AustLit

'From 1962, Dr Claire Weekes’s self-help publications and recordings helped hundreds of thousands of people suffering from anxiety disorders. For many years, her ability to reach out to lay people in readable non-technical terms initially met with dismissal by the psychiatric profession in Australia but found more recognition by professionals in Britain, the United States and Canada. Yet her approach to cognitive behavioural therapy has slowly, if perhaps grudgingly, become accepted here and internationally, and indeed incorporated into some bibliotherapy programs recommended by medical professionals. Judith Hoare’s biography has rescued Weekes from an undeserved near oblivion by reminding us of her achievements. Hoare, a former senior editor at the Australian Financial Review, found that Weekes’s advice gave her relief from her own anxiety in her early career. She has given us an insight into Weekes’s many achievements, not only in the field of self-help, but also in biological science and music, and as a physician, presenting a warts-and-all account of her often-troubled domestic life. But the loyalty of her family and friends supported Weekes in her extraordinary dedication to the welfare of her worldwide ‘patients’, continuing well into her 80s, through letters, meetings and telephone calls at any time of the day or night.' 

 (Introduction)