Reclaiming Your Story

Merle Jordan argues that many people spend their adult lives struggling to distinguish between the imperatives of divine authority and the deeply rooted psychological authority of family structures. Employing the wisdom of his experience as a pastoral psychologist as well as the insights of clinical researchers and therapists, Jordan offers ways to demythologize false absolutes and to refocus distorted maps of reality.

Powerful ideas from narrative therapy can teach us how to create new life stories and promote change. Our lives and their pathways are not fixed in stone; instead they are shaped by story. The ways in which we understand and share the stories of our lives therefore make all the difference. If we tell stories that emphasize only desolation, then we become weaker. If we tell our stories in ways that make us stronger, we can soothe our losses and ease our sorrows. Learning how to re-envision the stories we tell about ourselves can make an enormous difference in the ways we live our lives. Drawing on wisdoms from the field of narrative therapy, this book is designed to help people rewrite and retell the stories of their lives. The book invites readers to take a new look at their own stories and to find significance in events often neglected, to find sparkling actions that are often discounted, and to find solutions to problems and predicaments in unexpected places. Readers are introduced to key ideas of narrative practice like the externalizing problems - 'the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem' -and the concept of "re-membering" one's life. Easy-to-understand examples and exercises demonstrate how these ideas have helped many people overcome intense hardship and will help readers make these techniques their own. The book also outlines practical strategies for reclaiming and celebrating one's experience in the face of specific challenges such as trauma, abuse, personal failure, grief, and aging. Filled with relatable examples, useful exercises, and informative illustrations, Retelling the Stories of Our Lives leads readers on a path to reclaim their past and re-envision their future.

Their stories are as varied as the women who lived them--provocative, poignant, often painful. But they are not readily accessible to us. The voices are muted. The shapes and textures are blurred and easily distorted. Can the stories of Old Testament women of faith be reheard and reclaimed in an empowering way by women and men today? With remarkable sensitivity and a keen awareness of his own unavoidable male biases, Jon Berquist casts new light on Eve and Sarah, Lot's wife and Jephthah's daughter, Ruth and Esther, and others. This timely volume serves as a valuable resource for rediscovering the multiple witness of biblical women that has all too often gone unnoticed in the church's faith and life.

A positive, practical, and empowering new model of career resilience for everyone who has lost, fears losing, or is thinking of leaving their job in today's downsized, restructured workplace.

Majora Carter shows how brain drain cripples low-status communities and maps out a development strategy focused on talent retention to help them break out of economic stagnation. "My musical, In the Heights, explores issues of community, gentrification, identity and home, and the question: Are happy endings only ones that involve getting out of your neighborhood to achieve your dreams? In her refreshing new book, Majora Carter writes about these issues with great insight and clarity, asking us to re-examine our notions of what community development is and how we invest in the futures of our hometowns. This is an exciting conversation worth joining.” —Lin-Manuel Miranda How can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have. Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a strong local economy that can resist gentrification. But too many people born in low-status communities measure their success by how far away from them they can get. Carter, who could have been one of them, returned to the South Bronx and devised a development strategy rooted in the conviction that these communities have the resources within themselves to succeed. She advocates measures such as • Building mixed-income instead of exclusively low-income housing to create a diverse and robust economic ecosystem • Showing homeowners how to maximize the long-term value of their property so they won't succumb to quick-cash offers from speculators • Keeping people and dollars in the community by developing vibrant “third spaces”—restaurants, bookstores, and places like Carter's own Boogie Down Grind Cafe This is a profoundly personal book. Carter writes about her brother's murder, how turning a local dumping ground into an award-winning park opened her eyes to the hidden potential in her community, her struggles as a woman of color confronting the “male and pale” real estate and nonprofit establishments, and much more. It is a powerful rethinking of poverty, economic development, and the meaning of success.

Growing up gay in a homophobic culture can resemble growing up in a dysfunctional family. "Reclaiming Your Life" offers a soothing approach to healing from homophobic abuse, addictions, and self-defeating behavior. "If you are a gay man who grew up in a dysfunctional family or were abused, be kind to yourself and read this book. It's full of validation, understanding, common sense, and wise guidance, like a good friend." --Ellen Bass, coauthor of "The Courage to Heal" "a wealth of information... it should be required reading for all gay men and their loved ones." --"Lambda Book Report"

A too-busy brain can interfere with attention, concentration, mood and even the ability to make decisions and solve problems. Annibali shows you how to restore cognitive calm, and provides useful suggestions to help you understand your own brain functions so you can discover which techniques will work for you.

From an expert in the field comes the first and only complete step-by-step plan for recovery from codependence--the self-destructive behavior that results when people are so obsessed with the needs of others that they neglect their own.