About Us
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Alicia Fortinberry is an award-winning health writer, relationship expert, senior executive coach and psychotherapist. Together with her husband and long-term collaborator Dr Bob Murray, she is founder of the highly effective Uplift Program, and author of the acclaimed books Raising an Optimistic Child (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Alicia Fortinberry received an MS degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. Alicia excels in helping individuals, business leaders and Fortune 500 corporations resolve conflict, reduce stress, and harness their innate optimism, resilience and effectiveness. Recent corporate clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Freehills, Ernst & Young, Promina, Oracle Corporation, and the Australian Office of State Revenue. She is also a leading mind-body therapist and Feldenkrais (learning through movement) Practitioner and a pioneer in the development and teaching of techniques for using movement to enhance wellbeing. She has spoken extensively on her own healing from "treatment resistant" depression, which she attributes in large part to her loving marriage to Bob and a growing spiritual awareness. In the media, Alicia has worked as Senior Editor for New Woman magazine, editorial advisor on a PBS medical series on stress, producer for the Physicians Radio Network, and contributor to The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Home Guide to Mental Health. As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, she had her own health series on local television. She has written extensively on health and psychology for major national magazines and newspapers including Psychology Today, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, Ladies Home Journal, Mademoiselle, National Employment Weekly, New Woman, and Working Woman. Most recently, she has been a syndicated columnist on relationships and women's issues for a number of regional magazines, including Tampa Bay Woman. Alicia has lived in Japan and Europe and studied yoga in India and Sri Lanka and Tai Chi in Hong Kong. She studied family therapy with Virginia Satir, (one of the originators in that field) and comparative culture and systems theory with Gregory Bateson (author of Steps Towards an Ecology of Mind). She is a member of the Feldenkrais Guild, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and the Association for Global New Thought, as well as the alumnae associations for the Columbia University School of Journalism, Sarah Lawrence College, the Brearley School, and the American School in London. |
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Creating Optimism Mission Statement Our mission is to replace depression with optimism, isolation with connectedness and fear with empowerment. The Creating Optimism website, books, audio-programs and workshops are a major tool for achieving this. Creating Optimism Philosophy A human being is a mind/body system that interacts with the environment. Physical safety, wellbeing and happiness require that all aspects of the person be addressed -- brain, body, emotions and spirit. The essence of the human ecology is our connections to other people, our bodies, nature and our own spirituality. The source of personal distress and social disharmony is that we live in a society that is far removed from the way in which we evolved to live. The rapid increase in illnesses from depression to ADD/ADHD and from cancer to coronary disease are due to the dissolution of social and familial structures. This social mismatch is also the cause of fanaticism, poverty and violence. For true healing to occur we need to acknowledge the social causes of individual and group dysfunction and relearn the lost art of relationship-making. Only from within the safety and support of these new networks of relationships can we begin to combat the growing epidemics of isolation, mental illness, violence, abuse and racial and religious intolerance and persecution. Only then can individuals and society begin to heal the wounds of past trauma, and remove the blocks to leading a life of purpose, clarity and hope. We call this philosophy "healing from the outside in." Creating Optimism Goals The goal of the Creating Optimism site is to help people to create relationships in all areas of their lives that will allow them to fulfill their human potential for health, happiness, harmony and abundance. As these personal connections deepen and spread they will form the basis of a healthier, more tolerant and just society. To this end we deepen our commitment to:
Dr Bob Murray is a bestselling author, relationship expert and psychologist. Together with his wife and long-term collaborator Alicia Fortinberry, he is founder of the highly effective Uplift Program, and author of the acclaimed books Raising an Optimistic Child (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Dr Bob Murray holds degrees in psychology from New York University and the University of Sydney. His innovative and proven theories and techniques that focus on relationships, depression, childhood trauma and psychology show up frequently in the media and in professional journals. In the field of management, Bob has worked for a number of multinational companies and government organizations, including Hill Samuel Merchant Bank, ICI, the British Film Institute, the Central Office of Information (UK). As a television writer, reporter and producer, Bob worked for the BBC in England and for NBC and CBS in the US, winning a number of prestigious international prizes, including the Prix de Jeunesse, the Italia Prize, and the Tonight Award. Bob has written numerous articles for specialist publications, as well as books on a number of topics, including cooking, boat building and sailing, children's stories and a bestselling novel, Twilight at Dawn. He is a member of the International P.E.N. Club, the American Psychological Association, the APA divisions Psychology of Religion and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Institute of Noetic Science, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the NYU Alumnae Association, and the University of Sydney Arts Association. He has been married to Alicia Fortinberry for twenty years and has relished every minute of it.
Best-selling authors, gifted trainers and dynamic speakers, they have appeared on national television, taught at major universities and consulted for Fortune 500 companies. Authors of the best-selling books Raising an Optimistic Child(McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism(McGraw-Hill, 2004), Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry have been teaching thousands of people their innovative, successful relationship-based philosophy for over 20 years. Their Program techniques have an astounding 94% success rate in elevating mood and alleviating depression (based on follow-up questionnaires of the Uplift Intensive workshop up to 2 years later). As originators of the Fortinberry Murray Method, Bob and Alicia have trained health professionals at major universities and teaching hospitals, including Duke University Medical Center, Tufts University Medical Center, JFK University and the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. They have spoken at national professional conferences and associations ranging from the Association for Humanistic Psychology to the National Council on Alcoholism. Frequent consultants to multinational companies and government organizations on team building and relationships, they name PriceWaterhouseCooper, Ernst & Young, Oracle Corporation, and Kaiser Permanente among their many corporate clients. Widely sought after as experts on depression, stress, PTSD, and mind-body approaches such as Feldenkrais, they are regularly quoted in newspapers and featured on radio and TV, including ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC Both Bob and Alicia have had distinguished careers as writers, and are joint authors of many articles on depression, relationships and popular psychology. They also produce a powerful series of audio programs. Both native New Yorkers, they divide their time between San Francisco, Tampa and Sydney, Australia.
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Dr Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry are internationally recognized experts in creating optimism and overcoming depression. They are passionate about each person's ability to join with others in healing, supportive relationships and create lives full of joy and meaning.