A DIY Prescription for Happiness! This insightful book from wife-and-husband physicians Carrie and Alton Barron presents an innovative, highly achievable five-part plan to find happiness and alleviate depression and anxiety by tapping into creative potential. A gifted psychiatrist and a premier hand surgeon, Carrie and Alton Barron draw upon the latest psychological research, a combined forty years of medical practice, and personal experience to demonstrate how creative action is integral to long-term happiness and well-being. The Five-Part Prescription for the Creativity Cure—Insight, Movement, Mind Rest, Your Own Two Hands, and Mind Shift—leads the way to a more meaningful, fulfilling life by simultaneously developing self-understanding and self-expression. With the Barrons’ detailed tools and strategies for cultivating creative outlets, overcoming unconscious fears and barriers to happiness, and linking internal thought to external action, readers will build the mind-set and habits necessary for happiness and positive change. They will experience—and learn how to sustain—the deep satisfaction that accompanies creating something by hand. The perfect self-help book for our handmade, homemade, crafting culture, The Creativity Cure has a simple yet profoundly inspirational message: that you can find the authentic, contented life you crave by taking happiness into your own two hands. 1)“Aninvaluable action guide to creating opportunities for greater joy, purpose, andmeaning through self-expression.” ― Library Journal " The Creativity Cure is a most welcome addition to the literature on personal and relationship transformation. From working with several thousand couples over the years, Kathlyn and I have become strong proponents of creativity for the transformation of relationships. The same is true for personal transformation: creativity is often the missing piece, the absence of which has been sending distress signals in the form of anxiety and depression. The Drs. Barron have done a marvelous job in bringing this often-hidden factor to light. I highly recommend that you read this book." -- Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., author of Conscious Living and coauthor with Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks, of Conscious Loving " The Creativity Cure rocks! The Barrons have written a prescription for happiness. Follow the doctors' orders and you can't help but feel better." -- Peter Criss, founding member of KISS and author of Makeup to Breakup “The Barrons have outlined a clear and achieveable step-by-step process that allows anyone to not only heal but to unlock our individual road map for a powerful, happy and fulfilling life." -- Bob Woodruff, ABC Correspondent and author of In an Instant Carrie Barron, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist/psychoanalyst on the faculty of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons who also has a private practice in New York City. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, won several academic awards, and presented original works on creativity and psychoanalysis at national meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Alton Barron, MD, is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and is currently the President of the New York Society for Surgery of the Hand. He has been the surgeon for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera for more than a decade. Dr. Barron is a consultant for CBS and has appeared on the CBS Early Show. He has also written for The New York Times , was listed in The New York Times Magazine as one of the 2009 Super Docs, and has published extensively in multiple peer-reviewed journals. F ROM THE TIME I was a small child I reveled in creativity, and therapy was a big part of the conversation in my house—my parents were both therapists—so this book, which combines the two, feels like a natural extension of the way I live, and have since I was a young girl. Creativity was held in high regard in my entwined extended family. We were eight cousins, and several of the eldest, plus their significant others, were established artists. I was not among this elite, though I did sing for many years, but I enjoyed listening to them talk about the world of art and I always wanted to be a member of their club. My fascination with psychological ideas and healing as well as creativity started early. When I was nine, I would pretend I was a therapist and act out treatment scenarios with ideas from the Ann Landers column. At twelve, I wanted to be a psychoanalyst because after two sessions with a child analyst, I felt a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I left the room. She asked about what I liked to do, what my nighttime dreams were, and whether I would rather be seven or seventeen. After seeing her, I stopped getting into trouble and started getting good grades. However, when I underwent my own four-days-a-week-on-the-couch treatment (a requirement for psychoanalytic training), I did not find it to be the humanistic enterprise I had imag