Family & Relationships

Leaning on Bonnie O’Neil’s personal experience as a caregiver Chronic Hope delivers practical insight and solutions while avoiding the tone of a typical self-help book. Instead, it reads like a conversation with a friend, where one parent’s stories give the other parent permission to feel the full range of their emotions and encourages them to discover hope in the long journey. Readers witness Bonnie's mistakes and missteps, glean from her revelations, and find inspiration in the principles and attitudes she begins to apply to everyday situations. Through story and reflection, Bonnie gently shares a vision of navigating chronic disease with strength, resilience and loving self-sacrifice.

Chronic Hope leverages one family’s journey raising a child with chronic illness and provides readers the tools necessary to process their own emotional responses to the unexpected path ahead of them. Thematically, Chronic Hope begins deep within the heart of the caregiver and gradually works itself outward into each relationship within the family, and eventually into the wider world.

Chronic Hope offers a fresh vision of hope in the darkest valleys of illness, suffering, and broken dreams.

Due to the pandemic, major weather events across the country, school closures and re-openings, and simply the uncertainty around what life might look life for the foreseeable future, anxiety-levels among our children has never been higher.  In Stop Worrying About Your Anxious Child, Tonya Crombie, PhD gives parents the help they so desperately need in these trying times.

• Deal with judgment from well-meaning friends and others
• Sift through all of the advice to determine what will really work for your child
• Stay calm even when the stress is especially tough
• Create a support system that supports you and your child

At age sixty-two, Joan Bragar, EdD, leadership consultant and coach, married the man of her dreams. The lessons she learned from this journey have inspired other women to find happiness in love. In Never Too Late for Love, she provides proven practices for women to:

Family coach, mother and metaphysician, Kat Mulvaney, is no stranger to the emotions children face. She works with families who are seeking more ease and flow in their family dynamic after trying many conventional solutions. Many of her clients’ children do not conform well to traditional school, and in a time of great world change, they are seeking new ideas. Kat guides families out of emotional turmoil and into genuine, conscious connection.

In A Good Day at School, Kat lays out her 5 principles for parents to show them:

Relationship expert and coach Jodi Schuelke provides the perfect dating guidebook that identifies the missing link for women who have been endlessly searching for their dream relationship partner. Jodi lays out the seven practical steps of her FOREVER Framework™ process so women can transform their dating strategy and find their Mr. Right—the one they truly deserve. In Finding Forever Love, women learn how to:

You’re struggling to find your Prince Charming, soul mate, or dream guy and are tired of dating all the wrong men. Or maybe you haven’t even been able to find the wrong men to date. Are your dreams of a passionate Happily Ever After fading quickly? Look no further! In six simple steps, transform your dating persona and learn to find and attract the dream-come-true relationship so you can have your fairytale ending. Author Cindi Laree takes you through her six-step process in which you can laugh, learn from the mishaps she encountered while kissing Frogs, running from Dragons, mistaking Knights in Shining Armor for the Prince, and discover how to find your own passionate Happily Ever After.

In Flipping the Fairytale, you’ll learn:

Do not delay. Join Cindi as Enchanted meets Match.com to find a prince and create your Happily Ever After today.

Being a mom is a lot of work. Being a mom of a spirited child can be exceptionally challenging. Moms who want to change their stress and anxiety levels and make a difference in the lives of their children and family need to take steps towards wellness. Maureen Lake teaches moms:

Relationship Detox is the smart woman’s guide to cleansing yourself of the dysfunctional relationships and dating habits that prevent you from finding the man of your dreams. Relationship expert and best-selling author of I Just Want Out, Jodi Schuelke lays out seven practical steps in her FORWARD Framework™ process so you can claim or reclaim self-confidence and happiness.

Discover the Secrets of Love and Transform Your Relationship

"…brimming with wonderful ideas and methods that can help any couple experience a deeper, more profound connection." John Gray, author of Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus

Renowned relationship expert Johnathan Robinson teaches effective couples communication skills, helping you build a strong foundation of love, understand unique needs, and overcome communication barriers.

Discover the secrets to a thriving relationship. This powerful book, endorsed by bestselling author John Gray, reveals effective communication strategies and methods to help couples experience a deeper, more profound connection. Through conscious practice, you'll learn how to become a better listener, engage in crucial conversations, and overcome communication barriers. This leads to more intimacy and connection in your relationship. Say goodbye to frustration and arguments as you cultivate a love that flourishes.

Communication lies at the heart of every successful relationship. In this insightful book, psychotherapist and bestselling author Jonathan Robinson shares powerful strategies to help couples strengthen their bond through open communication and understanding. Whether you're seeking to overcome communication breakdowns, understand your partner's unique needs, or navigate crucial conversations, More Love Less Conflict provides practical tools to create a foundation of lasting love and connection.

Inside find:

• Effective strategies for cultivating a deeper, more profound connection in your relationship
• Practical methods to improve communication skills and become a better listener
• Robust tools for long distance relationships, allowing love to flourish regardless of distance
• Insights on engaging in crucial conversations and understanding your partner's unique needs

If you enjoyed books like The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Hold Me Tight, or The 5 Love Languages, you'll love More Love Less Conflict.

How to Heal a Broken Heart

Discover the superhero within your own heart. Every women knows that sometimes, love hurts, and learning how to let go of lost love can seem impossible. You find yourself asking, "How do I live without you?" The good news is that inside each one of us is our very own love superhero. You can find the strength inside yourself to live and love like never before, and Superhero of Love will teach you how.

Moving on after heartbreak is much easier when you use your five superpowers. You already have the power to get over your break up─to find happiness again. In Superhero of Love, expert author and writer Bridget Fonger shares her own personal experience of going through a painful breakup and shows you how to rediscover your deep connection to your own heart, the ultimate source of love in your life. Bridget's method reveals The Five Superpowers:

• Super Sight – the courage to see clearly
• Super Hearing – the ability to hear your highest truth
• Super Humility – discovering your true place in the universe
• Super Self-Love – the magic of being in love with you
• Super Alignment – knowing the presence of the divine in all things

Learn how to get over heartbreak and soar. Whether you’ve been burned by a recent breakup, are harboring old wounds, or find yourself thinking, “Is this as good as it gets?” Superhero of Love will help heal your broken heart and show you that we are all superheroes who are born to fly. In this book, you will discover:

• Tools for strengthening your emotional resilience
• How to break free from old patterns that keep you stuck
• How to gain wisdom to empower you to be your mightiest self

Readers of books on how to heal a broken heart like The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, How to Fix a Broken Heart, and This Is Me Letting You Go will find happiness again with Superhero of Love.

Absent fathers, the breakdown of the nuclear family, and single-mother households are often blamed for the poor quality of life experienced by many African American children. Jennifer F. Hamer challenges both the imposition of an inappropriate value system and the resulting ineffectual social policies. Most of what we know about fathers who do not live with their children is based on interviews with the mothers; this book is based on interviews with the fathers themselves. How do these fathers perceive their roles and responsibilities?

This myth-shattering book challenges stereotypes of negotiating parenthood within the context of poverty, live-away status, and black American manhood. Hamer has collected the voices of eighty-eight men who participated in this study by first examining the macro or cultural elements that encompass men's daily lives. As part 1 explores these larger forces that define the social world of fathers, part 2 looks at what significant others expect of men as fathers and how they behave under these circumstances. Part 3 analyzes the particular parenting roles and functions of fathers, using narratives of individual men to tell their own stories. In this book, contemporary black live-away fathers talk about their goals, walk us through their workplaces, allow us to meet their families and children, and enable us to view the world of parenthood through their eyes.

Conflict happens everywhere: at work, with friends and family, among strangers, and certainly in violence. Why did your boss ignore a suggestion that could save millions of dollars? Why do you have the same argument again and again with your spouse? When someone insults you, why do you get angry? Why do bad guys beat up the weak?

You have three brains. Each “brain” has a different priority and evolved to deal with different kinds of conflict. They work using different scripts and have a very clear seniority system.

• Lizard brain (survival)
• Monkey brain (emotion / social status)
• Human brain (reason)

Conflict Communication(ConCom) presents a functional taxonomy to see, understand, and manipulate the roots of life’s conflicts. You will have the background, the principles, and a collection of tricks to manage and ideally avoid dangerous conflicts.

No going back. After reading this book, you can never go back. Even if you reject everything in the program, even if you refuse to admit how often your monkey brain has controlled your life, escalations toward conflict will never again be invisible to you.

As the fortune cookie says, “Your life is about to change.”

Family conflict has traditionally been studied by researchers who are at a safe intellectual distance from the families under their study. In Skeletons in the Closet, and in line with feminist research methodologies, the hierarchical distance between researcher and subject is broken down. All of the contributors to this volume are academics, and all are closely related to the families they write about.
Skeletons in the Closet consists of ten essays about unresolved or unresolvable family conflicts. The contributors start from the assumption that families—whether legal-marriage families, common-law marriage families, single-parent families, multiple-generation families, same-sex partnerships, or adoptive families—are cradles of intense emotion. That intensity, they argue, may translate into conflict, competition, domination, abuse, exploitation, or even hate. This book explores those areas most likely to grip family members in unresolved interpersonal strife, as well as the strategies people use to solve the issues and the shame and isolation that conflict brings in societies that normatively expect family life to be one of joy, mutual sharing, and caring.
This first-hand narration of family conflict by social scholars has much to contribute to sociological studies of the family, both methodologically and theoretically. The introduction and conclusion place family conflict within sociological and social psychological theories and methods.

Rompe el ciclo y libérate de tu pasado.

¿Alguna vez te has preguntado qué tiene que ver tu infancia con las cosas que sientes ahora? ¿Has pensado de qué manera influyó tu niñez en cómo eres hoy? Y, sobre todo, ¿deseas sanar las heridas del pasado?

En este libro encontrarás las herramientas necesarias para conectar con tu niño interior a través de un proceso psicoespiritual de transformación personal. María José Cabanillas te ofrece técnicas para resolver las emociones reprimidas y dolorosas que han quedado en tu subconsciente, y que siguen repitiéndose una y otra vez en tu vida adulta, como el abandono, el rechazo, la inseguridad o la baja autoestima. Poderás recuperar el amor propio, superar las creencias limitantes y detener el diálogo interno negativo que te hace sufrir.

Desde múltiples perspectivas, como la relación con tu pareja o tus padres, éste es un manual donde aprenderás a gestionar y reconocer emociones como la culpa, la tristeza y la autoexigencia, y obtendrás consejos para enfrentarte a tus miedos, superar el apego emocional y ser capaz de poner límites asertivos sin miedo a perder la aprobación de los demás.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Break the cycle and free yourself from your past.

Have you ever wondered what your childhood has to do with the things you feel now? Have you thought about how your childhood influenced who you are today? And most importantly, do you wish to heal the wounds of the past?

In this book, you will find the necessary tools to connect with your inner child through a psycho-spiritual process of personal transformation. María José Cabanillas offers techniques to resolve the repressed and painful emotions that have remained in your subconscious and continue to repeat themselves in your adult life, such as abandonment, rejection, insecurity, or low self-esteem. You will be able to regain self-love, overcome limiting beliefs, and stop the negative internal dialogue that makes you suffer.

From multiple perspectives, such as the relationship with your partner or your parents, this is a manual where you will learn to manage and recognize emotions like guilt, sadness, and self-demand, and you will get advice on facing your fears, overcoming emotional attachment, and being able to set assertive boundaries without fearing the loss of others' approval.

Celebrate the Human Experience by Giving Thanks at Mealtime. Try It!

Count your blessings. Today there is a deep hunger for connection with ourselves, with nature, and with the process of birth and death itself says life coach and author M. J. Ryan, creator of the New York Times best-selling Random Acts of Kindness series. What her book, A Grateful Heart, is offering from a wide variety of spiritual disciplines and secular perspectives, is a way of satisfying that hunger by setting aside time before we eat to acknowledge the blessings in our lives. When we give thanks, we take our place in the great wheel of life, recognizing our connection to one another and to all of creation.

Choose from 365 blessings and give thanks. A Grateful Heart is a tool to help readers reclaim and enrich the tradition of pausing before the evening meal to give thanks. Drawing from a range of religious and cultural practices, the 365 blessings in this book celebrate friendship, love, peace, reconciliation, the body, nature, joy, and appreciation of the moment. This illustrated feast for the mind includes quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, Gandhi, Rumi, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Denise Levertov, the Bible, and the Tao Te Ching.

M. J. Ryan wrote A Grateful Heart to encourage families to share the experience of being part of something greater than themselves. With that in mind, the book includes 365 traditional and nontraditional blessings organized into four sections corresponding to the seasons.

Experience the blessings in A Grateful Heart in a variety of ways:

• Just open it and begin reading one-a-day in the order given
• Use the index to pick and choose topics of interest that day
• Open at random and read what is offered

If you have benefited from books such as Earth Prayers, M. J. Ryan’s Attitudes of Gratitude, Don Miguel Ruiz’s Prayers, June Cotner’s Graces, or Marcia M. Kelly’s 100 Graces; you and your family will love M. J. Ryan’s A Grateful Heart.

Recuperamos El acoso moral, un longseller de Paidós, donde la autora analiza este tipo de relaciones perversas a través de numerosos testimonios y nos enseña a identificarlas allá donde se produzcan, ya sea en la pareja, la familia o la empresa.

«Acoso moral» es el concepto que describe la posibilidad de destruir a alguien solo con palabras, miradas o insinuaciones. En este libro, que se alimenta de numerosos testimonios, la autora analiza la especificidad de este tipo de relaciones perversas y nos enseña a identificarlas allá donde se produzcan, ya sea en la pareja, la familia o la empresa. 

El acoso moral genera, en las personas que lo sufren, una espiral depresiva, cuando no suicida, que las arrastra hacia una caída mortal. Es una agresión constante e insidiosa de una persona hacia otra con la que el agresor pone de manifiesto su voluntad de desembarazarse de alguien sin mancharse las manos, pues estas personas perversas saben enmascarar muy bien sus intenciones. 

Marie-France Hirigoyen nos enseña a identificar estas imposturas para que las víctimas puedan recuperar sus puntos de referencia y librarse de la influencia destructiva de su agresor. 

Apoyándose en su experiencia clínica, la autora se sitúa del lado de las personas agredidas y nos hace comprender que el acoso que estas sufren cotidianamente es un verdadero «asesinato psíquico». 

Gracias a este libro el problema del acoso moral está dejando de ser un tabú, pero todavía queda mucho camino por recorrer hasta erradicar este tipo de tortura psicológica. Y ello lo convierte en una lectura imprescindible.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Emotional abuse exists all around us—in families and work. Stalking the Soul is a call to recognize and understand emotional abuse and, most importantly, overcome it. Sophisticated and accessible, it is vital reading for victims and health professionals.

Based on her clinical experience, the author places herself on the side of the people who have been assaulted and makes us understand that the harassment they suffer on a daily basis is a real "psychic murder".

Thanks to this book, the problem of psychological harassment is no longer a taboo, but there is still a long way to go to eradicate this type of psychological torture. And this makes it essential reading.

Evita estos 10 estilos afectivos.

En este nuevo libro Silvia Congost explica cómo identificar a las personas tóxicas y qué hacer para liberarse de ellas. 

Las personas tóxicas existen. Te guste o no. Lo aceptes o no. Y su característica principal es, básicamente, que intoxican, invalidan, empequeñecen y destruyen. Pueden estar en cualquier área de tu vida: en la familia, en las amistades, en el trabajo o en la pareja. Pero lo más importante es que, si no te alejas de ellas, pueden acabar desequilibrando tu vida por completo. 

Tal vez te estés preguntando ¿Y cómo identificarlas? ¿Cómo alejarse si se trata de un padre o de una madre? ¿Y qué pasa si el tóxico es mi jefe? ¿Y si me doy cuenta de que mi pareja tiene un trastorno de personalidad narcisista? ¿Cómo puedo salir de esa relación y reconstruirme? 

Este libro te aportará la claridad, la comprensión y las respuestas que necesitas para identificar y tratar con personas tóxicas, además de ofrecerte herramientas que te ayudarán a empoderarte, a alejarte de todo aquel que te esté dañando y no te aporta nada bueno, y a cuidar siempre de tu esencia, tu autoestima y tu dignidad.

In this new book, Silvia Congost explains how to identify toxic people and what to do to get rid of them. 

Toxic people exist. Like it or not. Whether you accept it or not. And their main characteristic is, basically, that they intoxicate, invalidate, dwarf and destroy. They can be in any area of your life: in family, in friendships, at work or in your partner. But most importantly, if you don't stay away from them, they can end up throwing your life off balance completely. 

You may be wondering: And how to identify them? How to get away if it is a father or a mother? And what if the toxic person is my boss? What if I realize that my partner has narcissistic personality disorder? How can I get out of that relationship and rebuild myself? 

 This book will give you the clarity, understanding and answers you need to identify and deal with toxic people, as well as offer you tools that will help you empower yourself, to get away from everyone who is harming you and does not bring you anything good, and to always take care of your essence, your self-esteem and your dignity.

Drawn from over twenty-five years of experience, this comprehensive manual sets forth how to evaluate priorities, understand options, and face bedrock issues so caregivers can make informed decisions for their loved ones, while balancing their own needs and gaining peace of mind.

Author and family caregiving expert David Levy provides a model for effective planning and decision-making, focusing on the nonclinical aspects of caregiving (legal, financial, emotional, and social), which are often neglected by medical professionals:

David Levy, JD is a gerontologist and a recognized family caregiver expert. Levy holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence and is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator in family caregiving and a certified Family Conflict Dynamics Profiler. He facilitates weekly family caregiver support groups and counsels family caregivers, both pro bono and privately.

Betrayed by Those Meant to Love Her, This is Gerri Mayo’s True Story of Survival

For fans of Cathy Glass and #1 bestselling author Toni Maguire comes a true story of abuse and survival

Toni Maguire is the author of twelve books sold over 1.5 million worldwide, including her own bestselling memoirs Don't Tell Mummy and When Daddy Comes Home. Telling her own story encouraged others who had kept their childhood secrets hidden to approach her. Now she writes for those who need a voice too.

Gerri Mayo was only a young girl when she was first abused by her father. Growing up in a small village in Northern Ireland, in the tumultuous time of the Troubles, she had no one to turn to. He father’s evil acts were followed by abuse from her local priest, arranged by her father. After her mother found out about the abuse, and believing there was nothing she could do to help her child, she committed suicide.

Gerri and her siblings were split up and placed in different foster homes. The children knew they were unlikely to see each other ever again. Told that her mother had committed a grave sin, Gerri’s foster parents were far from kind to her. She experienced years of loneliness, feeling completely abandoned.The abuse Gerry experienced was so extensive it required an operation to repair the damage to her body. When asked who or what had been responsible, she responded “the priest”. But she was not believed in her small Northern Ireland town in the 1960s, where everyone believed a priest took his orders directly from God. After finally meeting her kind and caring husband a few years ago, and after celebrating her 60th birthday, Gerry decided it was time for her story to be told. This is her true story of survival.

If you’re a fan of Cathy Glass and books like Tears of the Silenced, If You Tell, or Spilled Milk, you will want to read Toni Maquire’s Why, Father?

Victims' Experiences of The Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Abuse: Beyond GlassWalls provides a unique perspective on how victims of domestic abuse experience the justice process. It tells two stories: first, a socio-legal narrative of the public policy, legislative, academic and social responses across Scotland, England and Wales; and second, the experience of female victim-survivors who report domestic abuse to the police. The apparent sweep of progress on the public stage is juxtaposed with the private struggle of individuals who continue to face barriers to justice.

In-depth interviews with women who have experienced domestic abuse and those who support them identify a number of challenges. Moving beyond the arrest, procedural hearings and trial Forbes considers the emotional implications of waiting at home, travelling to court, and the unmet support needs and unanswered questions beyond the so-called conclusions of their case. Beautifully illustrated, this accessible overview uses victim narrative to provide explicit, practical advice for busy practitioners and students alike.

"[An] empathetic study of the meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees."—Law and Politics Book Review

Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.

Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of "bad mothers" which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.

Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called "epidemic" of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.

Two sisters conduct a modern-day investigation into a Victorian-era murder of a toddler and discover their grandmother was a key witness.

While researching her ancestry on the Internet one gloomy evening, Penny is astonished by what she finds. Urgently, she instructs her sister Sheelagh, "Search ’Slaidburn Suspected Child Murder!’ Now!" So begins a remarkable story within a story spanning more than a century.

In 1885 Yorkshire, sisters Grace and Isabella, accused of murdering Grace’s secret illegitimate toddler, were on trial for their lives. A sadly neglected two-year-old boy was dead following a failed attempt to lodge him at a workhouse. A tense and sensational trial followed in Victorian-era Leeds.

Sheelagh and Penny began keenly re-investigating these events. They feel personally involved because a prosecution witness at the murder trial, nine-year-old Margaret Isherwood, would later become their grandmother. The book grips us with dramatic events, but also touches us with the abiding loyalty of sisterhood, the desperate power of our need for love, and the crazy things that it can make us do.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart. Labours of Love chronicles the journeys of Canadians who have overcome heartbreaking obstacles to become parents. Their stories are as diverse as our country, and span the borders of our world. While each account is unique in its own way, the stories are connected by the overwhelmingly commonality of the power of human connection.

From childhood to motherhood, Di Ciruolo takes readers through very personal and intensely heartbreaking experiences and creates a safe space for trauma survivors with indomitable.

Indomitable is a true story of foster care survival. With intentional wit and a healthy amount of self-reflection, Di Ciruolo invites explorers to find the places they can relate to while finding footing on the rungs to healing. Ciruolo shines a light on inner trauma, by offering encouragement and guidance for survivors and those who seek to support them. 

The exercises in the Violent No More Workbook are specifically designed to help men who batter understand, monitor, and stop their abusive and controlling behavior. Also included are exercises designed for couples who are working through basic relationship issues such as negotiating, communicating, compromising, and disagreeing without becoming abusive or controlling.

Mental health counselors or facilitators in domestic abuse programs make the book Violent No More and the Violent No More Workbook available to men in their domestic abuse groups or the clients they are seeing on an individual basis. Some programs provide the book and workbook to participants as part of their fee; others require participants to purchase the book and workbook, or contribute to the cost. The Violent No More Workbook is an easy to use, step-by-step process that is written directly to men.

Men who batter can change if they have the courage and motivation to change. The exercises in this workbook will help them on their journey.

The Potentially Good, The Definitely Bad, and the Utterly Hopeless...

If you know your husband or boyfriend is a good man, then this book isn’t for you. But if you’re not so sure, Ditch That Jerk will help you assess whether your partner could be controlling or abusive—and whether he’ll ever change. Author Pamela Jayne writes in a direct, honest style, and uses real-life examples to show how the mind of an abusive man works and how to recognize the men she characterizes as potentially good, definitely bad or utterly hopeless. Her book includes descriptions, examples, warnings—and even “jerk tests.” Should you ditch him? Here are a few of the indicators:

The Potentially Good Man (has the capacity to change)

• is likely to use non-physical forms of control and intimidation, such as verbal abuse
• is usually employed and doesn’t change jobs a lot or get fired regularly
• does not usually have a serious alcohol or other drug problem

The Definitely Bad Man (is unlikely to change)

• feels victimized by the world and blames everyone else for his problems
• is moody, creates chaos around him, and may isolate himself and his family
• may have a serious problem with alcohol or other drugs

The Utterly Hopeless Man (will never change—ditch him!)

• behaves violently, including toward animals, and totally lacks feelings and empathy
• is extremely dishonest, lying whenever it suits his purposes
• is charming and highly manipulative—often claiming to have reformed
  

If you’re with a man who is controlling or hurtful—or you want to help a woman who is—Ditch That Jerk is for you. Sensible and straightforward, this book can help women make potentially lifesaving decisions about their relationships.

Some people are intimidated by the prospect of organizing a full-scale family reunion. This book is a guide for organizing a successful and exciting family reunion. It includes chapters about getting started with the organization process, determining how to finance the event and work with vendors, deciding where and when to hold the reunion, creating a simple and effective record-keeping system, figuring out how to locate and invite family members, planning opportunities for family members of all ages to get to know each other, setting up the actual reunion site, managing the reunion onsite, and conducting a post-reunion review so that the next one will be even better. 

Because the Internet has changed forever the way we obtain information, this book also includes a wealth of Web-based reunion sites that are filled with great information. In addition, because Web sites change and because there is so much information on the Internet, a short guide to using Internet search engines, directories, and other tools to locate information is included. By studying the techniques there and referring to the tutorials at the Search Engine Watch Web site, you can quickly become adept at structuring effective searches for information all over the Internet. Finally, you’ll find sample charts and forms that will help you track your planning and make sure you’ve covered all your bases.

Regardless if this is your first family reunion or your tenth, it is important to do whatever it takes to make your event a success—one that your relatives will remember and talk about for the rest of their lives.

Many parents find it hard to know which toys are appropriate for children at different ages, and what kinds of play to initiate and encourage. What can parents do to best help children develop, and foster their skills?

Karin Neuschütz, an experienced educator and parent, addresses these questions in this concise, readable book. She discusses how children play, creatively and freely, and how they are affected by their environment and by the adults near them.

She explores each developmental stage up to age seven, using case studies to illustrate particular issues. She then suggests suitable toys and dolls and nurturing activities for children at particular stages.

Parents and early-years educators will appreciate the dependable, practical advice in this book.

Open-Eyed Adoption presents a compassionate look at uncovering the mysteries of the adoptive parent/adoptee relationship

Open-Eyed Adoption is written for the purpose of supplying a resource for those who have adopted children as well as those who are considering the possibility of doing so. Often adoptive parents are ill-prepared and uninformed as to the unique challenges that raising adopted children presents. For instance, the earlier a parent knows that an adoptee has trauma from the beginning, the better equipped they can be to adapting their parenting style vs what may have been the style of their own parents. Being unaware of this, they can be confused and discouraged as to what they are seeing and why their adopted child responds the way they do. They may even be bewildered, due to the amount of love they give, to see a different response than they expect. 

This book gives resource and tools to the parent for better understanding of what may be happening in the heart of their child. The information contained in Open-Eyed Adoption can also be used when parents are communicating with their adult adopted children. It encourages parents to look at parenting from different angles when it comes to the adoptee. Furthermore, Open- Eyed Adoption dispels the myth that they are all alone, takes a look at the importance of self-kindness and shows the way to get the support they need.

Seeking Solace is Chani Barlow’s story of following God’s plan despite a series of unforeseen obstacles, in order to find true meaning and peace. 

Though Chani Barlow grew up going to church on Sundays, she never really knew if God was real or just a name mentioned over the pulpit. As a teenager, she jaywalked across a busy highway and found Him waiting for her in the recovery room. God gifted her powerful dreams, snapshots of a little boy and girl meant to join her family. But the search wasn’t easy. Infertility, financial setbacks, mental illness, and rejection led her to wonder if God had forgotten her—but was she really paying attention? 

Seeking Solace tells the story of REAL miracles. It puts an arm around the reader’s shoulder and points out how their coincidences might not just be coincidences. 

I Left My Toxic Relationship – Now What? teaches women how to live on their own again and how not to feel scared or daunted of being alone. It provides the roadmap for independence with active steps in order to get to a place of happiness again. Join author, educator, and registered psychotherapist, Heather J. Kent in I Left My Toxic Relationship – Now What? as she unlocks the secrets to:

Laurel Bahr’s step-by-step account of discovery, opposition, and lessons learned is interwoven with the “behind closed-door” stories of two friends who were ultimately inspired to follow in her footsteps. Their remarkable journey highlights the power of close, authentic, long-term relationships and proves that change is possible, dreams do come true if one only believes. With the goal to inspire and offer hope to victims, their families, and those who care about them, Love Gone Wrong chronicles the stereotypical aspects of emotional, verbal, sexual, and physical abuse. Clinical insights from a psychologist and other health professionals occur at key junctures to explain, validate, and support their experiences.

The self-help industry has a habit of taking life too seriously, however, Damsel No More! takes a very different approach. Using the philosophies of Role Play Gaming, think Dungeons and Dragons, Damsel No More! takes on the dubious challenge of overcoming the anxiety felt after relationship abuse and makes it, well, fun! In this adventure, women learn all the skills needed to stop their past relationships from ruining their current one, such as:

It’s time for people to break the vicious cycle of family dynamics and awaken to who they truly are in order to move forward and create a life full of freedom. It is possible to change behaviors that lead to transformation in not only the individual’s life, but in the lives of those around them. Janet Ellis, founder and CEO of Janet’s Planets of Empowerment, shares the process she herself has followed to break free of the dysfunction that ruled the early years of her life. As living proof that anyone can emerge from the other side of depression, sadness, and loneliness, she teaches readers to awaken to only their Truth, learn to love themselves regardless of their outer world, break through the blocks that are holding them back, and more.

Within the pages of Wake Up is the message that no matter where someone comes from, what their life has been like, as long as they wake up and are willing to do the work, they can have a life full of freedom and joy.

An Indispensable Toolset for Same-Sex Parenthood

"An absolute ‘must-have’ for any LGBT couple engaged in family planning!” —Midwest Book Review

First published in 2016 and winner of four literary awards.* Now updated and packed with valuable information and more powerful stories of same-sex parents achieving and navigating parenthood.

Yes, you do have options. Same-sex couples (gay dads, lesbian moms, or other queer couples) are faced with many different options when choosing to have a family that includes beautiful children. In Journey to Parenthood, author, activist and father Eric Rosswood guides and helps prospective LGBTQIA parents explore adoption, foster care, assisted reproduction, surrogacy and co-parenting.

Create your own happy family unit. Each section includes a description of a specific family-building approach, followed by personal stories from same-sex couples and individuals who have chosen that particular path. Learn strategies for dealing with challenges you will encounter on this parenting journey.

Inside find:

• Strategies for successfully navigating same sex parenthood
• Firsthand accounts combined with critical tips and advice 
• Updated information about adoption, foster care, assisted reproduction, surrogacy and co-parenting

If you benefited from Eric Rosswood’s bestselling book We Make It Better or his Ultimate Guide for Gay Dads; or have read parenting books like Raised by Unicorns, Raising Good Humans, What to Expect When You're Expecting, or The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, you’ll want to read Journey to Parenthood.

* Winner of the 2017 IAN Book of the Year Awards in the Parenting/Family/Relationships category; the 2017 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards in the Parenting category; the 2017 Best Book Awards in the LGBTQ, Non-Fiction category; and finalist in the 2017 International Book Awards.

Celebrate the Human Experience by Giving Thanks at Mealtime. Try It!

Count your blessings. Today there is a deep hunger for connection with ourselves, with nature, and with the process of birth and death itself says life coach and author M. J. Ryan, creator of the New York Times best-selling Random Acts of Kindness series. What her book, A Grateful Heart, is offering from a wide variety of spiritual disciplines and secular perspectives, is a way of satisfying that hunger by setting aside time before we eat to acknowledge the blessings in our lives. When we give thanks, we take our place in the great wheel of life, recognizing our connection to one another and to all of creation.

Choose from 365 blessings and give thanks. A Grateful Heart is a tool to help readers reclaim and enrich the tradition of pausing before the evening meal to give thanks. Drawing from a range of religious and cultural practices, the 365 blessings in this book celebrate friendship, love, peace, reconciliation, the body, nature, joy, and appreciation of the moment. This illustrated feast for the mind includes quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, Gandhi, Rumi, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Denise Levertov, the Bible, and the Tao Te Ching.

M. J. Ryan wrote A Grateful Heart to encourage families to share the experience of being part of something greater than themselves. With that in mind, the book includes 365 traditional and nontraditional blessings organized into four sections corresponding to the seasons.

Experience the blessings in A Grateful Heart in a variety of ways:

• Just open it and begin reading one-a-day in the order given
• Use the index to pick and choose topics of interest that day
• Open at random and read what is offered

If you have benefited from books such as Earth Prayers, M. J. Ryan’s Attitudes of Gratitude, Don Miguel Ruiz’s Prayers, June Cotner’s Graces, or Marcia M. Kelly’s 100 Graces; you and your family will love M. J. Ryan’s A Grateful Heart.

Though interpersonal violence is widely studied, much less has been done to understand structural violence, the often-invisible patterns of inequality that reproduce social relations of exclusion and marginalization through ideologies, policies, stigmas, and discourses attendant to gender, race, class, and other markers of social identity. Structural violence normalizes experiences like poverty, ableism, sexual harassment, racism, and colonialism, and erases their social and political origins. The legal structures that provide impunity for those who exploit youth are also part of structural violence’s machinery.

Working with Indigenous, queer, immigrant and homeless youth across Canada, this five-year Youth-based Participatory Action Research project used art to explore the many ways that structural violence harms youth, destroying hope, optimism, a sense of belonging and a connection to civil society. However, recognizing that youth are not merely victims, Everyday Violence in the Lives of Youth also examines the various ways youth respond to and resist this violence to preserve their dignity, well-being and inclusion in society.

The issue of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is firmly in the public spotlight internationally and in the UK, but just how well is it understood?

To date, many CSE-related services have been developed in reaction to high profile cases rather than being designed more strategically. This much-needed book breaks new ground by considering how psychosocial, feminist and geo-environmental theories, amongst others, can improve practice understanding and interventions.

Edited by one of the leading scholars in the field, this is an essential text for students and those planning strategic interventions and practice activities in social, youth and therapeutic work with young people, as it supports understanding of how CSE arises and how to challenge the nature of the abuse.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.

The extent of violence against women is currently hidden. How should violence be measured? How should research and new ways of thinking about violence improve its measurement? Could improved measurement change policy?

The book is a guide to how the measurement of violence can be best achieved. It shows how to make femicide, rape, domestic violence, and FGM visible in official statistics. It offers practical guidance on definitions, indicators and coordination mechanisms. It reflects on theoretical debates on ‘what is gender’, ‘what is violence’, and ‘the concept of coercive control’. and introduces the concept of ‘gender saturated context’. Analysing the socially constructed nature of statistics and the links between knowledge and power, it sets new standards and guidelines to influence the measurement of violence in the coming decades.

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is now high on the social care agenda, but what is it? How is it different from other forms of child sexual abuse? This important book puts forward the rarely heard voices of children and young people who have experienced CSE and the professionals who have worked with them to answer these questions.

Taking a critical perspective, Hallett also addresses the possibility that further problems might arise from the framing of ‘child sexual exploitation’, which can have serious implications for the ways that society responds to CSE and to the children and young people caught up in it.

Central to the discussion are themes such as youth, childhood, care and power, making for an important sociological contribution to this under-researched field.

The book challenges the dominant way of thinking about CSE and, with new and valuable practice and policy relevant insights, is also essential reading for those working or training to work with children and young people.

How can we prevent intimate partner violence (IPV)? And how do we define and measure “success” in preventing it? This book brings together researchers and practitioners from a wide range of fields to examine innovative strategies and programs for preventing IPV. The authors discuss evaluations of current prevention efforts, paying particular attention to underserved groups, including racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees.

Among the issues addressed are primary prevention programs that target adolescents and young adults, strategies designed to engage men and boys, IPV screening in different settings, the impact of the criminalization of IPV on minority populations, restorative justice programs, interventions for women who use violence, and innovative shelter programming to prevent re-victimization. The volume concludes by identifying the gaps in knowledge about effective prevention and highlighting the most promising future directions for prevention research and strategies.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. The need to stop rape is pressing and, since it is the outcome of a wide range of practices and institutions in society, so too must the policies be to stop it This important book offers a comprehensive guide to the international policies developed to stop rape , together with case study examples on how they work. The book engages with the law and criminal justice system, health services, specialised services for victim-survivors, educational and cultural interventions, as well as how they can best be coordinated. It is informed by theory and evidence drawn from scholarship and practice from around the world.

The book will be of interest to a global readership of students, practitioners and policy makers as well as anyone who wants to know how rape can be stopped.

At one time, the use of corporal punishment by parents in child-rearing was considered normal, but in the second half of the nineteenth century this begin to change, in Quebec as well as the rest of the Western world. It was during this period that the extent of ill-treatment inflicted on children—treatment once excused as good child-rearing practice—was discovered.

This book analyzes both the advice provided to parents and the different forms of child abuse within families. Cliche derives her information from family magazines, reports and advice columns in newspapers, people’s life stories, the records of the Montreal Juvenile Court, and even comic strips. Two dates are given particular focus: 1920, with the trial of the parents of Aurore Gagnon, which sensitized the public to the phenomenon of “child martyrs;” and 1940, with the advent of the New Education movement, which was based on psychology rather than strict discipline and religious doctrine.

There has always been child abuse. What has changed is society’s sensitivity to it. That is why defenders of children’s rights call for the repeal of Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which authorizes “reasonable” corporal punishment. Abuse or Punishment? considers not only the history of violence towards children in Quebec but the history of public perception of this violence and what it means for the rest of Canada.

Fostering Nation? Canada Confronts Its History of Childhood Disadvantage explores the missteps and the promise of a century and more of child protection efforts by Canadians and their governments. It is the first volume to offer a comprehensive history of what life has meant for North America’s most disadvantaged Aboriginal and newcomer girls and boys.
Gender, class, race, and (dis)ability are always important factors that bear on youngsters’ access to resources. State fostering initiatives occur as part of a broad continuum of arrangements, from social assistance for original families to kin care and institutions. Birth and foster parents of disadvantaged youngsters are rarely in full control. Children most distant from the mainstream ideals of their day suffer, and that suffering is likely to continue into their own experience of parenthood. That trajectory is never inevitable, however. Both resilience and resistance have shaped Canadians’ engagement with foster children in a society dominated by capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal power.
Fostering Nation? breaks much new ground for those interested in social welfare, history, and the family. It offers the first comprehensive perspective on Canada’s provision for marginalized youngsters from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Its examination of kin care, institutions, state policies, birth parents, foster parents, and foster youngsters provides ample reminder that children’s welfare cannot be divorced from that of their parents and communities, and reinforces what it means when women bear disproportionate responsibility for caregiving.