can Help You Build Resilience & Overcome Anything Life Throws at You, with co-author Kasey Pierce, is a self-help guide that the authors hope may even be used as a bunch curriculum or in-session information for therapists and their shoppers. The clinicians and specialists in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) say the intention of the publication is to have a sensible information or handbook that integrates a philosophy of thought with trendy CBT, however that’s not all.

“We imagine lots of people, together with these with out entry to efficient psychotherapeutic care or with sub-clinical challenges, can turn out to be resilient by adopting a philosophy of residing, comparable to Stoicism,” the authors advised ADAA. “Stoicism has been growing in popularity and there is much more to it than the idea that how we think affects how we feel. And this book can help us reach people who are often hard to reach in mental health settings.”

The guide, they are saying, is a chance to current Stoicism from a psychological wellness and psychological resiliency perspective, highlighting that being stoic or stoicism shouldn’t be about being impassive or chilly or onerous. Rather, that it’s potential and extremely possible to bounce again from adversity with not solely the suitable mindset however the suitable instruments and utilizing the ideas within the guide to know what to do whenever you’re feeling anxious, depressed, pressured and even burned out.

The authors who additionally wrote Socratic Questioning for Therapists and Counselors collectively, a extra skilled guide that took a deep dive into historic philosophy, hope The Stoicism Workbook resonates with a wider viewers. Thinking like Socrates isn’t tough – in any case “to know thyself is the beginning of wisdom” – and sustaining inside peace, being versatile, and adapting to tough conditions can enhance your general psychological well being and well-being.

“One main point of the book is to learn to view life’s purpose as not a never-ending pursuit of fleeting pleasures but instead creating lasting happiness and fulfillment from living a good life,” the authors stated.  

With the 4 core virtues of Stoicism being knowledge, braveness, justice, and self-control, the workbook displays on questions like: what sort of particular person do I need to be and what do I need to make necessary in my life? And very importantly, understanding which you can’t all the time management what occurs to you or what others do or say, however you’ll be able to management the way you reply.

Order The Stoicism Workbook right here.