Help
Against Anxiety, Depression
and Other Emotional or Interpersonal Problems
Dr Bob Rich, M. Sc., Ph. D.
Psychologist
Member of the Australian Psychological Society
Secretary, APS College of Counselling Psychologists
Member, International Positive Psychology Association
Associate Member, Australian Society of Hypnosis
L.P.O. Box 214 Healesville Victoria 3777 Australia
phone +61 3 5962 3875
Click to email me
NEW!
Read my letter to a bitter wife.
I have been persuaded to nominate for election to the Board of the APS. Read my statement.
National Chair of the APS College of Counselling Psychologists, Elaine Hosie, made this speech on a forum about Medicare
Read a letter I have sent to Nicola Roxon, the new Australian Minister of Health about Medicare, and a previous submission to my Member of Parliament.
I have recorded my favourite guided imagery scripts on an audio CD. Be relaxed and healed by my voice.
Read a wonderful essay by Elizabeth Tindle on what is counselling psychology.
Psychologist? What for?
If you are wondering if a psychologist might be of help to you, or trying to convince someone to seek help, you'll want to read this.
Read a wonderful essay by Cheryl O'Brien: How to Graduate from the College of Hard Knocks. This is for you if you have suffered.
This site is now listed on http://www.goodtherapy.org/.
FIRST AID FOR DEPRESSION
I am writing a book about depression. Here is an entire chapter on what to do to fight back against it. Actually, the same tools work against all kinds of emotional distress.
I've been working on it for well over a year, and here it is: my next book, Cancer: A personal challenge. It is now available both in electronic and paperback formats. The printer is Booksurge, which can produce and deliver copies in several countries including the USA, the UK and Australia.
This is the book that could save your life -- and change it for the better, whether you have cancer or not.
The book already has three excellent reviews.
TWILIGHT TIMES BOOKS have reissued my popular self-help book Anger and Anxiety: Be in charge of your emotions and control phobias.
Read a review of my second psychology book Personally Speaking and a NEW review of my popular Anger and Anxiety.
Note that every buyer of any of my books, in any format, purchased anywhere, qualifies for a FREE book from among those of my titles that are available in electronic format. Look at the list of available books.
This site is listed on National Directory of Online Counselors.
Worthy of note:
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jolanta's file
 Buy any of my books, and you can request any of my electronic books for free.
Michael Gathercole has developed a new model of depression, one that will be useful to every sufferer, and to everyone trying to help someone else to cope with this debilitating problem. His paper is scholarly, but written in plain language most people will understand.
Michael has kindly given me permission to reproduce his new model of depression.
I don't have the time at the moment to post new web pages, but this one may help others affected by the most terrible act a person can do. She said no -- and he killed himself.
Read about an online counselling course, run by my British Colleague Kate Anthony.
My second psychology book is now available. It is Personally Speaking: Single session email therapy with Dr Bob Rich. This book was one of five finalists in the 'Non-Fiction (Self-Help)' category of the EPPIE 2002 Awards.
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Want to do the best for your child or teenager? Investigate two books by my friend Joan Bramsch.
A young woman's conquest of bipolar disorder, without drugs
Posted at last: an interview with one of my clients.
Encrypted Internet Counseling is available, and effective.
A Toastmaster speech, about how children should be raised.
A reprint of an important article about antidepressants. I have also reproduced two reactions to it: from a friend whose husband nearly died, and another whose doctors wanted her to take a pill with effects worse than the disease.
Also read my advice to sufferers of cancer and those who love them.
It isn't psychology but I must tell you: Several of my works of fiction have been published. Three of them have won international awards. Have a look around at http://bobswriting.com/.
You can buy all these books here. |
WOULD YOU BENEFIT FROM COUNSELING?
Counseling works. It helps people who are stuck in a hell of emotional or interpersonal problems. The success rate of counseling is about the same as that of medicine for problems of the body.
The aim of counseling is to increase your control over your own life. A good psychologist is a catalyst. A long-standing, chronically painful situation can be changed in a few weeks. The changing is not done by the psychologist, but by the client. Like a catalyst in a chemical reaction, the psychologist's presence stimulates the activity of other participants.
Almost everything we do involves habits. We could not function without them. However, when we are in distress, this is because a previously useful habit has now become counterproductive.
Habits can be broken, though it's hard work. Read how.
What counseling is NOT
* Counseling is not advice. Advice is someone telling you what to do. Psychologists rarely do this. They are much more likely to ask you questions that challenge your thinking, and make you see the world in a new, more fruitful way.
Occasionally, a psychologist will present you with information you didn't have before, or teach you a skill you lacked (for example assertiveness training; instruction on the use of eye contact and body language in communication), but a good psychologist will always suggest or invite, leaving the decision to you.
* Counseling is not psychoanalysis, or mind-reading, or hypnosis. There is nothing mysterious about it, no invasion of your inner being, no extended probing. Some counselors do use hypnosis as a tool, but this is in a way that leaves the client in control.
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Buy a copy of the book Anger and Anxiety:
How to be in charge of your emotions and control phobias?
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* You don't have to be crazy to benefit from counseling. Rather, it is for those who currently have trouble coping with their circumstances (which may or may not involve mental illness). People with serious psychiatric disorders can benefit from counseling, often in combination with drug therapy. In my view, for them one important role of counseling is to address secondary problems: feelings of worthlessness, meaninglessness, depression, being stigmatised, being imprisoned by a label, rebelliousness to a life sentence of being different.
People who have no psychiatric disorders can suffer from the same kinds of problems. Counseling can help them enormously.
How counseling works
Steve de Shazer, the well-known Solution-Focused Therapy researcher, has said, "Therapy is magic. I don't know how my clients do it."
This is spot on. I don't know how or why counseling works, but its effectiveness is supported by a huge body of scientific evidence. There are a great many theories, and many of them have an element of truth. The fact is that therapists using many different techniques, based on many different theories, achieve about the same level of effectiveness in helping people to break the shackles of long-standing problems.
My own belief is that a chronic problem is maintained by how the sufferer reacts to it.
This is determined by three things:
*the sufferer's self-perception;
*habits of thought and action;
*the reactions of other people.
All of these can be changed.
If you live near me (Healesville, Victoria, Australia) you may wish to see me for face-to-face counseling. Check out the services I offer.
From anywhere else in Australia, you might want to try telephone counseling.
And from anywhere in the world, you can gain my help through the internet.
Twenty years ago, I changed my life for philosophical reasons. The accidental byproducts have been contentment, a productive, creative and interesting lifestyle, and children who have grown up to be my friends, and people I can be proud of. My essay explains the ideas that led me there.
Other pages on this site:
"Detoxifying Anger ", a paper I presented to an international conference on helping the victims of crime.
My Contacts page lists many resources for people seeking help (suggestions for other links are welcome).
And in case you're worried, you might want to read my privacy statement before filling out one of my forms.
index page
This web site is listed by wwwDirectory.net/ under the Mental Health category.
YoYsearch.com - a convenient interface to ten types of search.
Business-Inc.Net -- web directory
This web site has been submitted to Yahoo Australia, and I have used
to submit to the following search engines and directories: Alexa | All the Web | ANZwers | DirectHit | Excite | Galaxy | Google | HotBot | InfoHiway | InfoSeek | Jayde | Lycos | Magellan | National Directory | Nerd World | Northern Light | Rex | Scrub the Web | Search Hound | Snap | Starting Point | Web Crawler | What U Seek
