Wise Little One: Learning to Love and Listen to My Inner Child by Jana Wilson
Wise Little One: Learning to Love and Listen to My Inner Child by Jana Wilson will be released in July 2023, published by EHS Publishing.
“Use memory, don’t allow memory to use you.” ~ Deepak Chopra
A victim of childhood abuse and trauma, Jana Wilson could have wound up another statistic. Yet, at the age of twelve, she had a mystical spiritual experience that catapulted her on a life-long journey to learn to value herself and pursue her dreams. In her breakout memoir, Wise Little One, we follow Jana as she discovers how to manifest an inspiring life and begin the journey of self-realization and cultivating an unshakable faith. Ultimately, within this compelling narrative she begins to honor and listen to her Wise Little One and, at long last, finds her beloved in the most auspicious way.
Eventually training and working with prominent thought leaders Deepak Chopra and Debbie Ford, Jana created The Emotional Healing System and has helped thousands heal from the pain of their past.
A riveting tale of triumph over tragedy, Wise Little One is interlaced with the tools and skills Jana learned on her path. In the end, readers discover that we are all here in Earth school to learn how to heal from our pasts, to extract lessons from our traumas, and to value and fall in love with ourselves.
About the Author:
Jana Wilson is an emotional healing educator, meditation teacher, retreat leader, public speaker, hypnotherapist, and founder of the Emotional Healing System. For the past two decades she has taught thousands internationally in group and private retreats. Jana trained and worked with best selling author and physician, Deepak Chopra MD.
She lives off grid in the foothills of the Sangre de Christo mountain range in Santa Fe, NM, with her husband and business partner, Dr. Lance Wilson. When she is not guiding clients to heal, she enjoys hiking, yoga and watching documentaries. You can connect with Jana on Facebook and Instagram, or visit her online at www.janawilson.com
Bondi & Poppy Help Heal the Planet
Bondi & Poppy Help Heal the Planet is a new children’s book by Judith A. Proffer. It is set to be released on April 18, 2023, just in time for Earth Day.
A gentle awakening for young readers, written in rhyme format, introduces young children to the woeful impact of climate change on coastal animal habitats while offering everyday practices to help.
Bondi is an Australian koala and Poppy is a California bear. Both live in wildfire regions, and both experience the sadness and fear of seeing their precious homes threatened by unpredictable blazes.
Bondi & Poppy Help Heal the Planet is a tender and sometimes playful conversation starter for even the youngest of readers, addressing the realities of global warming while offering hope.
Be mindful of waste, of not using too much
Like water and lights and paper and such.
Use your great brain and walk when you can
Talk with your family to make a smart plan.
Author Judith A. Proffer resides in Southern California. In late 2019 she left behind a particularly challenging fire season in Los Angeles for a three week holiday in Australia, quickly discovering that she had entered Australia’s worst fire season in recent history. The region she spent Christmas Day that year (Kangaroo Island) was decimated by fire just days after she left. This book is her response to the ferocity of the back to back fire seasons she experienced that year, and a plea to keep animals in mind when contemplating our planet’s future.
Proffer is the co-author of the award-winning When We Stayed Home.
Aloha Vietnam by Elizabeth Nguyen
Aloha Vietnam is a new book by Elizabeth Nguyen. It was published by The Unbound Press in December 2022.
A rich journey across the Pacific Ocean to find one’s true home and identity amidst loss, grief, and mental illness.
Anh Nguyen is 17 years old and a senior in high school working on a watercolor art series when she experiences her first manic episode. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, put on medications, and she and her Vietnamese-American family are suddenly thrown into the world of mental health treatment and recovery.
Anh’s mother Xuan grapples with understanding her daughter’s struggles, while also trying to make sense of her own loss and grief of leaving behind her family and motherland of Vietnam to raise her children in America. The family find refuge across the Pacific Ocean on the warm shores of Honolulu, Hawaii, Anh navigates growing up in a refugee family in a new land and culture, and dealing with the struggles of her own mind. She finds solace in her love for the ocean and her art.
This is the story of finding one’s identity and place of belonging in a shifting landscape of tradition, heritage, and culture, and the healing power of art, water, and love.
What Readers Are Saying:
“Powered by story and strengthened by science, Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen, like Lisa Genova before her, has penned a gripping story of one family’s journey through the heartbreak of mental illness. A beautifully written coming-of-age story that details the highs and lows of bi-polar disorder, against the cross-cultural grace and beauty of two Pacific locations – Vietnam and Hawaii. A poignant and moving novel.” – R. Bruce Logan & Elaine Head, authors of Back to Vietnam: Tours of the Heart
“As an Asian American child and adolescent psychiatrist, I highly recommend Aloha Vietnam not only for its sensitive portrayal of illness, but also for its moving depiction of an immigrant’s experience.” – Dr. Harry Wang, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
“Edge of your seat fixed reading: as soon as I settled with Aloha Vietnam I was hooked on the raw emotion pouring deep from within the words. Elizabeth’s passion for her cultural roots bursts throughout this poignant encounter of a family both found and lost within their new experiences. I loved it.” – Natalie Farrell Artist. Presenter. Writer + Author of “Light The Way”
“At the heart of the story is the mother-daughter relationship told through the backdrop of the emotions of a lost culture, the grief of which can be tasted through the pages.” – Victoria Smisek, author of “Falling Awake – A Heroine’s Journey”
“This enchanting book is a potent mix of loss, strength, love, and healing.” – Deborah DLP Writer Beautifully Unfinished Woman
About the Author:
Elizabeth Nguyen, MD was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents were refugees from Vietnam who arrived in Honolulu in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War.
She received her BA from Stanford University in Human Biology, her MD from Northwestern University, and her Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry Fellowship training at UC Davis. She started her career in community mental health, with specific interests in cross-cultural psychiatry, the intersection of spirituality and mental health, and the healing power of water and the natural world.
Of the inspiration behind and the intention for Aloha Vietnam, Elizabeth says: “There is so much trauma and healing in the human ancestral lineages, and water, art, and storytelling help us in becoming whole and natural again. This book is my love offering to the land and the people of Vietnam and Hawaii, and the vast Pacific Ocean that connects them. It is my hope that it provides beauty and healing to the trauma and suffering that has come through generations of loss and the struggles of mental illness.” You can find her online at: www.multidimensionalpsychiatry.com and www.waterkeeperscommunity.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Aloha-Vietnam-Elizabeth-Nguyen/dp/1913590798
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75260927-aloha-vietnam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensionalpsychiatry/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.nguyen.1980
You Make Your Path By Walking: A Transformational Field Guide Through Trauma and Loss
When her beloved husband took his life, and with it her life as she knew it, Suzanne Anderson faced a choice: would she be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Part memoir, part guidebook, You Make Your Path By Walking accompanies readers on their own journeys through the barren landscape of trauma and grief, offering comfort, guidance, and inspiration to make meaning out of loss. Whether you are going through a personal dark night or struggling with these uncertain and disruptive global times, this book offers a proven pathway to allow the breaking down to be the breaking open into a whole new way of living, loving, and leading.
In this beautifully crafted blend of memoir and guidebook, Suzanne Anderson invites you to walk with her through the brutal landscape of trauma and loss in a way that is profoundly transformational.
Structured into three distinct parts, Part One sets the stage and walks us through the shocking event of her husband’s suicide and the dismantling of her life. Using compelling personal stories throughout, Part Two explores how to embody each of the eight critical capacities of resilience, and Part Three provides some of the inner tools, rituals and broader perspectives needed.
Drawing from her years of exploration into the development of human potential and the personal, shattering journey of loss, Suzanne guides you to make your own path through the darkest of times—and to become a light in the world that others can look to in their own times of need.
You Make Your Path By Walking will be released in June 2023, published by She Writes Press. The book is currently available for pre-sale on Amazon.
What Readers Are Saying:
“This is a gift for anyone navigating life towards greater sovereignty, purposefulness and freedom from self-limiting cultural norms . . . .The nuanced discoveries this book shares – along with practices to enhance readers’ self-reflection and integration – offer pathways to greater joy, fulfillment and liberation. They are authentic and hard-earned, and reveal the inspiring power of a woman’s fierce determination to live life fully – and above all, whole-heartedly.” —Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer, Bioneers.org, and author of the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership
“Suzanne Anderson weaves an exquisite tapestry of love, hope, and healing she invites us to apply in our own lives. This book is a moving primer for how to ‘make the path by walking’ we each must forge through challenging life experiences that we will all encounter. With courage, grace, and wisdom, she demonstrates how, regardless of our circumstances, individually and collectively, we hold the power to heal, envision, and create a better world.” —Donna Stoneham, PhD, author of Catch Me When I Fall: Poems of Mother Loss and Healing and The Thriver’s Edge: Seven Keys to Transform the Way You Live, Love, and Lead
“From the fire of personal trauma, Suzanne Anderson was forced to find a path through the ashes of devastation—unexpectedly testing her own groundbreaking teachings in her acclaimed previous book The Way of the Mysterial Woman. Through gripping storytelling and clear guidance, if you have ever experienced a shattering trauma or want to help someone through loss and heartbreak, this is the field guide for you.” —Gail Hudson, Writing coach and New York Times best-selling co-author with Jane Goodall of The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times and Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants
“This book has the means to touch your heart, open your mind and give you access to the journey through the eyes of a wisdom keeper. I have been so touched by Suzanne’s gift of language and her wisdom of navigating the underworld. What a beautiful piece of work! Thank you for sharing your journey, and allowing me to learn from you. Only a Scorpio can take you into the realms of death with such fearlessness!” —Debra Silverman, Astrologer and author of The Missing Element: Inspiring Compassion for the Human Condition
Suzanne Anderson, MA, is the founder of The Mysterial Woman, a psychologist, author, coach, leadership consultant, and transformational teacher. Her pioneering work in guiding women to awaken their full Feminine and Masculine strengths combines insights and practices from ancient wisdom, depth psychology, and modern neuroscience. She has dedicated the past thirty years to decoding an embodied, integral, and accelerated archetypal pathway to unlock the next level of our innate potential. Combining her graduate studies in women’s developmental psychology together with her decades as a leadership consultant, Suzanne wisely guides women to awaken to the next level of consciousness and leadership capacity, making the changes in themselves they want to shape in the world. She facilitates global online programs, workshops, and retreats, and is the author of You Make Your Path by Walking: A Transformational Field Guide Through Trauma and Loss and is the coauthor of the triple award-winning book The Way of the Mysterial Woman: Upgrading How You Live, Love, and Lead. Originally from Canada, Suzanne now lives in Seattle, WA.
To request a review copy or an interview, please contact Kelsey Butts at Book Publicity Services at (805) 807-9027 or Kelsey@BookPublicityServices.com
Gender Equity & Reconciliation by William Keepin & Cynthia Brix
How can we move forward to heal and transform, in practical ways, the vast crisis of relations between women and men, and among people of all genders?
This book addresses that question.
Gender Equity & Reconciliation was published in October 2022 by Hohm Press. The book documents the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) project. Through the Gender Equity & Reconciliation project women and men, and people of all gender identities, have come together to jointly examine the subtle knots of cultural conditioning around gender and sexuality, support each other in healing the roots of negative gender dynamics, and address the associated inequities and injustices in the world.
Over the past 30 years, the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) project has convened over 300 intensive workshops and trainings in 12 countries, for more than 7,000 people on 6 continents. These groups have engaged in a deep process of unraveling the systemic knots of gender conflicts and developed practical skills for transforming gender relations from the inside out.
The GERI program was formally endorsed in 2013 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who launched a collaborative partnership between GERI, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, and Stellenbosch University. The Foreword to the book is written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter, Mpho Tutu van Furth.
The book features 20 co-authors from 10 countries, spanning a broad range of professional expertise, culture, race, and gender diversity, representing a thousand years of combined life experience. Woven throughout are the voices and stories of dozens of leaders and participants from diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds who have experienced the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) program. This book is full of inspiring stories that document how the methodology of deep truth-telling and collective alchemy dissolves root causes of gender conflict, through skillfully facilitated, heart-centered transformational experiences, which are followed up with ongoing peer support.
With contributions from 12 distinguished world leaders in this field, and special inserts from such notable persons as Stanislav Grof, MD, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, and Peter Rutter, MD, this book is an invaluable resource for laypersons and professionals, politicians and psychotherapists, educators and religious leaders, who are thoughtfully addressing the gender-based conflicts and needs of young and old in their own homes, therapy practices, organizations and congregations across the globe.
Sections of the book focus on the implementation of the GERI program in diverse contexts from prisons to parliament; religious communities to academic institutions; rural communities in Kenya and South Africa to U.N. affiliates in New York City. Other chapters focus on the GERI program in various countries around the world. Taken together, these successful applications of the GERI program in widely diverse contexts demonstrate its robustness as a practical pathway for transforming gender injustice, and for restoring right relationship between the genders.
Praise from Prominent Leaders:
“Gender Equity is the one certain step to heal humanity. …This book and the GERI program illuminate a path to do just that.” –Justin Baldoni, author of Man Enough
“Inspiring and intersectional approach, … underscores the transformative power of gender justice movements.” –Latanya Mapp Frett, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women
“Magnificent heartfelt healing work, … gifts us a map of deep positive transformation.” –Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart
“A groundbreaking guide for all who want fulfilling relationships, and a more caring and equitable world.” –Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade and Nurturing Our Humanity
“An important, indeed a necessary book in these difficult times. While unflinchingly illustrating the devastation of gender injustice, the authors offer an original and inspiring path to hope and healing. Their program, so vividly and movingly described, could change the world.” ― Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., Senior Scholar, Wellesley Centers for Women and creator of the “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women” film series
“Gender and Reconciliation is overflowing with ancient spiritual wisdom and contemporary insight into the tragic interplay between gender and violence. As such it is an invaluable resource for those of us who struggle to help others see the deep connections between men’s violence against women, other men, and themselves. Even more importantly, it offers men, women, and others creative and compassionate strategies for moving forward, together.” ― Jackson Katz, Ph.D., author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help
“The authors have written “the bible” on the topic of gender and healing. Their expertise is world class as is this absolutely remarkable book. We ALL need the insights, information, challenging truths, comprehensive understandings and profound healing power of this book. I celebrate the scholarship contained in this work but most of all, the LOVE they have so deeply expressed through this book on the most vital topic of our age.” ― Lynne Twist, Co-Founder of Pachamama Alliance, Author of The Soul of Money
“Unless we make the 21st century the feminine century, our humanity is at stake. This book shows the important steps to cultivate feminine values and how to lead with them for the ultimate good for all.” ― Zainab Salbi, Humanitarian, Author, TV Host, and founder of Women for Women International
“In a world that pushes us towards polarities of differences, this seminal work celebrates those differences and helps us find common ground. The book is full of new approaches practiced over decades and a wealth of experiences gathered from across the world that have fostered genuine healing and reconciliation between men, women, and people of all gender identities. It is a must read.” ― Vishal Talreja and Suchetha Bhat, Co-Founder and CEO of Dream a Dream
“There are many admirable people and organizations around our planet devoted to making the world a better place. High on that list is the courageous work described in this volume. The stories and events recounted here are immeasurably inspiring. There is scarcely any more important work going on today than the effort to heal and transform the relationships between men and women, between people of all genders: to bravely bear witness, to work through the traumas, to face the shadows in our history and in ourselves. And from there, to accept responsibility, grieve, ask forgiveness, offer forgiveness. The hard-won achievements of such work ripples out to influence not only the larger society but our human relations with the many other species that with us constitute our Earth community.” ― Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., Author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, Founding Director of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program, California Institute of Integral Studies
“This book is a powerful and timely contribution to breaking the tyranny of silence and exposing the hidden truths, harmful stereotypes, and trauma of gender oppression. This collective work of a global repertoire of activist voices spanning three decades has redefined the contours of our gendered political and social landscape in a remarkable manner. Their spirited activism challenges injustice, and encourages us to disrupt the way we think and the way we live. The imperative of the book is a deliberate intersectionality of reconciliation, mindful action, inclusive practice, resilience, respect for diverse realities, and a more radical humanism.” ― Professor Rajendra Chetty, a post-colonial scholar, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
“If you’re called to help heal our world, to affect a root cause of human suffering – regardless of your gender or racial identity, your sector, nationality or orientation, read this book! With a boldly audacious goal to address the deepest, most insidious and universal trauma that pervades our human species, it shares stories and methods that have proven effective in creating transformations rippling in societies around the globe. The book speaks to all levels of the traumas we carry as a result of thousands of years of gender bias and violence ― a root cause of all the issues we face ― from the individual to the organizational, and from the societal to the archetypal.” ― Nina Simons, Co-founder of Bioneers, author of Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership 2nd Edition
About the Authors:
William Keepin, Ph.D. co-founder of the Gender Equity & Reconciliation International project. A mathematical physicist (Ph.D. applied mathematics) he is widely published in areas of sustainable energy, global warming, archetypal cosmology, comparative mysticism & the intersection of science and spirituality. Co-founded the Satyana Institute to facilitate inter-spiritual practice and collaboration across the major religions and science. Trained extensively in spiritual traditions East and West, he holds an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies & is a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation.
Rev. Cynthia Brix, Ph.D., co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, is an ordained interfaith minister and Co-Director of Satyana Institute. Cynthia leads retreats on interfaith spirituality and has co-organized five international conferences in this area. Besides co-authoring several books with husband Will Keepin, she has produced a DVD entitled Cultivating Women’s Spiritual Mastery. Cynthia holds an M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology (2006), a double M.A. in wellness management and applied gerontology, and an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
To learn more, go to https://www.genderreconciliationinternational.org/new-geri-book/
Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World by Kirk J. Schneider
Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World by Kirk J. Schneider was released on February 1, 2023, published by The University Professors Press.
Life-Enhancing Anxiety makes a bold proposal: It is not less anxiety that we need today, but more, at least of a certain kind.
It seems counterintuitive. Anxiety is going through the roof in our time, and yet this book advances the notion that there is not enough anxiety— at least of a certain kind. People are laboring in the thousands, maybe millions, with anxiety disorders. There is a war going on in Ukraine, authoritarianism is on the rise, and climatic disaster is upon us. These crises are driven by as well as perpetrating anxiety; and yet this volume raises the prospect that the crises are the result of avoidance of a certain type of anxiety. Kirk Schneider calls this life-enhancing anxiety. Life-enhancing anxiety is the anxiety we must face to prevent life-destroying anxiety. It is challenging and requires pluck. But it also may just save us from the disastrous path with which we now contend.
The book comprises a collection of original and previously published essays that converge on what Schneider calls life-enhancing anxiety. Life-enhancing anxiety is the invigorating degree of anxiety needed to become passionately engaged, ethically attuned, and creatively enriched. Set against our anxiety-avoidant times, life-enhancing anxiety enables us to “live with and make the best of the depth and mystery of existence.”
The potential for life-enhancing anxiety begins at the moment of birth—the point at which we shift from relative nonexistence and unity to sudden, abrupt existence and disunity. This juncture is both daunting and wondrous. Yet it is the management of the juncture by both caretakers and the culture at large that is all important; for it is that management that forms the bedrock for our capacity to deeply live, or to skim only the surfaces; to attain courage, or to seek refuge in gimmicks. The book goes on to elaborate this developmental arc and apply it to a range of personal and social challenges. Among these challenges are Schneider’s personal struggle with life-enhancing anxiety; the role of life-enhancing anxiety in the cultivation of a sense of awe (humility and wonder) toward all existence; the role of life-enhancing anxiety in the arts, particularly film and literature; applications within the discipline of psychology; applications to social and political crises (war and violence in particular); and applications to spirituality and religion. Schneider concludes the book with a brief section on the relevant research on life-enhancing anxiety, followed by an Epilogue. The Epilogue summarizes the implications of life-enhancing anxiety for a more sane, sustainable, and awe-informed world.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“In this fascinating book, Kirk Schneider–who has spent a distinguished career defending the core values of psychotherapists against dehumanizing pressures from an increasingly consumeristic, objectifying environment–helps readers find ways to survive and flourish in our stressful world. Instead of trying to soothe our fears that much is out of kilter in contemporary life, he suggests that if we are not anxious enough about the right problems, we risk being unequipped to address them. This provocative, brilliant, and paradoxically comforting book belongs in the library of anyone who cares about the fate of humanity. —Nancy McWilliams, Ph.D., ABPP, Distinguished Affiliate Faculty, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
“Life-Enhancing Anxiety challenges us to rethink our understanding of anxiety as something to be avoided or managed at all costs. Instead, Schneider urges us to consider the many ways this basic human emotion can help us grow, more fully engage with existence, and transform ourselves in ways that lead to more fulfilling lives. In his view, anxiety is inherently tied to the experience of awe, a transformative experience that has become harder to come by in the increasingly regimented and standardized lives most people live. This is a provocative thesis that integrates ideas from previous existential thinkers, empirical research, Schneider’s decades of experience as a psychotherapist, and his insightful contemplation of his own life trajectory. It is a stimulating and rewarding read that will be of great value to psychotherapists, scientists, and lay people alike.” —Dr. Tom Pyszczynski, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA. Co-author of The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life with Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon
“In a world where any signs of discomfort are met with harshness to the point of total loss of tolerance for ambiguity, uneasiness, and disputation; and resilience has become a teachable skill rather than a natural and acquired fruit of life, Life-Enhancing Anxiety is a breath of fresh air. Schneider puts forward a solid argument based on empirical evidence, years of clinical work and personal experience to remind us of the necessity of recognizing anxiety as a life force. He invites us to reconsider the existential roots of anxiety as a powerful mobilizer and not a paralyzer. The wisdom shared in this book finally, should be enlightening for fellow mental health practitioners and their clients, community educators and students.” —Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, Co-Founder of Relationship Panoramic Inc. and Senior Advisor to the United Nations
“One of the most common misconceptions about psychotherapy is that it helps us relieve anxiety. Yet, existentialist philosophers have always argued the contrary, that therapy should be employed to promoteanxiety. In this timely and radical study, Kirk Schneider, one of the world’s leading existential therapists, once again regales us with his uncanny ability to ease us into truths that we all too often wish to avoid. In showing that anxiety is not our enemy, but a friend that can potentially help us embrace life to the fullest, this remarkable book is destined to become a classic.” —M. Guy Thompson, Ph.D., Founder and Director, New School for Existential Psychoanalysis; author, TheDeath of Desire: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness; The Legacy of R. D. Laing: An Appraisal of his Contemporary Relevance
“In this expansive text, Kirk Schneider probes life’s fundamental questions and takes the reader on a search for depth, meaning, connection and love. He traverses key aspects of society and self to define what’s needed to heal divides in our cultures, politics, relationships and selves. Drawing from our experiences with Covid, political divides, racial and economic injustice, armed conflicts at home and abroad, tensions over school curricula, climate change and more, Schneider outlines how the psychology and science of anxiety are key to understanding and solving these problems. He even puts himself on the couch, with exquisite vulnerability. In an adept interplay of our most personal engagements with our sociocultural surround, Schneider illuminates how we can live amidst paradox, embrace anxiety, and transform suffering into growth. This is an essential read for those looking to understand our culture and our times and to create a life of deep meaning and purpose.” —Linda Michaels, PsyD MBA, Chair and Co-Founder, Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) Psychologist, Consulting Editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and Fellow of the Lauder Institute Global MBA program
“In a world mired in anxiety and fear, Professor Kirk Schneider presents a ground-breaking analysis of anxiety while examining the deeply rooted existential nature of human disturbances. Schneider beautifully and powerfully illustrates the inescapability of anxiety in the human condition and provides a rigorous model of psychological hardiness. Schneider’s life-enhancing anxiety goes beyond the reductionist models of anxiety and delves into the interplay of elements that create the anxiety-inducing paralysis in our social and cultural milieu. While celebrating the bridge between philosophy and psychology, Schneider elucidates the vitality of awe for a more transcendent, sagacious mode of being.” —Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty, Department of Psychology, York University. Author of The psychology of inner peace, Film Therapy, and forthcoming, Therapeutic Applications of Langerian Mindfulness
“Schneider offers a vital solution to addressing the epidemic of life-destroying anxiety plaguing our patients and clients. We desperately need a bigger picture of allaying anxiety than conventional psychology, pharmaceuticals, and avoidance through addiction to technology. Cultivation of life-enhancing anxiety is the paradigm shift to cultivate the capacities of love, creativity, humility, wonder, and a sense of adventure toward living–what Schneider calls “awe“ in the midst of so many unknowns. For humanity to thrive in our next chapter on Earth, we need this brilliant book to open a new door to embracing (and engaging with) Life-Enhancing Anxiety.” —Michael Amster, MD, coauthor of The Power of Awe and researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center
About the Author:
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychology. Dr. Schneider was a 2022 Candidate for President of the American Psychological Association (APA), a cofounder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (an award-winning psychotherapy training center), and a two-term Member of the Council of Representatives of the APA.
He is the past president (2015-2016) of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the APA, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2005-2012), a founder and frequent presenter/facilitator of the bridge-building dialogue approach the Experiential Democracy Dialogue, and a trained moderator for the conflict mediation group Braver Angels.
Dr. Schneider is an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University and an Honorary Member of the Society for Existential Analysis of the UK and the East European Association for Existential Therapy. He received the Rollo May Award for “outstanding and independent contributions” to the field of humanistic psychology from the Society for Humanistic Psychology and is a Fellow of seven Divisions of the APA (5, 9, 32, 42, 12, 29, & 24).
His work on existential-integrative psychotherapy has been featured in a special issue of the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration (March, 2016), as well as The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy and the APA’s forthcoming Handbook of Psychotherapy. Dr. Schneider has published over 200 articles, interviews, and chapters and has authored or edited 14 books, including The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, Rediscovery of Awe, Awakening to Awe, The Spirituality of Awe, The Polarized Mind, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, Existential-Humanistic Therapy, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy, and The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing. Dr. Schneider’s work has been featured in Scientific American, the New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Forbes Health, Psychology Today, BBC World News, and many other health and psychology outlets.
For more information on Dr. Schneider’s work visit https://kirkjschneider.com.
