Praneeta Mahajan
Hamilton, 9 January 2023
Dr. Julie Smith with her book (website Image)
The pressures of modern living are real, ever-growing and hard on every individual. We all have grown used to a life of constant stimulation, information being fed from all channels and no time to think or process the complex emotions that we encounter.
Drawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith shares all the skills you need to get through life’s ups and downs in her book ‘Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?’
Filled with secrets from a therapist’s toolkit, this book has been deemed to be the must-have handbook for optimising your mental health. Dr Smith’s simple but expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help the readers stay resilient no matter what life throws their way.
Why this book matters
“In an age where talks around mental health are being widely accepted and encouraged, we still have a lot of work to do to make mental health solutions accessible to all.” This was the reason for Dr Julie Smith, a trained clinical psychologist to reach out to more people and use social media to spread her knowledge and help a larger number of people.
Dr Smith was one of the speakers at the e-Mental Health International Congress 2022, held in Auckland. She opened her address by stating some worrying statistics. She said that studies showed how 1 in every 4 Americans has no one to go to about their problems and the low social connection was the reason for many other problems like Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and high Blood pressure, Heart ailments among others.
“Therapy is what gives that connection to many,” said Dr Smith. “When I looked around, I thought, basic education about the mind and its functions should not be difficult to find. But no professionals would offer free therapy or be readily available when you need them.”
Dr Smith found the solution through her book. Written in short entries, the book can navigate the readers straight to the section they need depending on their challenge and immediately find the appropriate tools to help.
From managing anxiety, dealing with criticism or battling low mood, to building self-confidence, finding motivation or learning to forgive yourself, this book tackles the everyday issues that affect us all and offers easy, practical solutions that might just change your life.
The book makes navigation around complex everyday matters easier, by explaining the emotions one feels, how to deal with these, and how each of these feelings affects our thought process and resulting actions.
Dr Smith said “The things included in this book have a research evidence base. But I do not rest on that alone. I also know they can help because I have seen them help, time and again, for real people.”
About Dr Julie Smith
With more than Four Million followers on social media platforms like Tik-Tok and Instagram, more than a billion views that have made her video content viral, 2 BBC Films on her journey, many features in magazines and newspapers and immense support from the mental health experts around the Globe, Dr Smith has achieved immense success in turning clinical facts and researches into conversational videos.
Mr Jay Shetty, one of the most noted motivational speakers and Authors said “I’m blown away by her ability to communicate difficult ideas with ease, simplicity and practicality.”
The reach of her videos is so wide that Dr Smith now regularly has many passionate teachers reaching out to her for discussions around the mental well-being of their students and sharing her videos in their classrooms as a means to equip youngsters with self-management tools.
Dr Smith said that she was surprised by the large numbers of followers from the Indian community in particular, where the stigma around mental health is still prevalent.
She said that educating the masses is the key to bringing about change and technology can help amplify the message.
Her book “Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?” has been translated into more than 40 different languages, including German, Russian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Hindi, and Portuguese among others and is now the ‘Best Selling Audio Book’ and UK’s ‘Best Selling Non-Fiction Book’ for 2022.
The book is available online in Audiobook and paperback formats for an average RRP of $27.99.
Praneeta Mahajan is an Indian Newslink correspondent based in Hamilton.
