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Together We Heal chronicles a series of group therapy sessions for adult children of alcoholics. The book, co-written by Szifra Birke and Kathy Mayer, is written like a novel. As time progresses, some members leave the group and others join.
In the book, Szifra is the therapist leading the group and Kathy is a member of the group. The other members portray a number of personality types who attend such groups, many representing various coping styles of adult children of alcoholics.
In group therapy, these people have found a safe place to reveal their deepest truths, to say the things we rarely hear people say, the things we’re afraid to say ourselves for fear of being thought strange or unlikable. Ironically, when these people shared their secrets, they brought others closer. In their openness, they also help us, the readers, to see that the feelings we’re afraid to share are so often universal and not so awful after all.
Says Szifra in the book’s introduction. “Group therapy [lets people] discover the incredible relief of learning that other people’s inner lives are more similar to our own than different. Over the years, clients have told me that this realization has been profound; it has changed their lives.”
Together We Heal is a moving book that can help bring healing to adult children of alcoholics, adult children of high-stress (a.k.a. dysfunctional) families, and probably any reader. It can also help those considering any kind of group therapy, by letting readers find out what group therapy is like.
The second edition of Together We Heal was released in the fall of 2004. Order information and links are just to the left of this sentence.
What people are saying about Together We Heal.
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