Ever since author Kristi Hugstad’s husband, after years of struggling with clinical depression, completed suicide in 2012 by running in front of a train, she has dedicated her life to helping to abolish the stigma of mental illness and suicide. 

For years, the first line of defense for depression has been pharmaceuticals, but in their new book, Feeling Better: Beat Depression and Improve Your Relationships with Interpersonal Psychotherapy, psychologists and authors Cindy Goodman Stulberg and Ronald J. Frey say that it is actually our relationships that offer the most effective path to healing.

Recognizing that depression is an illness as legitimate as any physical ailment, Feeling Better helps readers get clarity around the four main areas in life that can be contributing factors to why people feel sad, blue, down, and depressed: life transitions, complicated grief, interpersonal conflict, and social isolation. We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book.

Everyone knows what it’s like to be knocked off center, to lose their inner sense of balance and groundedness, at least temporarily, when faced with life’s unwanted curveballs. Whether it’s a troubling health diagnosis, the death of a loved one, a serious car accident, a layoff, or a natural disaster, life can intensely challenge our resilience.

In her new book, Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster, author and psychotherapist Linda Graham, MFT, guides readers step-by-step through a process of cultivating more well-being in their lives by strengthening their resilience so that they can respond skillfully to any upset or catastrophe that might otherwise derail that well-being.