Growing up, I was always surrounded by books. Family lore has it that my Dad, who served in Europe during WW II, would remove K-rations from his pack in order to carry a book — actual food replaced by food for thought! During one of my early internships, I asked every senior staff member what clinical book had been most meaningful for them in their work. What an array of answers I got and how excited they each were to tell me!
When I first came to Cedars-Sinai in the mid-1990s, The Cheerful Helpers Child and Family Study Center was still a part of the Department of Psychiatry on the campus of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. One of the best kept secrets in the department was the small, but well-maintained Franz Alexander Library on the second floor of the Thalians building. I spent many contented hours in the library researching and reading about treatment techniques and best practices, as well as about the history of American mental health. The library had a particular emphasis on early childhood work, an area of interest for Saul Brown, M.D., who was the Director of Psychiatry at the time. Thus, it represented a gold mine of knowledge on child development. Sadly, the library was disbanded some time before CHPS left the medical center campus and I always missed it.
Soon I began to invest in my own clinical library, which became quite substantial over the years. For me, reading and the application of both new and older knowledge to the children and families in the program was always an important part of my clinical practice. It has served as a touchstone when dealing with a treatment impasse or when I simply wanted to dive into something new.
When I retired a few years ago, I began to think about finding a good home for a portion of my professional library. My colleague and friend, former Cheerful Helpers supervisor Yana Sercarz, broached the idea of donating the library to CHPS! When Janet Upjohn gave the green light, I jumped at the chance to support our program through my library donation!
Now Cheerful Helpers once again has a library that allows staff and interns to borrow and read about different modes of treatment, new thinking on the brain’s plasticity, early neurotypical and neurodivergent childhood development, and a deeper understanding of the importance of attachment patterns in children and families.
