Writing as Self-Help: A Workshop

writing as self help adult-1868015_960_720Sometimes workshops do not go according to plan. Sometimes that’s a good thing.

Recently I had the privilege of conducting a two-evening workshop on writing as a tool for suicide prevention with a group of five youth. A town nearby had experienced a troubling spate of teen suicides over the past year. A youth worker from the area asked me if, as a writer, I could put a workshop together on how writing might be a prevention tool. Continue reading “Writing as Self-Help: A Workshop”

Book Brief – The Forgotten Mourners: Sibling Survivors of Suicide

Forgotten MournersThe Forgotten Mourners: Sibling Survivors of Suicide
by Magdaline DeSousa (pen name John’s Sister)
Genre: Self-Help; Death and Grief
Word count: 30,255

This book is meant for anyone who has lost a brother or sister to suicide – the forgotten mourners – and those who want to provide them support. Any loss is difficult, but a loss to suicide is heightened because of the helplessness and confusion surrounding it.

A sibling loss to suicide is even more unique because the sibling(s) left behind are often forgotten – mourning the loss of their brother or sister alone in the shadows of their parents’ grief. This book discusses some of the challenges sibling survivors of suicide will face, both individually and as a family unit, including:

  • What can I expect during the grieving process as a sibling survivor of suicide?
  • How can I set boundaries to take care of myself?
  • Will my relationship with my parents change?
  • How do I answer questions about my now-departed sibling?
  • Who am I without my sibling?
  • What can I do to get through the holidays and anniversaries?
  • How do I keep my brother or sister alive in my life, without him or her physically present?

These questions and more are answered directly from the author’s experiences following the loss of her eighteen year-old brother to suicide in November 2001. Hopefully, her experiences will give sibling survivors of suicide strength, hope, and peace in navigating the long road to healing ahead.

This book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief – The Forgotten Mourners: Sibling Survivors of Suicide”

Book Brief: Turning This Thing Around

Turning This Thing Around
by Keith Maginn
Genre: Nonfiction/memoir/self-help
Word count: 24,000

Turning This Thing Around is an inspiring memoir of overcoming personal struggles. This brutally honest, deeply personal account of redemption takes readers on a moving spiritual journey. Confronted with a myriad of obstacles–a debilitating arthritic disease, narcolepsy, anxiety and depression–the author was outwardly happy, but inwardly miserable.

Pushed to the lowest point of his life, Maginn shares how he gradually turned things around and used his experiences to grow as a person. Supplemented by heartfelt poetry by the author and with quotes from Gandhi to Dr. Wayne Dyer to Eckhart Tolle, Turning This Thing Around has universal themes that speak to nearly everyone, as we all must face challenges as part of being human. It is a self-help memoir of sorts: the author discusses not only what he overcame, but also how he did so–and how others can, too.

Unlike many popular memoirs on the market, this is a story that more people can relate to. Maginn was not raised in an eccentric family (Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle, memoirs by Augusten Burroughs), nor did he travel to Italy, India and Indonesia, as Elizabeth Gilbert did in Eat, Pray, Love. Rather, Turning This Thing Around is a story of a normal young man’s resiliency when battling extraordinary circumstances.

This book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Continue reading “Book Brief: Turning This Thing Around”

Featured Author: Barbara Miller

Barbara Miller, author, motivational speaker, and certified master life coach, is the founder of Barbara & Company International; Inc. Barbara is currently studying Health and Wellness at Ashford University. Her studies also include three years at Kendall College of Art and Design, two years at the International Dermal Institute, and master life coaching certification through American University of NLP. Barbara worked as a professional model, medical esthetician and skin care specialist for several years. She is now a full time writer and public speaker. Barbara inspires women through her books, coaching, lectures, and blog, to access their power, inner beauty and spirit, to take charge of their lives and make a difference. Through her book, You Lost Your Marriage Not Your Life,” Barbara shares her own personal journey through divorce, financial loss and despair, then provides examples to encourage the reader to let go of all self-defeating inner dialog and replace it with peace and joy. The staggering statistics tell us one half of all first marriages are predicted to end in divorce. Second and third marriages have even more sobering statistics and the majority of these will fail. The question is why and what can we do to change these numbers? The author’s gentle and encouraging, yet straight forward approach, teaches that when healing comes to our thoughts, it comes to our life.

Barbara’s just released book, Dancing in Rhythm with the Universe, 10 Steps to Choreographing Your Best Life, is a guide to develop strategies for success in relationships and life. You will learn to walk right through inner fears and fall into perfect alignment with the dance of the Universe.

Barbara’s main goal is to empower women to lead their best life yet by overcoming negative thoughts and habits carried over from childhood. Barbara believes that we have the power within to live life as a winner and not as a victim. She embraces laughter as one of life’s key ingredients to help us through some of our greatest challenges and struggles. Barbara teaches that we all deserve healthy loving relationships and to live our life in happiness and joy, and in order to receive the joy of the future, we must learn to abandon the pain of the past. This, she says, is attainable and can be accomplished by creating balance in our lives mentally, physically, social-emotionally and spiritually.

Barbara resides in Naples, Florida with her husband David. You may contact her at: www.barbaraandcompany.com or www.princessdiaryblog.

Continue reading “Featured Author: Barbara Miller”