Stephanie Sorrell, author of Depression: Understanding the Black Dog

Stephanie was born in London and lived most of her life in the United Kingdom. When she was twelve she went to a Boarding School near Oxford where she stayed for four years. This was followed by nursing careers, one in orthopedics and the other working with people with learning difficulties in North Wales. But both these career directions were curtailed by major depressive illness. While living with her husband for sixteen years, she wrote for the romance market in the UK. However, Stephanie’s first love is poetry, many of which have been and still are published in gift books worldwide. She also contributed to Blue Mountain Arts cards in the USA.

In her mid thirties she was offered the editorship for a spiritually orientated publishing trust based on the pioneering work of Henry Thomas Hamblin, a retired Harley Street Optician who, after the sudden death of his ten year old son, left his successful practice in London to concentrate on changing people’s inner vision through positive thinking. In 1921, This was quite a radical philosophy at the time and his work inspired the American Ernest Holmes to founding Science of Mind journal in the States and which is still running today. He also worked closely with Joel Goldsmith, also an American, who became a close confidant and friend and founded the Infinite Way Movement.

While Stephanie was working as editor, she began her MA in Psychosynthesis Psychology at the London Institute for Psychosynthesis. She believed that with enough psychological and spiritual insight she would overcome her depression and help others to do the same. But this wasn’t the case, and it was through trial and error that she found, rather than overcoming depression, by drugs, psychology or psychotherapy, it actually was her journey. This became the subject of Stephanie’s thesis, The Light in the Darkness. Later, she expanded and modified this to become a book called Depression as a Spiritual Journey( O book 2009). This opened the door to leading workshops in both the UK and in Houston, Texas. She found this very humbling and a key part of her understanding of how other people coped with depression. She also wrote a Psychosynthesis Made Easy book (Psyche Books 2012) as she felt it needed to be more widely available.

Depression : Understanding the Black Dog emerged from all Stephanie’s experience and research. Because understanding how depression occurs and the various levels it manifests on is key to working with this incredibly misunderstood dis-ease of being.

Stephanie currently lives against a stunning backdrop of mountains with her partner and whippet, Oliver. She also works at a local hospital as a Clinical Support Worker.