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Lisa Lickel
The Sunday Book Reveiw: two great new non-fiction self-help books
Posted by Lisa Lickel on May 20, 2012
I rarely recomend books, but these two have caught my attention. It’s a series, and I look forward to more of them.
I give both 5 Reflections.
Thaw: Freedom From Frozen Feelings
By Don Carter, MSW, LSCW
ASIN: B005X8OQT0
Kindle book: $9.99
Publisher: www.Internet-of-the-Mind.com (October 18, 2011)
For those of us who live in a shell of emotional discomfort, who are stuck in a rut of inability to connect or stay connected to others, Carter’s book will help work through these issues. By analyzing and coming to grips with the events that led up this emotional impasse, you’ll be able to appreciate, maybe for the first time able, the joy of living a healthy and stable emotional life.
Carter, who has a masters in social work and is a therapist, spends most of the book teaching readers to recognize patterns of misguided parenting. As a parent of adult children, I look back at what I thought were my very best efforts to raise them the best I knew how. But we are all the sum of our experiences, both positive and negative, and “our best” doesn’t always mean the same to others or have the results we hoped for. I certainly never meant to do harm; no one in his right mind does, but I’m not perfect.
Beating ourselves up over our mistakes, and taking an honest ride through our own upbringing will help purge the negativity, makes room for healing, and sets us on a course for positive growth, no matter what stage of life we’re at now.
I learned things about myself that suddenly make sense. Instead of reacting to my past, I find I can, with lots of baby steps, trial and error, move forward and make new positive memories and associations with my parents and children. I’m not so impatient and appreciate the struggles we share much better now.
Read the book and work book, do the exercises no matter how you feel. At the very least you’ll come out stronger and better equipped to understand yourself.
Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome
By Don Carter, MSW, LSCW
ASIN: B007RPMAIG
Kindle book: $9.99; paperback: $14.99
Publisher: www.Internet-of-the-Mind.com (April 4, 2012)
Like Carter’s previous book, Thaw: Freedom From Frozen Feelings, the author helps readers explore their past, recognize patterns of woundedness and work to heal those current patterns of detrimental behavior.
It’s not easy to delve into painful past memories. Even those of us with fairly mild and remembered happy, healthy upbringing will be able to reach inside to uncover—not make up, but peel away—layers of learned behavior we’ve developed to protect ourselves from emotional pain inflicted by others.
Half of the book is “lecture” with lots of diagrams, and half is work book. Carter, who has a masters in social work and is a licensed therapist, guides us through a careful and detailed analysis of our childhood. By doing the exercises, the reader will develop a dynamic picture of his or her current behavior.
Why do we act the way we do? Read the Thaw series and find out. It’s more than a “get in touch with your inner child” set of books. The books are a great, non-threatening way to understand yourself and pick away at unwanted emotional baggage. A great bargain!
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