This three-part videotape series - based on a workshop with renowned author Mary Ellen Copeland - presents simple, effective and noninvasive self-help strategies for anyone dealing with emotional, behavioral or psychiatric challenges. Used separately or together, these videos provide useful information about how to get well and stay well. They are invaluable for in-service trainings and for self-help and support groups.

Key Concepts for Mental Health offers an introduction to the underlying principles of Mary Ellen Copeland's recovery model. Lively and insightful discussions include hope (2 min.), personal responsibility (1 min.), education (2 min.), self-advocacy (4 min.), support (16 min.), health care (6 min.), and medication (11 min.). The videotape may be stopped between sections if desired. 50 Minutes.

Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) provides a simple system for monitoring and managing emotional and psychiatric symptoms, as well as avoiding unhealthy habits or behavior patterns. In this video, Ms. Copeland discusses with her group the steps to developing a "WRAP". In order to arrest symptoms and hasten remission and recovery, participants both learn and share personal strategies for dealing with each level of relapse. 32 Minutes.

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The Wellness Toolbox introduces the concept of "wellness tools" — simple actions that anyone can do to feel better and to stay well. Participants discuss with Ms. Copeland how to create a personal "toolbox" for their own use in times of stress or increased symptoms. The video is organized into various topics including reaching out for support, peer counseling, focusing, relaxation and stress reduction, and journaling. 28 Minutes.

"CREATING WELLNESS is the leading edge of mental health education. This extraordinary video shows how you can find the support and resources you need, and how to chart a course back to wellness. This is a program full of compassionate help by someone who's been to the far side of depression and back — and knows what she's talking about."

- Matthew McKay, Ph.D.
Cofounder and Publisher, New Harbinger Publications
Author, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook

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A WRAP Workbook adapted for people with a dual diagnosis of psychiatric illness and addictive disorder by Mary Ellen Copeland, MS, MA

This special edition of the original WELLNESS RECOVERY ACTION PLAN book presents a system developed and used successfully by people with a variety of physical and emotional symptoms including addictive disorders. It has helped them use self help skills more easily to monitor their symptoms, decrease the severity and frequency of symptoms, prevent relapse and improve the quality of their lives.

Learning self help skills for dealing with physical and emotional symptoms, as well as addictions is a simple process... but it's a much greater challenge using self help methods during the most difficult times -- when they can help the most -- and incorporating them into daily life.

This book will help you:

• develop your own list of activities for your every day well being
  
• track triggering events and early warning signs
  
• prepare your personal responses if symptoms increase
  
• create a plan for your supporters to follow to care for you if necessary

Using the Wellness Recovery Action Plan, self management of addictions, physical and emotional symptoms becomes possible and practical.

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The new Mental Health Recovery including Wellness Recovery Action Planning CURRICULUM: Facilitator Training Manual is now available. This program is based on years of research experience by Mary Ellen Copeland. Teta Hilsdon, Mary Ellen's associate, has been working tirelessly on compiling this manual for many months. Gene Deegan, a Recovery Educator from Lawrence, Kansas, developed the transparencies into a PowerPoint presentation which is included on a CD-ROM in the curriculum package. The curriculum package includes:

• Section I: a detailed chapter of specific instructions on all aspects of facilitating Mental Health Recovery including Wellness Recovery Action Planning groups and workshops,
• Section II: thumbnail sketches of each transparency included on the CD-ROM
• Section III: supporting activities, handouts and discussion topics, and
• Section IV: an extensive list of related resources for the facilitator. While not specifically intended for use in working with individuals, it can certainly be used in that way, and there are some notes addressing this possibility.

This curriculum is the training format that Mary Ellen uses to accompany her five-day Mental Health Recovery Seminar II: Facilitators Training. But it can also be used by anyone who is familiar with Mary Ellen's Recovery work, including her focus on Wellness Recovery Action Planning. The materials are specific to facilitating Mary Ellen's WRAP workshop, Mental Health Recovery Seminar I including Wellness Recovery Action Planning, and is not necessarily a resource to be used in developing other kinds of programs. However, some facilitators are using this Recovery/WRAP focus in combination with other programs.

This educational curriculum presents an approach which is complementary to, but not a replacement for, other mental health treatment protocols. Due to the wide differences in the amount of time and other resources available to individuals, agencies, organizations and sponsors, this is not a scripted curriculum. A wide variety of options are offered in formats, timelines and activities. You will have at your disposal a thorough framework that will allow you enough flexibility to design a program that best meets your needs.

The cost of the curriculum package is $129, plus $5 shipping.

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El aprender los metodos de auto-ayuda para abordar Los sintomas fisicos y emocionales puede serfacil...sin embargo es un reto mucho mayor utilizar dichos metodos durante Los momentos mas dificiles—cuando pueden ser mas utiles—e incorporarlos a la vida cotidiana.

Este libro presenta UN sistema desarrollado y usado con exito por personas con una diversidad de sintomas fisicos y emocionales. Les ha ayudado a usar metodos de auto-ayuda con una mayor facilidad para vigilar sus intomas, para disminuir la severidad y frecuencia de Los sintomas y para mejorar la calidad de sus vidas.

Este libro le ayudara a:

• desarroliar su propia lista de actividades para su bienestar diario anotar Los acontecimientos desencadenadores y senales de alerta
• preparar sus respuestas personales en caso de que se incrementen Los sintomas
• crear UN plan para que las personas que to apoyan lo puedan cuidar en caso necesario

Esta guia accesible incluye informacion sobre el desarrollo de UN sistema de apoyo, El uso de consejeria mutua de pareja, la concentracion, actividades creativas, El uso de UN diario, la musica, la dieta, la luz, ejercicios de relajamiento y El lograr UN buen sueno nocturno.

Cuando uno usa El Plan de Accion para la Recuperacion del Bienestar, El manejo propio de Los sintomas fisicos y emocionales se hace posible y practico.

As Mary Ellen teaches around the country, she continues to find that loneliness is a strong contributor to depression and poor quality of life for people who experience psychiatric symptoms. In this book, Mary Ellen has described how to develop and keep a strong support system. In addition she has addressed many issues that make it difficult for many people to make and keep friends. As with her other books, this book was the result of a study of nearly 100 people to find out how they relieve loneliness in their lives.

"Loneliness is pervasive in our fast-paced culture. Since people tend to increase their sense of emotional distress when they are disconnected from others, the effects of loneliness are a serious problem. This excellent book takes a hands-on approach to relieving loneliness and offers people hope that relationships are a path to healing and growth."

- Sherry Mead, MSW
Founder of the Stepping Stone Peer Support Center

Mary Ellen Copeland co-authored the book Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Gentle Woman's Guide with Maxine Harris of Community Connections in Washington, DC.

This important self-help book describes a weekly lesson process that women can use to relieve the effects of trauma in their lives, either when working in a group, with a counselor, or when - as many women must do - working on their own. It rebuilds self-esteem and gives back the personal power, trust and sense of connection that are taken away by a traumatic experience.

This book is based on the findings of an intensive study of strategies that help women who have been traumatized to heal from the effects of this trauma and make their lives the way they want them to be.

Every recovery holds the potential for relapse. And for many who have fought their way back to health form a physical disorder or emotional trauma, the return of old symptoms can be even more devastating than the original crisis.

This workbook provides a carefully structured system that anyone can use to monitor symptoms and respond to them in a way that reduces or eliminates the possibility of relapse. You will identify those things you need to do every day to maintain an optimum level of wellness, how to recognize the daily events that can cause symptoms to increase, the early warning signs that problems might be recurring, the signs that the situation is worsening, and how to make personal action plans that can reverse the situation. It will also guide you through the process of developing a personal crisis plan for others to use if they need to take responsibility for your care.

"I am delighted that Mary Ellen Copeland has designed such comprehensive and easy-to-use guidelines. Winning Against Relapse can be used for a multitude of illnesses, including chronic pain states. It promotes the state of optimum wellness that should be our goal."

   - Devin J. Starlanyl, co-author of Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome and author of The Fibromyalgia Advocate

Download a sample chapter of this book.

"Winning Against Relapse Program" is a one-hour audio tape in which Mary Ellen Copeland talks the listener step-by-step through developing a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP). This tape can be used with or without her books describing the WRAP program: "WRAP" and "Winning Against Relapse".

These workbooks and the audio tape provide a carefully structured system that anyone can use to monitor and respond to symptoms in a way that reduces or eliminates the possibility of relapse.

Mary Ellen focuses on the key concepts of her program and describes a progressive process for self-monitoring, staying well, and creating change in the way listeners feel or behave. She also includes descriptions of simple, safe, effective wellness tools that can be used to maintain health and help listeners feel better.

New Harbinger Publications, 1999, $11.95.

Is Worry taking up too much of your time and energy? Or is constant worry literally making you sick?

A little worry can actually serve a variety of positive functions, as it does when it helps us identify real problems or motivates us to take some needed action. But for some , worry is a problem, leading to difficulty sleeping, muscle tension, headaches and other physical complaints. Others feel perpetually tired, have trouble concentrating, or suffer from depression.

The good news is that you can learn to reduce your anxiety and deal with worry more effectively. The Worry Control Book is a supportive and comprehensive guide offering real help to anyone struggling with excessive concerns about health, money, family or work.

Download a sample chapter of this book.

• depressed,
• sad,
• thinking about hurting themselves,
• feeling isolated from their friends,
• dropping out of their old activities that used to make them feel good about themselves,
• irritable and /or angry with their parents.

Used successfully by other young adults, this book will guide you though the process of finding help for yourself and getting on the road to feeling happy and healthy.

Learning self help skills for dealing with physical and emotional symptoms can be simple ... but it's a much greater challenge using self help methods during the most difficult times - when they can help the most - and incorporating them into daily life.

This book presents a system developed and used successfully by people with a variety of physical and emotional symptoms. It has helped them use self help skills more easily to monitor their symptoms, decrease the severity and frequency of symptoms, and improve the quality of their lives. Paperback, $10.00

From the best selling author, Mary Ellen Copeland, comes the Second Edition of The Depression Workbook. Learn and practice the latest research-based self-help strategies to relieve depression and address other mental health issues including how to:

• Take responsibility for your own wellness
• Use charts to track and control your moods
• Find helpful care providers
• Build a system of mutual support
• Increase self-confidence and self-esteem
• Use relaxation, diet, exercise, and light to stabilize your moods
• Avoid conditions that can worsen your symptoms

A new chapter guides readers through developing your own plan for managing symptoms and staying well. This process, known as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), was developed by a group of people who experience depression, or manic depression and/or have other mental health concerns and who now report that this plan helped them relieve their symptoms and improve the quality of their lives.

This edition is updated in all areas including new medical and holistic perspectives and extensive list of helpful resources and Web sites that will assist you in your journey to wellness. By letting you share more than a hundred case stories and empowering you with the most current therapeutic strategies, The Depression Workbook, Second Edition will give you insight, energy, and hope.

This workbook is not light reading. Neither, however, is it complicated, theoretical or esoteric. Living Without Depression and Manic Depression is a down-and-dirty guide for people who experience mood swings. It's a manual on how to wage guerilla warfare on emotional instability...hour by hour, season by season; in one's home or workplace; by using medication, diet, peer counseling, private and government agencies; and a host of other suggestions sent back from the battlefield.

Interactive exercises teach essential coping skills such as building a strong support system, fighting negative thoughts, finding appropriate professional help and using relaxation and exercise. Paperback $18.95

There is a powerful message of hope in Mary Ellen Copeland's Coping With Depression. This video is for anyone struggling with depression: for family members, friends and health care professionals. Warm, helpful, and engaging, the video is the fruit of research and hundreds of interviews with depressed persons.

This tape shows how to incorporate into your life the strategies that the author and others have used successfully to keep their own depressive episodes at bay. An excellent educational resource, the video validates the feelings of people with depression and encourages a program of simple yet effective self-help techniques.

Well-known for her seminar and lecture presentations, Mary Ellen Copeland holds an MA in Counseling Psychology. Depression had a major impact on her life until she achieved long-term stability through the wellness program she describes on this video. Running time 60 minutes, VHS only. $39.95

Depression affects over 10 million people a year in the US Over an average lifetime, over 15 percent of the population will experience serious depressive reactions. Yet 80 percent of all depressives and manic depressives get better with proper treatment. Living With Depression and Manic Depression offers many effective self-help techniques that can enhance wellness and mood stability.

This audio tape describes a program based on years of research and hundreds of interviews with depressive and manic depressive persons. It inspires confidence that you can achieve real breakthroughs in coping. Warm, helpful, and engaging, the video is the fruit of research and hundreds of interviews with depressed persons. One cassette in a rigid plastic box, running time 90 minutes, $11.95