Bipolar Art Therapist
When she was a college student, Bipolar Disorder brought her to her knees. Now well-known New York art therapist and psychotherapist Maggie Robbins helps others connect with their ‘inner monster’. ‘You can almost think of anything someone makes as a self-portrait.’ Robbins, an artist herself, wrote a semi-autobiographical novel of poems while conquering her bipolar depression over a period of twenty years. She is also fluent in Swahili.
Louis de Bernières, the bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, struggled with the fame that came with the success of the book. He found the attention crippling and it was 10 years before he could write for enjoyment again. Louis also talks about his anger issues triggered by a custody battle to see his children. […]
While working in stressful jobs, Anastasia Dedyukhina realised that smartphones, and the pressure to be ‘always on’, were doing her harm. She tried an experiment: giving up her smartphone altogether and going back to a more offline way of life. The experience inspired her to found Consciously Digital, a network of coaches who help others […]
Many of us have tried meditation through an app or following a video. And with any luck, it’s made us curious to learn more, says Jillian Lavender, co-founder of London Meditation Centre and New York Meditation Center. She explains how using a mantra can unlock a deeper sense of rest and clearer focus. […]
As a teenager, António Ferreira felt huge pressure at school to succeed, and started suffering pseudo seizures, auditory hallucinations and paranoia. He describes it as a boulder on his back that he couldn’t lift or get rid of, and he had planned to take his life before an intervention. Through a long recovery process, he […]
We talk a lot about having purpose in our lives, but how do we go about identifying that purpose? Conscientious leadership expert Nick Jankel has some advice for us. Firstly, start slowly, perhaps in your job or on the edges of your job. Then keep a ‘meaning journal’ for a week across all areas of […]
Adventurer Alex Staniforth turned to outdoor sports as a teenager as a way of counteracting a lack of self-confidence caused by a bad stutter, mild epilepsy and anxiety. Immediately he felt like he had found his calling… until he was injured and the resulting time off led to an eating disorder. Alex tells of how […]
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Hi Ms Robbins,
I am sorry to barge into your email life! I found Andrew Solomons “TEDx” talk on YOUTube, published in December 2013, recently.
Andrew mentions you in that talk. I just decided to look you up and leave a note.
I suppose I have been dealing with depression my whole life. I think back and can see that my 9 year old self’s grief at concluding, in my 9 year old self’s bedroom, that someday I would not have my stuffed rabbit in my life, that it one day would not mean so much to me, and that was a sign. The fact that when I started dating, my best teenage-self “pick up” line was to say, “all I ever wanted to do was kiss you”.
It seemed so powerful to me, so subtle and, at that time, appealing. The fact that, in college (Rutgers, New Brunswick, 1985, Economics), I actually looked up copies of H.D. Thoreau’s college classes and grades, because I was so intensely interested in his “experiment” in living “deliberately”, that I needed to know more about him. The fact that, later, in my career-self life, I found time to become extracurricularly (sp!) interested in Proust and his Remembrance of Things Past (A La Recherche du Temps Perdue), was a sign. Anticipation of loss, the recognition that it is going to happen and be painful and, especially, that it has been sort of a focal point throughout my life, pointed to some kind of mental/structural issue in my head, that I have always had. And, Andrew hit upon some of those themes. Our daughter, Rylee, is a 4th year undergraduate student at Western in Gunnison, Colorado. She is a good kid, works part time at (the only) UPS store in Gunnison and has a decent GPA. She is studying Psychology, and seems to enjoy the matter, hoping to get into Police forensic work, maybe a three-letter agency doing the same. I want to send Andrew’s TEDx talk to her and pose a handful of questions on the topics raised. E.g., Western techniques for therapy vs the other half of the world, which may consist of drumming, sunshine and communal exorcism, like Andrew mentions taking place in Rwanda and etc. Or, the fact that less privileged Americans suffer from depression, but it may not be recognized, here, as an “important” topic worthy of further engagement by our health care system. I can’t help but want to guide our daughter and maybe she can carry on, and delve further into, the processes/issues mentioned and begin to integrate herself into a fully adult life of helping others. Anyway, I also couldn’t help myself, on a summer-like Spring afternoon, mentioning I have seen Andrew’s talk and his story about being depressed and having to make lunch seemed to really described my own experiences so well. Sort of like the opening line in Prousts “A La Recherche du Temps Perdue”, to wit: “For a long time I used to go to bed early”. Hooked, I was, at that sentence. I am thinking of 5 questions I would like to accompany Andrew’s talk when I email it to our daughter. And, it was good to finally reach out to you! R/ Jeffry Rabenda, Superior, Arizona