SEVITAR

General learning

• National Institute on Mental Health has a lot of helpful information about the science and treatment of many mental health disorders: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/
• Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) has information about many psychological disorders and conditions and evidence-based treatments in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) tradition: http://www.abct.org/.
• An article written in the San Francisco Chronicle describing Cognitive Therapy.
• For information on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a behavioral approach used to treat many psychological conditions, see http://www.contextualpsychology.org/
• An article in Time magazine describing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and shared components of other “third wave” therapies like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
• In the HBO series “Confessions” Mike Wallace, Martha Manning, and William Styron talk about their personal experiences with major depression.
• Video by Brene Brown explaining empathy.
• For research on depression and anxiety, behavioral interventions, meditation, neuroscience and psychophysiology, and emotion regulation, see the following labs and collaborators:
  • Dr. Philippe Goldin’s Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience lab at UC Davis
  • Dr. James Gross’ Psychophysiology Lab at Stanford University
  • Dr. Greg Siegle’s Cognitive Affective Neuroscience Program at University of Pittsburgh

Resources for Couples

• Information about Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples
• Books and videos by Dr. Sue Johnson and founder of EFT for couples; her Hold Me Tight book is particularly helpful for couples in therapy.
• Hold Me Tight workshops in San Francisco, which are based on Emotionally Focused Therapy.
• A helpful video explaining the negative cycle couples tend to get caught in, created by Sharon Mead, LMFT.
• Books, videos, workshops, and resources by Jon Gottman, PhD, one of the ground breaking researchers of relationships.

Books

• Author William Styron describes his personal experience with major depression in a beautifully written book “Darkness visible: A memoir of madness.”

• Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist and researcher of bipolar disorder, gives a compelling description of her personal experience with bipolar disorder in “An unquiet mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness.” She has also written about great artists in history who suffered from bipolar disorder in “Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament“

• The “Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” by Andrew Salomon examines personal, cultural, and scientific aspects of depression. It won the 2001 National Book Award.

• For many self-help books with an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy orientation, see New Harbinger’s extensive publications (http://www.newharbinger.com/). Here are some suggestions:
  • Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life
  • Leave Your Mind Behind
  • The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression
  • The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety

• A self-help book that gives a cognitive-behavioral perspective on how to deal with depression and anxiety is “Feeling Good” by Dr. David Burns.

• For a Buddhist approach to dealing with adversity, read any of Pema Chödrön’s books (e.g., “When things fall apart,” “The wisdom of no escape”).

Treatment

• Hotline for mental health services in San Francisco that links people to public and private mental health resources: Access 415-255-3737

• To find a psychiatrist in San Francisco who can prescribe medication, see http://www.sfpsych.org/

• To find a psychologist who specializes in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), or Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples, use the following web sites where you can search for therapists in the whole country:

o        ABCT: http://www.abct.org/members/Directory/Find_A_Therapist.cfm

o        ACT: http://www.contextualpsychology.org/therapist_referrals

o        EFT: http://www.iceeft.com/index.php/find-a-therapist

Support groups

• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, San Francisco: http://www.dbsasf.org/, Jane 415-519-0171

• The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), San Francisco: http://www.namisf.org/

Participate in research on mood, anxiety, sleep, emotion, memory, and more

• Research on treatment for insomnia and depression at Stanford (TRIAD): triadproject.org. Study coordinator Katherine Taylor <[email protected]>

• Research at Berkeley on stress, daily routines, sleep, and mood in bipolar disorder: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~ahsleep/main.html (click on ‘studies’ then ‘Daily Rhythms Study’), phone 510-643-3797

• Cognitive behavioral therapy treatment study on insomnia for post-traumatic stress disorder at San Francisco VA Medical Center / UCSF. Contact Aric Jensen at (415) 221-4810 x 4773 or [email protected]

• Stanford mood and anxiety disorder laboratory: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~mood/

• Stanford Depression Research Clinic: http://med.stanford.edu/depression/research.html

• Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~psyphy/

• Berkeley Psychology Department: http://psychology.berkeley.edu/

• Stanford Psychology Department: https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/

• UCSF Department of Psychiatry, research studies on depression: http://ucsfdepressioncenter.ucsf.edu/research.aspx?id=2746

• The Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy research study at UCSF (“Practicing Alternative Techniques to Heal Depression (PATH-D) Study): http://psych.ucsf.edu/clinical-trials.aspx?id=5392