Creating Optimism

Dr Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry are internationally recognized experts in creating optimism and overcoming depression. They are passionate about each person's ability to join with others in healing, supportive relationships and create lives full of joy and meaning.

Best-selling authors, gifted trainers and dynamic speakers, they have appeared on national television, taught at major universities and consulted for Fortune 500 companies.

Authors of the best-selling books Raising an Optimistic Child(McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism(McGraw-Hill, 2004), Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry have been teaching thousands of people their innovative, successful relationship-based philosophy for over 20 years. Their Program techniques have an astounding 94% success rate in elevating mood and alleviating depression (based on follow-up questionnaires of the Uplift Intensive workshop up to 2 years later).

As originators of the Fortinberry Murray Method, Bob and Alicia have trained health professionals at major universities and teaching hospitals, including Duke University Medical Center, Tufts University Medical Center, JFK University and the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. They have spoken at national professional conferences and associations ranging from the Association for Humanistic Psychology to the National Council on Alcoholism.

Frequent consultants to multinational companies and government organizations on team building and relationships, they name PriceWaterhouseCooper, Ernst & Young, Oracle Corporation, and Kaiser Permanente among their many corporate clients.

Widely sought after as experts on depression, stress, PTSD, and mind-body approaches such as Feldenkrais, they are regularly quoted in newspapers and featured on radio and TV, including ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC

Both Bob and Alicia have had distinguished careers as writers, and are joint authors of many articles on depression, relationships and popular psychology. They also produce a powerful series of audio programs.

Both native New Yorkers, they divide their time between San Francisco, Tampa and Sydney, Australia.

Adult ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is in the news and many misguided prescriptions have been written for the disorder. In fact there is very little unbiased information available. We have put together some facts about the illness for those who think they have ADHD or someone they know might have it, and tips for dealing with attention deficit disorders.

 A little while ago I was asked to speak to parents and teachers at a large private school in Sydney on ADD/ADHD. Many schools in Australia and the US have a serious drug problem due to the over prescription and school-yard sale of Ritalin, a form of speed.

I told the audience that I didn't believe that Ritalin, and similar drugs were the only, or even the best, form of treatment for the apparent ADD symptoms that their children presented. As with other audiences where I have said the same thing, most of them were looking for something which would 'fix' their kids without looking too closely at the family dynamic or taking too much time away from the earnest business of making a living or teaching a class.

For some reason Western Australia has the highest proportion of its child population diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) of any Australian state. Twice the number of WA kids (6% of the entire school-age population) are on anti-ADD drugs (mostly Ritalin) there as compared to half that number in New South Wales. Is there something in the Western air which leads children there to breathe in the disorder? I think not.

How do we make our lives meaningful? This is a question I often ask myself - particularly around my birthday or other life milestones. And it’s a question that often comes up with clients.

As a psychologist, I have observed that the depression of many of my clients seems to stem from their inability to feel that they have a purpose, that there is a meaning to their lives. They look for worth in possessions, in status, in wealth and, while they may get a temporary boost from these things, in the end many find that status and wealth are vacuous. What you earn and what you own do not give meaning to your life. Your life can be empty if you live in a palace or in a hovel, if you run IBM or if you are unemployed, if you are famous or unknown.

So many of us try to find purpose in achieving goals around our career, family, politics or social life. These goals have their place. But they are transitory, and achieving them can leave our lives as empty of meaning as before. Politics undergoes swings, our children go on to live lives of their own, social mores shift, and eventually we retire (sometimes at an absurdly young age). What can we count on amidst all the ephemera?