Book picks similar to
Detached: Surviving Reactive Attachment Disorder by Jessie Hogsett
memoir
personal-reads
was-free
pop-psych
Raising Cole: Developing Life's Greatest Relationship, Embracing Life's Greatest Tragedy: A Father's Story
Marc Pittman - 2004
But when he had a son, Marc became the father he had always wanted to have. When seven-year-old Cole asked him about beer, Marc Pittman put down his can and never drank again. He told his boys everything, and they were honest with him in return. They unburdened their fears; told him their dreams; and even admitted their sins. Despite the fact that his sons were star football players, they felt no shame in holding their father's hand in public. People told him he was lucky to have the relationship he did with his children, but Marc Pittman knew the truth-it wasn't luck, he worked at it every day. And then his eldest son, Cole, was killed in a traffic accident on the way to football practice at the University of Texas. This book is the story not just of how Marc Pittman dealt with this tragedy, but of the 21 years he lived with Cole and the lessons he learned about being a good father, a good friend, and a good man. "A must read...Marc Pittman crosses the boundary and stigma of the tough guy and shows that while being very tough, you can also be very compassionate. This book will make you appreciate not every hour, but every second you spend with someone you love."
Mummy is a Killer
Nikkia Roberson - 2012
But how else do you cope when your mentally ill mother has killed your little brother and sister by scalding them with boiling water?This is a harrowing true story of how one little girl endured the most tragic of childhoods. But it's also the ultimate tale of forgiveness.Follow Nikkia on her heartbreaking journey, as she attempts to find answers and rekindle a relationship with her mother behind the gates of a secure psychiatric hospital.Deeply moving, Mummy is a Killer proves that love really is the strongest emotion of all.
The Gossamer Thread: My Life as a Psychotherapist
John Marzillier - 2010
It shows his progression from a hard-nosed behavior therapist with a strong commitment to science to a psychodynamic therapist with an interest in narrative. Along the way he shows the way the main schools of psychotherapy (behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic) work, drawing on case material from his professional practice. He shows the mistakes he made and the lessons he eventually learned from his patients. His focus on clinical cases enables readers to see psychotherapy in operation and get drawn into the ups and downs of trying to help some fascinating and often tricky people who rarely conform to what is expected of them.The book is free of jargon and can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge of psychology or psychotherapy. It is designed to entertain and inform the general readership about the mysterious world of psychotherapy, what goes on behind the consulting room door. It will be of particular interest to the increasing number of people who encounter psychotherapy either through their own experience of seeking help or the experiences of family and friends or through reading of popular books such as those of Oliver James and Irving Yalom.It should also prove invaluable for those interested in training as a clinical psychologist, counsellor or psychotherapist.
No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
Melissa Fay Greene - 2011
When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers."When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, "among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, gave birth to sixty-nine children in eighteenth-century Russia." Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. She's been praised for her "historian's urge for accuracy," her "sociologist's sense of social nuance," and her "writerly passion for the beauty of language." But Melissa and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. "We so loved raising our four children by birth, we didn't want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers." When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist's eye upon events at home. Fisseha was riding a bike down the basement stairs; out on the porch, a squirrel was sitting on Jesse's head; vulgar posters had erupted on bedroom walls; the insult niftam (the Amharic word for "snot") had led to fistfights; and four non-native-English-speaking teenage boys were researching, on Mom's computer, the subject of "saxing." "At first I thought one of our trombone players was considering a change of instrument," writes Greene. "Then I remembered: they can't spell."Using the tools of her trade, she uncovered the true subject of the "saxing" investigation, inspiring the chapter "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Couldn't Spell." A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening - No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.
The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family
Walt Harrington - 2002
But over the next 12 years, this white city slicker entered a world of life, death, nature, and manhood that came to seem not brutal or outdated but beautiful in a way his experience in Washington was not. The Everlasting Stream is the absorbing, touching, and often hilarious story of how hunting with these "good ol' boys" forced an "enlightened" man to reexamine his modern notions of guilt and responsibility, friendship and masculinity, ambition and satisfaction.In crisp prose that bring autumn mornings crackling to life, Harrington shares the lessons that led him to leave Washington. When his son turned 14, Harrington began taking him hunting too, believing that these rough-edged, whiskey-drinking men could teach his suburban boy something worthwhile about lives different from his own, the joy of small moments, and the old-fashioned belief that a man's actions mean more than his words.The Everlasting Stream is a funny, intimate, inspiring meditation on the meaning of a life well lived.CHAPTER ONEWalt recounts the first time he went shooting with his father-in-law, Alex, in rural Glasgow, Kentucky, during a Thanksgiving visit with his wife. “I lived in Washington DC, where most people I knew believed hunters were sick, violent men.” His attitude toward his African-American hunting mates (“I was white, and I figured it was going to be my worry to fit in”) is “condescending as hell,” but it all turns around when he shoots his first rabbit, and surprises himself with the purity of his exhuberence when he calls out, “I got him!” He discusses the repulsion over having to clean his rabbit, but when his guests act similarly repulsed when he serves them rabbit dinner, he says “I think I’m going to kill some more.”CHAPTER TWOHe describes hunting with Alex, Bobby, Lewis and Carl in a gully half the length of football field. “Over the years I’ve become convinced that Alex, Bobby, Lewis, and Carl have discovered the secrets of living life well,” although “the idea that these men had anything to teach me didn’t come to me for many Thanksgiving vacations.” He is attracted by how well they get to know a place through hunting it: “How many of us can say that about any place in our lives?” The men are like relics of a bygone era, but they eventually convinced him that he should bring his son along too. He introduces Carl and Bobby, who have retired from factory jobs—they own sixty acres together in the country. Lewis bought his own 18-wheel rig a few years ago and still hauls freight. Alex is retired and has many hobbies. The men talk in a colorful drawl about their dogs, teasing each other mercilessly.CHAPTER THREEHe talks about hunting at the Old Collins Place. Every time he comes back there, he sees something for the first time. He talks about how ambitious he was as a kid, determined to make a name for himself in journalism. He meets his wife-to-be, Keran, and works thankless 70-hour weeks until he finally writes a profile of George Bush that gets him major attention, a huge raise, and freedom to cover other figures such as Jesse Jackson, Jerry Falwell, etc.CHAPTER FOUR: BOBBY’S BARNHis son Matt catches a rabbit and gets a sip off the post-hunting bottle of Wild Turkey. He discusses his tough decision of taking the boy hunting for the first time when he was seven: “Really I rolled the dice. I knew that most affluent city perople would shield their sons from such rough men and gritty settings. But after my first few years of hunting I deced that the forests, fields, wind, rain moon, stars, leaves, weeds, guns, killing, cursing, drinking—and naturally the men themselves—would be good for Matt.” He describes skinning and gutting a rabit—he does it without squeamishness because “it has to be done,” the same way you have to clean up a kid’s vomit.LAWSON BOTTOMHe discusses the time it dawned on him that he had come to savor things—the Miro painting he owns, for instance— and asks himself “I love my work but what if the day comes when I don’t? What happens to all of this? What happens to me? Will I be trapped in my affluence for the rest of my life?” (The climax of his career comes when President Bush is seriously considering appointing him as his official biographer, and even invites him to a celebrity-studded dinner, but eventually Bush decides the security risk is too great. Harrington considers it a blessing in disguise, thinking about all of the quality time he would have lost with his son, etc.)THE EVERLASTING STREAMHe recalls a morning of picture-perfect contentment at a place called the Everlasting Stream—“such memorable moments are like waking versions of lucid dreams. We are within them and outside them at once as they are happening.” He reflects “To this day I don’t believe I have ever seen men so at ease, so thoroughly enjoying one another’s company.” He realizes he hasn’t had true friends like these since he was kid.BEHIND BC WITT’S FARMHe talks about the way that moment at the Everlasting Stream has caused him to think of hunting not just as a diversion, but to think of it off and on throughout the year. Carl takes him to the four-room shack where he grew up and Harrington is shocked by how small and run-down it is. Carl says “We hunted to eat.”THE SQUAREHe describes being in the zone—“hunters since Socrates onward have described an ethereal hunter’s state of mental and emotional clarity. What nature writer James Swan calls the Zen of hunting--- ‘a state of awe and reverence, which I sthe emotional foundation for transcendence.”LEWIS’S GARAGEHe talks about the joys of hanging out in Lewis’s garage after hunting. “I have come to love hearing the men laugh. After all the years, if I were blind I’d still know the men by their laughs.” .. “Listening to the men is like watching a pinball bounce around its board. The action is impossible to predict but it isn’t random. The point is to relax and lety my time with the men wash over me in the way that a Christmas midnight Mass with candles and organ and incense would wash over me as a boy.”
To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home
Chris Hansen - 2007
So far, the Dateline series has led to the arrest of 183 men and shown that child predators can be anyone—even those most trusted in the community—including rabbis, doctors, and teachers. In his book To Catch a Predator, Chris Hansen, the creator and on-air correspondent for Dateline’s most successful series, looks deeper into the world of child predators. The book expands beyond the Dateline series to include commentary from psychological and criminal experts about the origins and methods of child predators, and includes substantive advice for both parents and children on how to protect kids on the Internet. Hansen also looks at the current methods for treating child predators and interviews several of the men seen on the Dateline show to follow up on their lives since being arrested. To Catch a Predator presents a strong analysis of what some feel is a child predator epidemic and a startling look at the shortcomings of our systems and society.
Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow
Elizabeth Lesser - 2004
In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one - stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world's great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.
Seams Unlikely: The Inspiring True Life Story of Nancy Zieman
Nancy Zieman - 2014
Many of them have Googled phrases like "stroke Nancy Zieman" in an effort to discover the reasons behind the partial paralysis of Nancy's beautiful face. Viewers purchased products Nancy used through Nancy's Notions, followed patterns she created for McCall's, and enjoyed meeting distinguished guests via the show. While today's Christian women read of Lydia and the Proverbs 31 woman and wonder how we can ever practice our faith so well in today's harried existence, Nancy Zieman was quietly living out her faith in Wisconsin. Her large Lutheran family ordered their lives around the farm, the seasons, and the church. As Nancy wrestled with the difficulties borne by the Bell's palsy, she also learned to rely heavily on God and believe that He had a purpose for her, a life lived to honor Him. Little did she realize that God would take a woman with half a paralyzed face and bless her with the longest running sewing show on North American television. For the first time, Nancy shares openly about the Bell's palsy that not only affected her appearance, but also her esteem and physical abilities. Readers learn about the growth of Nancy professionally: from addressing catalogs at the kitchen table to growing a multi-million dollar notions business - and personally: marrying Rich, then growing a family through birth and adoption. Through it all, the picture emerges of a hard-working woman of staunch faith who overcame various and varied obstacles to become what she is today: successful, humble, skilled, gracious, grateful and loved by millions of viewers. For any woman who has wondered how God could possibly build a purposeful life from one so unlikely, Nancy Zieman serves as a beautiful example of a life lived one step at a time, as He allows."
Raising Adopted Children: Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent
Lois Ruskai Melina - 1986
Melina addresses the pressing adoption issues of today, such as open adoption, international adoption, and transracial adoption, and answers parents' most frequently asked questions, such as:How will my child "bond" or form attachments to me?When and how should I tell my child that he was adopted?What should schools be told about my child?Will adoption make adolescent upheavals more complicated?Up-to-date, sensitive, and clear, Raising Adopted Children is the definitive resource for all adoptive parents and concerned professionals.
Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey
Kelly Rosati - 2011
The pro-life/pro-choice debate continues to consume politics and everyday conversations. Readers want to know what they can do to make a difference on these issues. "Wait No More" tells Kelly and John Rosati's story of experiencing God more fully through the great blessings and challenges encountered during their journey to adopt four children from the U.S. foster care system. It is a story of God's faithfulness to grow a beautiful family, through adoption, from the ashes of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The Rosatis strongly believe that God's solution for orphaned children in the foster care system involves ordinary Christians desiring to live out an authentic pro-life commitment requiring action, not just words. Their story reveals how their beliefs challenged, enriched, and completely changed their family's life.
Forever Different: A Memoir of One Woman's Journey Living with Bipolar Disorder
Christine F. Anderson - 2013
The denial of her diagnosis and the eventual acceptance of her medication and disease. She takes us from her innocence as a child to her adult criminal lifestyle, which led to a subsequent 70 month federal prison sentence for Securities Fraud. A tale so unbelievable and elements so disturbing, you would swear you were reading fiction.
Blue-Eyed Son
Nicky Campbell - 2004
His father – an ex-army man – and his mother helped him to a good school and a good university. Nicky rarely thought of his birth parents, until a combination of an imploding marriage and a chance meeting with a private detective led him to track his mother down. Nicky Campbell brilliantly recalls their reunion and tentative steps towards a relationship, evoking all the complex and deep-seated emotions that being reunited elicited in each of them. But as they talked it became clear that there was more to Nicky’s background than he expected. . . In this emotionally gripping and refreshingly honest memoir, Nicky Campbell describes the many sides of a family’s dark history, and how it feels to find out where you come from.
The Girl From Yesterday
Shane Dunphy - 2014
However, when a part time journalism job in rural Ireland leads him to a family in desperate need of intervention, and a young girl crying out for protection, Shane cannot stand idly by and watch...Little Emma Blaney lives with her three siblings in an ancient farmhouse, with a life that is like something from another time - no running water, no electricity, and no contact with the outside world. Whilst covering a land dispute between Emma's father Tom and his powerful brother Gerry, Shane discovers that there is a lot more wrong with the family than just a feud. The children are filthy, nervous and and undernourished. In order to protect Emma and her siblings, Shane finds himself at loggerheads with the church, local government, big business, property developers and industrial farmers. But Shane must discover the truth about the Girl from Yesterday, before it is too late, even if it will cost him his new life...
A Shining Affliction: A Story of Harm and Healing in Psychotherapy
Annie G. Rogers - 1995
Orphaned, fostered, neglected, and "forgotten" in a household fire, Ben finally begins to respond to Annie in their intricate and revealing place therapy. But as Ben begins to explore the trauma of his past, Annie finds herself being drawn downward into her own mental anguish. Catastrophically failed by her own therapist, she is hospitalised with a breakdown that renders her unable to even speak. Then she and her gifted new analyst must uncover where her story of childhood terror overlaps with Ben's, and learn how she can complete her work with the child by creating a new story from the old - one that ultimately heals them both.