Self-Help and Psychology Magazine - A Pioneering Site
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |
If you were on the World Wide Web in 1994 you would have found few sites dealing with psychology, human behavior, or self-help resources. One of those few would have been Self-Help and Psychology Magazine (which started as "Practical Psychology Magazine"). The site was founded in November of 1994 by Marlene Maheu, Ph.D., and it has been growing ever since. It contains one of the largest and most popular collections of original self-help material on the net. The only rival to this site's content is Mental Health Net, which is similar in scope. Which site is the largest mental health site on the net? I'm not sure, but it is one of these two. (Mental Health Net will be reviewed soon).
When you entered the site in 1997 [when this review was written] you were greeted by a user-friendly front page, with a menu bar at the left and a search engine at the bottom. I found the search engine to be thorough without giving me a lot of extra garbage. The first choice on the menu bar got you to "What's Hot" - a list of recently added material. The list is huge, and is a good place to get a sense of the scope of this site.
The Articles & Library section is where most of the original material is located. A table of links takes you to various departments such as Aging & Aging Parents, Child, Family & Parenting, Stress, and Work & Finances. At last count, the library had 27 such sections containing original content.
One of the best sections of the library is Joanna Poppink's resources on Eating Disorders. This is designed as a self-help program which can help someone with an eating disorder treat themselves. There are adequate warnings that professional help may be needed, and anyone with a serious eating disorder should not expect this program to be the cure. It's a good place to start, though, and anyone who takes the time to really work through the chapters and suggestions in this program will know themselves better by the end.
One of the advantages of an internet magazine is the possibility for interaction. Self-Help and Psychology Magazine is highly interactive, with consumer surveys and bulletin boards. The Interactive Zone includes a survey of Online Psychotherapy Consumers as well as a Cybersex Survey. It is also one of the gateways to the Discussion Zones.
Looking for information about a problem in your life? One place to start is Self-Help and Psychology Magazine.
Mental Health Resources Bookstore
Mental Health Search
Graphic used by permission of Self-help & Psychology Magazine
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |