Stand Your Ground: How to Cope with a Dysfunctional Family and Recover from Trauma

Stand Your Ground: How to Cope with a Dysfunctional Family and Recover from Trauma

by Katherine Mayfield
Stand Your Ground: How to Cope with a Dysfunctional Family and Recover from Trauma

Stand Your Ground: How to Cope with a Dysfunctional Family and Recover from Trauma

by Katherine Mayfield

Paperback(2nd ed.)

$15.95 
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Overview

Dysfunctional family dynamics can ruin a person's life, health, career, and self-esteem. Making positive life changes and rebuilding self-esteem can only be accomplished by clearly seeing the family's negative patterns, and learning how to move beyond them.

Stand Your Ground reveals how deeply dysfunctional family dynamics can affect us, offers advice on the best ways to deal with difficult relatives and family bullies, and teaches readers a simple four-step plan for recovering from the trauma of growing up in a dysfunctional family and rebuilding self-esteem.

Written by the award-winning author of Bullied: Why You Feel Bad Inside and What to Do About It, Stand Your Ground will help readers learn the tools of emotional intelligence, let go of intense and painful emotions, and create a workable plan for dealing with family issues and reclaiming the authentic self.

Questions and exercises help readers discover the particular dynamics of their individual families, ferret out unspoken rules of behavior, and understand how family patterns instilled in childhood may negatively affect their self-image, their experience of life, their relationships, and their ability to accomplish what they want. Once the family patterns are clearly seen and understood, readers can follow the steps outlined in Stand Your Ground to rebuild self-esteem and create an authentic, productive, and happy life.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780997612110
Publisher: Essential Word
Publication date: 11/11/2016
Edition description: 2nd ed.
Pages: 98
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Katherine Mayfield is the award-winning author of "The Box of Daughter," a memoir describing her journey of recovery from family bullying and emotional abuse; a guide to recovery from bullying, "Bullied: Why You Feel Bad Inside and What to Do About It"; a book of poetry, a book of essays, and a number of Kindle books on dysfunctional families. She has appeared as keynote speaker for regional conferences, and has presented at schools and libraries across the Northeast on recovery from bullying and emotional abuse.

Ms. Mayfield has appeared on NBC-TV's "207" to talk about her work, and has been a guest on radio shows across the country, discussing dysfunctional family issues, recovery from bullying, and prevention of teen suicide. She has written for national magazines, local newspapers, and numerous websites, and has received funding from the Maine Arts Commission for her work.

Ms. Mayfield's memoir, "The Box of Daughter," won awards in the New England Book Festival and Reader's Favorite Awards, and was nominated as a finalist in the Maine Literary Awards.

Along with her books, publication credits include Dance Teacher Now magazine, Dance Spirit magazine, The Significato Journal online, Sasee magazine, The Women's Times, the Greenfield Recorder, Salon.com, TinyBuddha.com, MeaningfulWomen.com, and WomensMemoirs.com. A former actress, she appeared Off-Broadway and on the daytime drama Guiding Light. She blogs on dysfunctional families on her website, www.TheBoxofDaughter.com.

Table of Contents

Contents:

Introduction
Journaling
If you need more help

Chapter 1: Digging Down to Find the Truth
What is "Spider Love"?
Controlling behavior and manipulation in families
The false self
Family secrets
Learning to trust yourself

Chapter 2: Coping with Repetitive Criticism
What to do when you're criticized
The sense of futility: "There's nothing I can do"
Beware the drama addiction!

Chapter 3: Tips for Coping with Family Bullying
Don't take it personally
Generalizing: "You always..." and "You never..."
It's all about control
Beware of emotional "dumping"
Plan your responses ahead of time
Remove yourself from the situation
Set boundaries
When you leave, leave it all behind you

Chapter 4: Recovering from a Dysfunctional Childhood
Become a witness for your emotional self
The four steps to recovery
More ways to express feelings

Chapter 5: Understanding the "Rules" in Your Family
Uncovering the family rules
Unspoken rules
Shaming
How to change or disobey a family rule

Chapter 6: Reclaiming Your Authentic Self
Trapped in the mirror
Focus on what you enjoy
Follow your intuition
Support and encourage yourself
And finally...

Appendix: Exercises
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