To be or not to be, that is the question.
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Nothing is good nor bad but thinking makes it so.

    These two quotes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet  represent the intersection of my clinical and scholarly interests. Almost from the start, my clinical training and practice have revolved around cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT). CBT is a body of theory, research, and therapy principles that hinge on the idea (now with solid scientific support) that how we think about what happens to us strongly shapes how we feel and behave. This is a very optimistic view, since it teaches that we are not at the mercy of life’s vicissitudes – that by changing our beliefs and attitudes we can also change how we feel and behave.

    I have always thought that this optimism made CBT a natural fit for the problem of suicide. When faced with someone’s suicide, we often ask ourselves, “What must he/she have been thinking?” Why would one person commit suicide, when another person in similar circumstances becomes even more determined to overcome adversity? And if we can begin to understand the differences, can we use what we learn to help suicidal people change their thinking to a more constructive, adaptive mode?

    My early research and publications focused on this issue (Ellis, 1986; Ellis and Ratliff, 1986), culminating with the publication of my book with Cory Newman, Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide through Cognitive Therapy (1996). However, along the way, it has become increasingly clear that we cannot advance very far toward a therapy for suicidal individuals without taking into account the varieties of suicidality. In other words, different people become suicidal for different reasons; it is unlikely that we will be successful trying to prevent suicide with a “one size fits all” therapy. This is the focus of my current scholarly work. For example, I recently completed work on a book that brings together a variety of perspectives on theoretical, clinical, and empirical aspects of cognition and suicide (Ellis, 2006). I am also interested in understanding how negative health behaviors (such as cigarette smoking and not exercising) might relate to heightened risk for suicidality.

    I began my professional career at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Charleston Division. My duties there included a substantial clinical caseload (focusing mostly on adults with anxiety disorders and depression) and teaching psychiatry residents and psychology interns how to do cognitive-behavior therapy. I joined the Marshall University Department of Psychology faculty in August, 2002.

References

Ellis, T. E. (1986).  Toward a cognitive therapy for suicidal individuals. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.  17, 125-130.

Ellis, T.E. (Ed.)(2006). Cognition and Suicide: Theory, Research, and Practice. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Books.

Ellis, T. E. & Ratliff, K. (1986).  Cognitive characteristics of suicidal and nonsuicidal psychiatric inpatients.  Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 625-634.

Ellis, T.E., & Newman, C.F. (1996). Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide through Cognitive Therapy. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. [click here for ordering information]