Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Help for Families of Recovering Addicts

Rewriting Life Scripts
Transformational Recovery for Families
of Addicts
Authors: Liliane Desjardins, Nancy Oelklaus, Irene Watson
Publisher: Life Scripts Press
ISBN: 978-1-932690-97-2

When a family member has an addiction (to alcohol, drugs, etc.) the other members of the family by necessity are forced to change their behaviors, their lifestyle and their expectations. In many cases, these changes have occurred slowly and over a period of years or even decades. When the addicted family member make the monumental move towards recovery, the family often finds itself thrown into a new kind of chaos without expecting or understanding it.

This book is based mainly on using the 12 step addiction recovery process, but everything discussed can be utilized regardless of the method of recovery used. The book is divided into several parts, each dealing with a different stage of recovery. Families will find this helpful, enabling them to study and work through each recovery phrase as it's being experienced by the recovering family member. By completing all parts, the reader will reach a clear understanding of just what changes and adjustments they have had to make in the past and how the family dynamics will now be changing for the better. Topics are covered in a clear and easy to understand manner, explaining all the stages of change, defining the various roles played by family members in both the dysfunctional (addiction) phase and the truly transforming and freeing journey the family members all take as they work together to rewrite and change the family dynamics.

The three authors bring a wide range of life experiences, education and career training to this work. This gives the book a deeper, broader application that will apply to an untold number of families. I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with addiction and recovery, and to anyone and everyone who is part of a family at any point on the addiction spectrum. Excellent resource and promising tool for a happier family.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Life Skills: Improve The Quality of Your Life With Metapsychology

Life Skills: Improve the Quality of Your Life with
Metapsychology (Explorations in Metapsychology Series)
Author: Marian K. Volkman
Publisher: Loving Healing Press
ISBN: 1-932690-05-0

Applied Metapsychology makes use of one on one sessions to achieve personal goals. Developed by Frank A. Gerbode, MD, it utilizes relieving past pain and trauma and working through personal issues to expand the consciousness of the patient or user . People who study and use Metapsychology report living a fuller and more fulfilled life, with less fear, depression and unhappiness than the general population. By reading and using the detailed information in Marian K. Volkman's book, the reader will be given a concise, indepth and easily understandable grasp of metapsycology, it's value and how it's used.

Written in a manner that will appeal to therapists, laypersons and students, this book will assist the user in more accurately predicting patterns of human behavior and dealing with negative situations, people and behaviors. It's a truly user friendly volume on exapanding personal understanding of your own behavior, motivations, ambitions, deep seated issues, relationship style and communication abilities. She has formatted the book in a way that makes it ideal for group study as well as personal use. While offering a broad background of metapsychology, each aspect is written in extreme detail and ease of understanding and utilization. The author presents a wide and varied wealth of information in easily digestible sections.

Topics of study in this book include quality of life, stress and trauma as a factor in life, understanding emotions and predicting them, improving relationship in all the areas of your life: family, work, friends, etc. I found this book to be really motivational and thought provoking. I know it's one I will turn to again and again as situations arise and problems need resolution. Highly recommended, I look forward to much more from this author.

Life Without Jealousy A Practical Guide

Life Without Jealousy: A Practical Guide
Author: Lynda Bevan
Publisher: Loving Healing Press
ISBN: 978-1-932690-85-9

Anyone who has ever been involved in a relationship, whether it's friendship or romance, has probably experienced jealousy. There are many forms of jealousy, all of them unwanted and uncomfortable, regardless of the cause. The author, Lynda Bevan discusses the various type of jealousy, where they come from and how to handle them; whether you are the jealous person or the one who is the reciepent of jealousy.

This book is part of an excellent ongoing series from Loving Healing Press; the 10 Step Empowerment Series, practical guides written by experienced therapists for solving life's problems.

The book is written in a style that is both interesting and easy to understand. Regardless of the reader's knowledge of psychology, it is user friendly and educational. From the broadest definitions of jealousy and envy, the book then delves more deeply into the many forms jealousy takes: sexual, romantic, possessive, emotional, financial and material among others. The psychology of jealousy is explained, as well the differences of the sexes in how they feel and handle jealousy, and the damage caused by jealous behavior. Causes are discussed in detail, and real workable solutions are offered to repair the damages.

Regardless of which side of jealousy you find yourself on, help is available in this book. Highly recommended by this reviewer.