Introducing myself

This blog will contain features from my books, Undoing Depression and Happy at Last, as well as commentary about mental health and society. I'm a firm believer that mental illness is not simply a brain disease (though the brain is definitely affected)--rather it arises from childhood experiences, quality of parenting, trauma, and relationships, including how the individual is treated by society.

I've been a therapist for 30-plus years now, a rich experience that has definitely made me a little wiser about how I conduct my life. I've also been a depression sufferer. That doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed my life; but if you have depression finding joy and satisfaction requires more work--difficult, sustained work--than it does for other people.

Many people tell me they have benefited enormously from my books and lectures. Blogging is something new for me, but I hope it will help others, and give me the opportunity to muse on subjects that don't fit into a book.

I hope you'll become a regular reader of this new endeavor.