Author talk with Chris Cheers

A practical, inclusive guide to life from Instagram's favourite psychologist Chris Cheers.

Take a moment and check in with how you've been feeling lately. Maybe a little tired, stressed or burnt out? All the recent upheaval and uncertainty has left many of us not only feeling exhausted, but also questioning who we are and what we want from life. Yet instead of taking the necessary time to process and answer these important questions, many of us are feeling pressured to just get back to 'normal'. But what if we want better than normal? The world has changed - we have changed - so when it comes to caring for our wellbeing, it's clear we need new rules.

The New Rulebook is a practical, game-changing guide to embracing that uncertainty. It compassionately asks you to re-examine five key areas: self-care, emotions, work, body and love (all the big stuff!), and then offers radical, evidence-based solutions to improve your wellbeing. Led not by expectation, but by what you need. The rulebook for life has been thrown out the window over the last few years. Rather than picking it back up, let's write a new one.

About Chris

Chris Cheers is a psychologist and educator with a focus on elevating mental health in the arts and LGBTIQA+ communities. Chris is a university lecturer, a published academic, an endorsed Educational and Developmental Psychologist Supervisor, a member of the Australian Professional Association for Transgender Health (AusPATH), and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Alcohol and Policy Research at La Trobe University. He is a regular media contributor across television, print and podcasts, and has also provided workshops and mental health consultation to arts organisations, theatre productions, universities and companies across Australia.

About Benjamin

Benjamin Law is an Australian writer and broadcaster. He’s the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin is also an AWGIE Award-winning screenwriter who created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning TV series The Family Law (SBS/Hulu/Comedy Central Asia), wrote the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company, 2020), and is co-executive producer, co-creator and co-writer on the forthcoming Netflix comedy-drama Wellmania. He has a PhD in creative writing and cultural studies from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Every week, Benjamin co-hosts ABC Radio National’s weekly national pop culture show Stop Everything and interviews public figures for Good Weekend. He hosted ABC TV’s two-part feature documentary on Chinese-Australian history Waltzing the Dragon and has also written for over 50 publications in Australia and beyond— including the Monthly, frankie, Guardian, Monocle and Australian Financial Review—and is a literary scout for Hachette Australia. Benjamin works and lives on Gadigal Country, part of the Eora Nation (Sydney).