Published by New World Library
September 2004
$20
Forever Ours is a beautifully written book by Janis Amatuzio, MD. It deals with the final transition of life…the passing of loved ones into spirit. Although stories of near-death experiences and communication with deceased loved ones are not new topics, this book stands out because it offers intimacy, legitimacy and compassion.
Janis Amatuzio, a medical doctor, recorded stories from her experiences as an intern and a coroner. Her book shares the stories of a wide variety of people – terminally ill patients, family members of the deceased, policemen involved in investigating deaths and even medical colleagues. Rather than classify the experiences as drug-induced hallucinations or wishful thinking, Dr. Amatuzio offers a nonjudgmental view. She compassionately relates the stories with a ‘knowing’ that there is more to death than just the cessation of body function.
Forever Ours is a very moving book. I suggest keeping the box of tissues nearby when you read it. However, it is also a book that brings comfort and peace in the understanding that death can be a loving experience, that our loved ones are still with us, and that sometimes it takes the experience of death and dying to help us truly live.
Reviewed by Dennis Ehren, DC, the director of the Ehren Chiropractic & Wellness Center. He can be contacted at (216) 221-9990.
Published by Bantam/Dell
September 2004
$25.00
I was only about five chapters into Invisible Heroes when I began to recommend it to friends, students and clients. Now that I have finished the book, I am confident that this is one of the most important and valuable books written on physical and emotional healing in the last 20 years.
Author Belleruth Naparstek, the internationally renowned therapist and guided imagery mage, writes with eloquent compassion about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and those who suffer its devastation. She outlines what the latest medical diagnostics reveal about how our bodies' own biochemical and psychophysical responses can lock in PTSD in ways that may not be improved with talk therapy or drug intervention alone.
Most important of all, Naparstek offers very specific information about how and why guided imagery can be a functional, healing intervention to support overcoming PTSD. She provides a wonderful series of guided imagery scripts that she developed through extensive work with private clients, 9/11 survivors and VA hospital trauma groups, among others.
This amazing book provides a functional path from hell to healing. I highly recommend it to all types of readers.
Reviewer Neal Szpatura is a shamanic practitioner, dreamwork consultant and sacred path teacher in Cleveland Hts., Ohio. He can be reached at nealdragon@aol.com.
Published by New World Library
October 2004
$14.95
Author Mary O'Malley was a compulsive eater who spent many years trying to gain control over this habit. After countless diets and other attempts to control her eating, she still found herself almost 100 pounds overweight and a victim of her eating compulsion. O'Malley came to the realization that the standard methods of therapy were not really working for her, and so she began a journey to find out what compulsions are all about and what can be done about them.
In her book, The Gift of Our Compulsions, O'Malley explains that compulsions are methods that allow people to get back in touch with themselves. There may be feelings or aspects of self that have been denied or abandoned, and we use compulsions to reach out and experience those feelings. Whether it is eating, drinking, smoking, gambling, shopping, sex or even watching TV, compulsive behaviors give us a short ‘high’ that we use again and again in our attempt to feel good about ourselves. This behavior becomes self-destructive because we never attain the true feelings that we innately seek. When a person realizes that he/she has a problem and wants to address it, the help usually takes the form of trying to control the compulsion. But, as O'Malley so aptly puts it, what we resist will persist.
In this book, O'Malley helps the reader understand that we are not victims of our compulsions, but rather compulsions are the body's way of trying to become whole again. Instead of controlling our compulsions, O'Malley helps us understand why the behavior occurs, what our bodies really want, and what is missing from our lives that seem to be filled by the compulsion. She guides us through easy exercises to help us understand our compulsions and determine what is missing from inside us. I highly recommend this extremely empowering book because it takes the reader on his/her own journey of self-discovery.
Reviewed by Dennis Ehren, DC, the director of the Ehren Chiropractic & Wellness Center. He can be contacted at (216) 221-9990.
