The Art of Riding Stress Waves

The Art of Riding Stress Waves: Self-help psychology for an anxious age

In this hyper-anxious age, how are we to live happy, healthy and satisfying lives?
On top of life’s usual challenges, we now face cascading social, economic, political and environmental crises the likes of which humanity has never seen before. And the stress waves keep rolling in.
Like ocean swells, as one stress wave crashes over us, the next forms. Psychologists can no longer provide the personalised support needed to meet the demand for mental health services. In response to this challenge, clinical psychologist Dr Wayne Somerville draws on his 40-plus years of experience as a therapist and trauma specialist to give you the essential knowledge and skills you need to ride the stress waves in your life.
The Art of Riding Stress Waves is an empowering, down-to-earth, self-help guide for dealing with all the challenges and threats — from the everyday to the lethally dangerous — that come our way. Practising the art of riding stress waves is not just about managing stress; the goal is to use stress to improve our lives.
In this book for adults, Dr Somerville guides readers to more effective ways to think, act and live. You’ll discover how Nature designed anxiety and our stress responses to protect us. You'll learn how our executive and deep minds work together to help us survive and thrive. You’ll find methods for harnessing your key mental processes to update old, problem-causing stress reactions.
The Art of Riding Stress Waves has three parts.
Part 1 sets out what you need to know in order to practise the art of riding stress waves. Dr Somerville explains the role that anxiety plays in ancient, evolved strategies that the human psyche draws upon to deal with stress. Anxiety is not a symptom; it’s a signal that alerts us to the presence of danger. When we know how to use them, the stress-related emotions of fear, anxiety, anger, guilt and depression, as well as our compassion and caring, can help us ride stress waves.
Dr Somerville argues against the medicalisation of mental health problems, and he explains why many stress responses, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are not a sign that there’s anything wrong with an affected person’s mind. In reality, many so-called mental disorders are natural and healthy — though less than optimal — responses to stress.
In Part 2, Dr Somerville offers readers tools, tips and techniques for tapping into the creative power of our key mental processes of perception, attention, belief, thought, reason, imagination, memory, language, emotion, intuition and dreaming. Dr Somerville also reviews popular, evidence-based therapies for anxiety and trauma.
The case studies in Part 3 demonstrate the art of riding stress waves in action. Dr Somerville argues that we have good grounds for hope, and we can be optimistic about the future. He encourages us to engage with the great challenges of our time, and shows us how we can prepare for the coming stress tsunamis.
The Art of Riding Stress Waves is for every adult who wants to make their life and the world better. It’s especially relevant for folk who suffer from anxiety, stress or trauma.

Dr Wayne Somerville is a 73-year-old, registered clinical psychologist and trauma specialist who has worked for 40 years in private practice. Wayne holds the degrees of B.A. (Honours, 1st Class), Master of Clinical Psychology and Doctor of Psychology. He has also taught and supervised university students enrolled in post-graduate clinical psychology programs. Wayne has published research on the treatment of phobia and run professional psychologist training workshops on gentle therapies for anxiety and trauma. With his wife, Susan, Wayne has also developed a treatment for, and presented workshops on, native forest dieback. Wayne and Susan campaigned against the gas field industrialisation of rural Australia.