Joel Dames has worked as school psychologist, counselor, and teacher of grades elementary through university. He has published in professional journals including Contemporary Issues in Reading, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. He coauthored “Scripting the Mind with REST, Rational-Emotive Self-Talk,” (in Japanese with English Introduction by world-renown American psychologist Albert Ellis) Mikasa Shobo Publishing Co., Tokyo.
At 80, his life has been one of incredible suffering and incredible self-renewal. He writes with the wisdom of a psychotically violent monster self-transformed into a careing husband and father.
His initial attempt at healing began with disastrous psychoanalysis senior year of high school that culminated in a series of electroconvulsive shock treatments senior year of college. Out of options, the psychiatrist admitted ECT was like kicking the TV.
He majored in psychology through graduate school, but remained troubled and explosively violent until years later when healing began through Aikido (Ki-Breathing Meditation,) Metacognitive Therapy, and Attention Training and Open-Focus Therapy.
Alfred Adler, considered by some the father of individual psychology, believed, that understanding of human nature lies not with psychologists and psychiatrists, but with those of us who have suffered and survived.
Albert Ellis would say, “It is fucking hard, but it is never too fucking hard.” Over time we reach levels that were, not long before, beyond our imagination. We break through limits. But it is fucking hard. Along the way,slip and slide along what feels like the bottom.
While in Japan “Scripting the Mind with REST, Rational-Emotive Self-Talk,” (Mikasa Shobo Publishing Co., Tokyo) sold out of two twelve thousand printings. His popular coauthor was Japanese and our book was in Japanese. World famous psychologist Albert Ellis edited the English manuscript and wrote the forward. While writing the book, neither of them knew police referred him to domestic abuse counseling.
He worked as school psychologist, counselor, and teacher of grades elementary through university. Without a doctorate, he managed to publish in professional journals including Contemporary Issues in Reading, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, while publishing fifty or so feature articles with photos, mostly for The Japan Times.
Current Book: “Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus” on Amazon as eBook and paperback.
