A Developmentalist’s Guide
to Better Mental Health
At the centerpiece of Lois’s new book, A Developmentalist’s Guide to Better Mental Health: Navigating Everyday Life Dilemmas (Routledge, summer 2025) are readers’ letters to “The Developmentalist,” asking for help with the muddles of life in a world without signposts. Say reviewers: “…a powerful, social therapeutic invitation to transform everything!” “…embraces life’s challenges as opportunities for social–emotional growth.”
A Developmental “Advice Column”
“The Developmentalist” is an unusual advice column. People write to Lois asking for help with the “no-way-out” scenarios of their lives. She writes back with direction on how to explore these muddles with others, so as to create a pathway for growth. Practical and philosophical, she invites general readers and practitioners to explore a developmentalist’s practice that they can make their own.
Send in your letters!
Study & Grow
Says Lois, “I love supporting people to learn and develop—and creating environments with them for that to happen. To me the support and creating are inseparable.”
Meanderings
The latest articles, events, etc from Lois Holzman
25 February, 2025Imagination and Teardrops
I just learned about Gianni Rodari, a children’s writer and Communist almost unknown in the US. I love this description from a New York Times ar
02 February, 2025WE’RE BECOMING A BOOK!
We are becoming a book! Yes! A selection of your letters and my responses to them are the centerpiece of the upcoming A Developmentalist’s Guide to Be
06 January, 2025
Get In Touch
Lois Holzman is a cofounder with Fred Newman of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy and the Institute’s current director. She is a leading proponent of cultural approaches to learning, development and psychotherapy.
Email: lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
CV: Click Here