For information, contact jkottler@fullerton.edu

Jeffrey A. Kottler, best-selling author of over 65 books in psychology, education, and counseling, is one of the foremost experts on human relationships. His books, translated into a dozen languages, are renown for their authentic and honest prose and explorations of complex phenomena in accessible language.

Jeffrey has studied at Oakland University, Harvard University, Wayne State University, University of Stockholm, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1977. He has worked as a teacher, counselor, therapist, and researcher in a variety of settings including hospitals, mental health centers, schools, crisis centers, clinics, universities, corporations, and private practice. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar in Iceland and Peru, as well as having lectured extensively in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Venezuela, Namibia, Nepal and other countries. Jeffrey is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Counseling at California State University, Fullerton.

He is also President and Co-Founder of the Madhav Ghimire Foundation which provides educational scholarships for lower caste girls in rural Nepal who would otherwise be unable to attend school.

Kottler's books are directed towards a number of different audiences:

1) for practicing therapists and counselors about the inner world of helping others:On Being a Therapist (1986),The Imperfect Therapist: Learning From Failure in Therapeutic Practice (1989),Compassionate Therapy: Working With Difficult Clients (1992),Growing a Therapist (1995),What You Never Learned in Graduate School (1997),The Therapist's Workbook(1999),Exploring & Treating Acquisitive Desire(1999), Doing Good: Passion and Commitment For Helping Others (2000), Making Changes Last (2001), Bad Therapy: Master Therapists Share Their Worst Failures (2002), The Mummy At the Dining Room Table: Eminent Therapists Reveal Their Most Unusual Cases and What They Teach Us About Human Behavior(2003),An American Shaman: An Odyssey of Ancient Healing Traditions (2004), Their Finest Hour: Master Therapists Share Their Greatest Success Stories (2005), The Client Who Changed Me: Stories of Therapist Personal Transformation (2005).

2) for teachers and educators about the human dimensions of helping: What's Really Said in the Teachers' Lounge (1997), Succeeding With Difficult Students (1997),Secrets For Secondary School Teachers (1998), Students Who Drive You Crazy (2002), Children With Limited English (2002). Counseling Skills for Teachers (2007), On Being a Teacher (2005).

3) for students in education and helping professions: Advanced Group Leadership (1993), Introduction to Therapeutic Counseling (2003),Nuts & Bolts of Helping (2000), Learning Group Leadership (2001), Theories in Counseling and Therapy (2002),One Life at a Time: Helping Skills and Interventions (2003),The emerging professional counselor: Student dreams to professional realities (2005), Understanding Research: Becoming a Competent and Critical Consumer (2006), Stress Management and Prevention (2007).

Kottler is also known for his provocative books about contemporary issues and human struggles that are so often ignored even though they are so much a part of being alive. In Private Moments, Secret Selves, he explored the forbidden world of what people do when they're alone. In Beyond Blame: A New Way of Resolving Conflict in Relationships, he examined the most haunting and frustrating aspects of relationships with family members, friends, bosses, and co-workers, helping people to change their own behavior rather than focusing on others. In The Language of Tears, he investigated one of the most mysterious dimensions of being human-- the phenomenon of crying and what it means in people's lives. In Travel That Can Change Your Life, he looks at the kinds of personal transformations that are possible when people structure trips in such a way to promote dramatic growth and transition. In the New York Times Bestseller, The Last Victim: Inside the Mind of Serial Killers, Jeffrey tells the story of Jason Moss and his experiences with some of the worlds most notorious killers. He explores the inner world of murder, as well as the reasons why people are so attracted to violence vicariously. In a series of four books with Jon Carlson, Jeffrey has interviewed the most famous therapists in the world about their worst therapy (Bad Therapy), their most unusual cases (The Mummy at the Dining Room Table), their best sessions (My Finest Hour), and the clients who most significantly impacted their lives (The Client Who Changed Me). He also told the psychobiographies of ten creative geniuses who struggled with mental illness (Divine Madness).

A humorous and captivating speaker, Jeffrey engages audiences in provocative, personal, and poignant journeys. His charismatic and motivational speeches are so effective because of the ways he involves the audience actively in applying concepts to their own lives. The goals of his talks and workshops are not only to inform and entertain, but to transform people-- the ways they think and act-- in those areas that matter most.