Pat Conroy is a champion for social justice. He’s done more to break down the walls of silence surrounding domestic violence and child abuse than anyone. He summarized his quest early on in The Lords of Discipline (1980) in a passage that chills my soul every time I read it.
Barbara Delinsky is one of my favorite writers. Her birthday was yesterday. Sixteen of her books are on my shelves. I’ve loved every one and have read several more than once.
Her life is rich with experiences that I believe have informed her writing. I was amused to learn that she got kicked out of high school Honors English and that her first pen name was Bonnie Drake.
Reporters must not read Fern Michaels’ books. Her Revenge of the Sisterhood series includes Free Fall in which Yoko Akia finally holds Michael Lyons, her billionaire movie-star father, accountable for her mother […]
Therapy for Complex PTSD (multiple traumatic events) is more shot-in-the-dark than science. Mental health professionals don’t have viable treatment protocols for PTSD (one traumatic event), and most are totally clueless about treating Complex PTSD. Sadly, too many still think, for example, that EMDR is effective. It isn’t.
When we truly cherish someone or something we take special care. We nurture. We’re gentle. Love flows freely and generously.
My hope for each of us today is that we cherish ourselves. We make our-selves a priority. We eat healthy. We get some good exercise. We get a good night’s rest. Essentially, we care for ourselves like we are precious children of God. We all are, you know. Yes, you are precious.
When we think of Bill Clinton’s presidency, passage of the Violence Against Women Act isn’t typically the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, he is a tremendous champion for family violence prevention and for people who have experienced abuse. He’s walked in our shoes.
At age 66, Frank McCourt published his first book: Angela’s Ashes. It was a New York Times best-seller for two years, won a Pulitzer Prize, and became a movie. His success inspired other people who had experienced abuse to write their own memoirs. There wouldn’t be a Life Rafts section on this web site but for Frank McCourt.
Mary Ruth Kuczkir created the perennially best-selling Fern Michaels brand, and the rest is history. Ms. Kuczkir’s books have been so successful that she was able to put all five of her children through college, and she’s set up the Fern Michaels Foundation to fund scholarships and help single mothers. She lives in a 300 year-old plantation house in South Carolina.
My radar always goes up when a politician says domestic violence is “an intolerable and horrible crime,” but votes against funding for a domestic violence center. Blair was investigated for beating up a former girlfriend in 1984.
Alice Miller was born in 1923. She received her PhD from the University of Basle and worked as a psychotherapist in Zurich, Switzerland for 20 years. Since 1980, she has been the intellectual warrior leader for abused children around the world.
Her initial motivation was to understand Adolph Hitler. She believes there is a direct link between child abuse/domestic violence and world peace. To this end, enlightened/helping witnesses are the key.
Anne Caroline Drake 