Although mental health issues are skyrocketing, psychological knowledge is only drip fed to the public. How can the public access the breadth of psychological information they need to help themselves? We don’t need a piecemeal approach to learning about ourselves and our relationships. We don’t want to fix one area, while a multitude of other areas are bleeding out. We need a comprehensive bag of psychological knowledge and skills.
Dr Kirsten Hunter is turning on the tap of psychology. She is determined to share the gems of psychology with the public, to come out from behind the professional’s door and put this knowledge directly in the public’s hands. With 46% of the Australian population experiencing a mental health problem in their lifetime, there is no more crucial time. Dr Kirsten Hunter, a clinical psychologist with twenty years of professional practice, has written a series of six books called Signposts for Living. They together form the ultimate clinical conversation. If a psychologist had all the time she needed, this is the conversation that she would have with clients across the expanse of clinical areas. This series addresses 205 clinical areas and 205 conversations. Such an ambition to cover the breadth of clinical areas is a rare; perhaps it has not been attempted before.
For ten years Dr Kirsten Hunter formulated these books in her mind. She would leave her sessions with her clients, contemplating how the information she had just covered in session could be delivered in written form to reach the broader population. These “being human” issues affect us all, and yet not all of us get to sit in a psychologist’s room and learn these gems of knowledge. For those who do get to see a psychologist, time is limited. In session, psychologists have to prioritise their focus to the most urgent issues at hand. There isn’t the luxury of time to continue to learn and extend to all the broader vulnerable or value-adding clinical areas. These six books took three years to write. The experience proved a relief for Kirsten, who was finally able to share lessons learned from her clinical conversations and psychological skill set.
Kirsten often gets asked which of the six books are her favourite. She says, “That’s a Sophie’s Choice situation; how do you choose? Book 1, Control your Consciousness, is about getting the mechanics right; it is about looking under the hood and getting into the driver’s seat of your thinking and your emotions. Book 2 is the extremely ambitious area of Understanding Myself. Book 3, Mindfulness and State of Flow, is literally about how to live, the key to how we humans find meaning and joy. Book 4, Understanding Others, covers the light and the dark side of relationships. A long-planned Parenting resource is Book 5. Finally, Book 6, Nailing being an Adult, teaches us to ‘adult’ effectively, covering plenty of life skills that are not common-sense and that need to be learned.”
“Imagine trying to complete a puzzle without all the pieces,” Kirsten says. “That’s what life is like: a puzzle. Signposts for Living helps by giving you the missing pieces that form the whole picture of your psychological well-being. The six books all complement and intertwine together. They are all different and crucial facets to our humanness.”
Signposts for Living gives everybody and anybody the capacity to live life with joy. It’s a brave and scary thing to take responsibility for your life choices. Signposts for Living is the manual for living that we all deserve.
All six Signposts for Living books are being released on 26 November 2021.
https://www.kirstenhunterauthor.com
