A refreshingly unconventional blend of science and spirituality.
A psychotherapist articulates a more holistic approach to healing trauma and restoring well-being.
Church (Gestures of the Heart, 2004) argues that only a “unified self” truly experiences well-being and that “whole-person intelligence” is actually based in “a systemic model of heart-mind-body.” Trauma and anxiety are not merely plagues of the mind, but disorders that reside deeply in the body, and so an effective therapeutic response requires more than merely talk therapy—a brain addled with emotional turmoil needs to be physically rewired. The author furnishes a detailed account of what such a comprehensive response looks like, which recruits the aid of “Harmonize Now Tools,” strategies of visualization and somatic gestures designed to restore the brain’s harmony. She explains—with the helpful use of Porter’s (Bobbie the Wonder Dog, 2016, etc.) illustrations—the way in which various self-administered touches and movements as well as intentional visualizations can stimulate the parts of the nervous system and brain hobbled by trauma: “I am interested in the linkage between the brain stem, the limbic system, and cortical knowing. Or, in other words, listening to the body, feeling feelings, and being insightful, and the joy of bringing all three together.” Church’s approach is spiritually infused—there is no shortage of references to “The Divine” and the “Higher Self”—but also pragmatically empirical, insisting on discernible results as a guide to what works and what doesn’t. The book isn’t designed to be a replacement for therapy—in fact, it’s principally addressed to other therapists, though the writing is so lucid it should be accessible to a wide audience. Even Church’s lengthy and detailed discussions of neuroscience and physiology—both captivating and rigorous—are conducted in marvelously clear terms. But occasionally, the author waxes philosophic in a way that goes well beyond the scientifically demonstrable and is confusedly vague: for example, her understanding of the “luminosity” of the divine is more poetic than articulate.
A refreshingly unconventional blend of science and spirituality.Pub Date: July 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62901-542-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Inkwater Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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