 |
 |
Bibliotherapy?
 The Value Of Self-Help Books
by Harold H. Dawley, Jr., Ph.D., ABPP, Publisher
As a young man I was troubled by distressing feelings of insecurity and anxiety. I was shy, very "non-assertive," and had a severe phobia of being in enclosed places with people present. One day I stumbled upon Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends & Influence People. Shortly thereafter I read Andrew Salter's Conditioned Reflex Therapy, one of the first and best books on becoming more "assertive." As I read these excellent self-help books and began following the advice they offered, my confidence grew. I became more assertive and more comfortable with people. I also saw a psychologist and conquered my phobia by using a technique called "systematic desensitization." Reading these and other self-help books and my experience with seeing a psychologist strengthened my interest in becoming a psychologist.
Many years later (after I received my Ph.D. and started practicing as a psychologist), I began recommending various self-help books to my patients and clients. As they read these books, they too benefitted. Over the next 25 years, I conducted research on the effectiveness of self-help procedures and went on to write six self-help books by myself or with other psychologists. One book dealt with being more assertive (Andrew Salter wrote the forward), another dealt with making and keeping friends, and three dealt with using systematic desensitization on your own to conquer phobias.
I believe in the value of self-help books and know that they can help us deal more effectively with many of the problems we experience. This site is my effort at making self-help books available to others. Needless to say, not every problem can be solved by reading a book. Sometimes professional help is needed. But, for the vast majority of problems we face in life, having access to a book that tells us what to expect and what we can do about it can be quite helpful.
I look forward to working with other mental health professionals who may be interested in referring their clients to our site or submitting their own self-help book for us to publish. I also look forward to publishing books from the other individuals who have adaptively coped with such adversities as substance abuse, depression, loss of a loved one or other problems of living. Their experiences can help others deal with the same problem in an adaptive manner.
The rapid growth of use of the Internet offers an ideal way of making thousands of good self-help books immediately available virtually worldwide. Within three mouse clicks, we now offer people in distress a way of quickly finding help for their particular problem. Since self-help books helped me, it is my hope that countless others will find access to this same valuable help at SelfHelpBooks.com.
|
|
|
 |
|
Direct to You
Meet Our Authors
Publishing FAQ
Submit your Book!
Bibliotherapy?
Free Articles
|
