I started my academic psychiatric career as the head of the U.C.L.A. outpatient and community psychiatry department. That’s where my lifelong focus on normal adult development began. I have written papers and textbook chapters as well as a book for the general public (Transformations, Growth and Change in Adult Life) based on research that I and my colleagues did on the predictable sequence of changing patterns and preoccupations during the adult years.

I have incorporated this understanding of adulthood into my own practice, and over the last twenty years have worked to translate those face to face approaches into the computer programs that are now on this site and available to anyone with an internet connection.

In order to stay mentally healthy we all have to solve personal problems on an almost daily basis. When we get behind, the problems build up, and we become distressed. Hence the programs on this site are about understanding, insight, and action…the ingredients necessary to make our lives work.

The result we aim for is not only reduction of stress and depression but also learning and personal development.

Adult consciousness progresses by mastering childhood fears, misconceptions, or bad habits through learning from experience, making good decisions, and experimentation. The challenge of change throughout the life course provides us with the opportunity to grow and achieve our full adulthood. The center of the change process is solving real everyday problems and trying new approaches. That’s what each of the sessions on this site are designed to help you do.

The research on over 20,000 people, including seven separate studies, has proved that our programs are safe and effective. The most recent study conducted independently by Kaiser Permanente and U.C.L.A. finds that each session has the same effect as a session with an experienced therapist.

• Undergraduate; University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1955
  
• Northwestern Medical School in Chicago, AOA, 1959
  
• Psychiatric Training at UCLA included Master's degree in Public Health, 1965

• U.S. Army Psychiatrist, Ft. Polk, LA
  
• Board Certified Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst
  
• Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA
  
• Head of outpatient and community Psychiatry, UCLA
  
• Jury selection in Pentagon papers case
  
• Consultant for Department of Defense
  
• Principal in Bingham Foundation Study of Adult Development and Self Help Psychotherapy
  
• Started Interactive Health Systems online
  
• Project with Erik Erikson on Love and Work
  
• Author of psychiatric textbook chapter on Adult Development
  
• Honored by the Smithsonian as a pioneer in the use of computers in mental health
  
• Created the Therapeutic Learning Program
  
• Created the Mastering My Life Program
  
• Created the Shrink Yourself online program for emotional eating
  
• Created the My Virtual Shrink online program

• Shrink Yourself, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2007
  
• Transformations: Growth and Change in Adult Life, Simon and Schuster, 1979

• "Reengineering Mental Health." In Curry, W. (Ed.), Reengineering Health, The American College of Physician Executives, 1998
  
• "The Use of Computers in Therapy." In Trabin, T. and Freeman, M. (Eds.), The Computerization of Behavioral Healthcare, 1996
  
• "Development, Problem Solving, and Generalized Learning: The Therapeutic Learning Program (TLP)." In Miller, M., Hammond, K., and Hile, M. (Eds.), Mental Health Computing: Computers and Medicine, 1995
  
• "Brief Psychotherapy and Adult Development and Computer Assisted Therapy in an HMO Setting." In Mental Health and Managed Care, American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1992
  
• "Clinical Lessons From Adult Development, Nemiroff, A. and Colarusso, C. A. (Eds.), New Dimensions in Adult Development, Basic Books, Inc.,1990
  
• "Therapeutic Learning Program (TLP): Computer Assisted short-term Psychotherapy." In Talking to Strangers: Mediated Therapeutic Ablex Publishing Company, l990
  
• "The Therapeutic Learning Program." In Mezirow, J. (Ed.), Adult Learning, 1990
  
• Some Pros and Cons of Computer-Assisted Psychotherapy." In The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 1989
  
• "Adulthood." In Kaplan, H. I., M.D. and Sadock, B. J., M.D. (Eds.), Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 1989
  
• Author: "The Therapeutic Learning Program (TLP), A Computer-Assisted Short-Term Treatment Program." In Computers in Psychiatry/Psychology, 1986
  
• "Three Vice Presidents in Mid-Life." In the Harvard Business Review, 1981
  
• "The Phases of Adult Life: A Study in Developmental Psychology." In Readings of Adult Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives, 1981
  
• "Psychoanalytic Theory of Adulthood Consciousness." In Greenspan, S. I. and Pollack, G. H. (Eds.), The Course of Life/III: Adulthood and the Aging Process.
  
• "Transformations in Mid-Life." In New York University Education Quarterly, 1980
  
• "Transformations During Adult Years." In Smelzer and Erickson (Eds.), Themes of Love and Work in Adulthood, 1980
  
• "The Phases of Adult Life: Study in Developmental Psychology." In The American Journal of Psychiatry, 1972
  
• "Preventative Psychiatry and the Psychoanalytic Field Theory of Reality." In The Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association, 1970

• "Aging and Alcoholism." The 26th meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, New Approaches in Psychoanalysis, 1982
  
• "Recovery from Childhood." The University of Kansas, Division of Continuing Education, 3rd National Conference on the Adult Life Cycle: From Theory to Practice-Developing Through Relationships, 1982
  
• "Life Transitions as a Challenge to Learning from Experience: Breaking Specific Stress Patterns." New Perspectives on Life Transition and Adult Learning: Implications for Practice, A National Conference for Adult Educators. Teachers College, Columbia University, 1982
  
• "Developmental Tasks: Men at Mid-Life." In Generations, Western Gerontological Society, 1979
  
• "Self Tolerance." In Psychology Today, 1975