Dr Russ Harris - Biography
Dr Russ Harris: Medical Practitioner - Psychotherapist - Executive Coach
Russ's background is in medicine. He qualified as a doctor in 1989, at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He migrated to Australia in 1991, and set up practice as a GP in Melbourne. As a GP he became increasingly interested in the psychological aspects of health and wellbeing (and increasingly disenchanted with writing prescriptions). Ultimately this interest led to a total career change, and he now works in two different, yet complementary roles: both as a therapist and as a coach.
Since 2005, Russ has travelled all around Australia, and internationally, providing ACT workshops for a wide variety of health professionals, from coaches and counsellors, to psychologists and psychiatrists. His ACT-based self-help book 'The Happiness Trap' is an Australian best-seller, and is now published in over twenty countries and fifteen different languages. He has also written an introductory textbook on ACT, titled 'ACT Made Simple', and a self-help book for common relationship issues, titled ‘ACT With Love’. In September this year, he has yet another self-help book coming out, an ACT approach to success, confidence and peak performance, called ‘The Confidence Gap’.
Over the years, he has trained in many types of therapy and coaching, but when he discovered Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, he was so deeply impressed that he immediately went to the U.S.A. to train with its creators, Steve Hayes, Kelly Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl. Since then, he has been back numerous times, and is now an internationally-renowned ACT trainer, he was so deeply impressed that he immediately went to the U.S.A. to train with its creators, Steve Hayes, Kelly Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl. Since then, he has been back numerous times, and is now an internationally-renowned ACT trainer.
