Raising an Optimistic Child: A Proven Plan for Depresion-Proofing Young Children--for Life
(McGraw-Hill, 2006) by Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry

Creating Optimism:
A Proven Seven-Step Program for Overcoming Depression
(McGraw-Hill, 2004) by Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry

Written by and featuring Bob Murray, PhD and Alicia Fortinberry, MS

• Self-esteem
• Optimism, Well-being and Depression Recovery
• Relationships
• Families and Parenting

Self-Esteem Tips

• 7 Simple Steps to High Self-esteem FREE e-Book
  In this pdf e-Book, featuring self-esteem strategies from Creating Optimism, Alicia tells you how to maintain your self-confidence so you can be optimistic and empowered.

Optimism, Well-being and Depression Recovery

• Nine Activities for Lifelong Relaxation
  Anxious, stressed, depressed, can't relax? The most effective ways to recover our innate optimism, positive mood and ability to relax, are activities in harmony with our genetic and social heritage.

• Nine Rules for Living with a Depressed Person
  Bob shares his rules for improving your relationship with a depression sufferer and avoiding codependency.

• Eight Rules for Living with Someone with ADHD
  Bob shares his rules for living with people who have been diagnosed, rightly or wrongly, with attention deficit disorders.

• Tips for Managing Your Mood
  The good news about mood disorders is that they can be managed and, for the most part, controlled without drugs.

• Anxiety-Proofing Your Life
  Six tried and true tips for fending off anxiety.

• Depression Recovery: How to survive depression one day at a time
  Alicia shares six quick and simple things you can do when you're feeling depressed.

• Eight Tips for Happiness and Optimism
  Bob and Alicia reveal the fundamentals of happiness and 8 things you can do today to create happiness and optimism.

• Depression Recovery Guidelines: What works for depression
  What really works for depression in the long-term? Creating good supportive relationships, gentle exercise, getting in touch with your spirituality, nature and pets are all things you can do to speed your recovery.

• Walking and Feldenkrais: A Powerful Anti-Depression Program
  Are you one of the one in three women and one in five men who suffer from depression? If so, Feldenkrais may have some hidden benefits, because it is a powerful mood lifter.

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Relationship Help

Good, supportive relationships are one of the most powerful healing forces and are powerful buffers against stress, depression and anxiety.

• Guidelines for Healing Relationships
  Foolproof actions for building truly supportive relationships which help heal mood disorders and undo the damage of childhood trauma.

• 7 Rules for Couples who Live and Work Together
  Alicia shares her relationship tips for living and working happily together for couples and families.

• The 3 Essentials for Building Successful Relationships
  Good relationships in all areas of our lives are essential to our physical and emotional health but we seem to have more trouble than ever achieving them. Alicia tells you how.

• 6 Tips for Surviving Christmas
  Most people face the countdown to Christmas with an unconscious unease covered by a frenzy of shopping. Alicia shares her strategies for getting through the holiday season.

• How to Talk to People
  Alicia gives some tips for successful communication in friendships and how to deal with different communication styles between men and women.

• Anger: Why We Have It, What to Do About It
  Anger can be the result of childhood experiences. Alicia shows you how to deal with rageful behaviors which threaten relationships and how to stop triggering past conflict.

• Sweep Out the Old Relationship Issues and Ring In the New Closeness
  Have you taken a close look at your relationships lately? Even seemingly small issues can play a powerful role in tarnishing relationships and diminishing closeness. Alicia shows you how to clear the way for greater intimacy in your closest relationships.

• You're Not Listening!
  How do you know if your partner/friend/boss has actually heard you? Alicia demonstrates some simple communication skills which can help you overcome a common relationship difficulty and ensure you get the attention you need.

• Through Thick and Thin — Helping Each Other Through Tough Times
  Recent traumatic world events and financial instability may be taking an emotional toll on your relationship. In her regular column Alicia Fortinberry shows you how to recognize signs of trauma and find support and comfort within relationships.

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Help for Families and Parenting

• Dealing With Dysfunctional Families
  Strategies for surviving toxic families, setting boundaries in families, and with parents and children.

• The Question: To Be a Mother or Not to Be a Mother
  Deciding when to have children, if at all, and in what circumstances, is hard for any woman. Alicia looks at a women's options when the biological clock is ticking.

Read more practical articles about wellness, mental and emotional health, relationships and parenting.

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About the Authors

Dr Bob Murray is a widely published psychologist and expert on emotional health and optimal relationships. Alicia Fortinberry is a psychotherapist, health writer and executive coach. Together they are the founders of the highly successful Uplift Program, and authors of Raising an Optimistic Child (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism (McGraw-Hill, 2004).