StepWisdom: Knowledge from the Ages for Successful StepFamilies asks us to shift the way we look at stepfamilies. These vibrant, flexible, and creative families are a boon to our society. Stepfamilies can indeed be challenging and sometimes difficult, but StepWisdom provides the reader with a solid understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of blended families, offering useful guidelines, anecdotes, and expectations to help your family be a success. Eleanor Alden's work encourages stepfamilies to recognize their worth and to function at their best. Combining history, archetypal psychology, and modern family systems theory in a practical and often humorous way, StepWisdom brings hope. Eleanor Spackman Alden, LCSW, BCD, has been working with stepfamilies for over forty years. She has taught Jungian psychology and family therapy at Naropa University's graduate school, and has been in private practice since 1985. She lectures and does workshops on stepfamilies, and presently lives with her husband and two doodles in Colorado. www.StepWisdom.com "This rich and careful work on the holy and unholy aspects of stepfamilies, written by therapist and professor Eleanor Alden, not only draws on observations and understandings from her private practice and education, but also from growing up in a stepfamily herself. This evocative work offers understandings about patterns of both sweet and sour drives and impulses within stepfamilies as found in reality and mythos. This work can help others sow the seeds for a beautiful flowering within those special families called 'step'--as in 'step' to a more fulfilling consciousness." -- Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Diplomate Jungian Psychoanalyst, Author of Women Who Run with the Wolves "Insightful, historically illuminating in a very interesting way, and a must-read for every psychiatrist and mental health professional who works with stepfamilies. And now we know that we all do!" -- Laura J. Klein, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center "StepWisdom: Knowledge from the Ages for Successful StepFamilies is truly wonderful. There is nothing out there like it. Eleanor Alden speaks to the reader with clarity and moments of humor. She makes the case so well that stepfamilies are the norm and that there is no reason that they can't be gifts. Everyone should be required to read this before they enter a marriage with children. The work is truly captivating." -- Claudia Black, MSW, PhD, Author and Addictions Specialist

A nationally known pediatrician and author addresses the question of why some youngsters make a successful transition into adulthood while others do not. Parents and schools often raise children in a highly structured world, leaving them unable to cope on their own. Dr. Levine urges that schools teach "life prep," equipping adolescents with what they will need to succeed as adults. He identifies these skills as "the four I's": inner direction, or self-awareness; interpretation, or understanding the outside world; instrumentation, or the acquisition of mental tools; and interaction, or the ability to relate to other people effectively. He offers advice for young adults who find themselves unable to navigate the world of careers.

The demand for quality leaders constantly outstrips the supply. If you’re a pastor, team leader, staff member, or board member, you’re always challenged with a leadership shortage. But what can you do about it?More than you’ve ever imagined. The Leadership Baton equips you with a solution that’s time-proven and right at hand: church-based leadership development. More and more churches are adopting it, and no wonder—the principles that made the early church such a spiritual powerhouse are just as effective today. Leadership was never a matter of institutional learning or professional expertise. Rather, starting with Jesus and his apostles, it involved seasoned leaders passing the baton to ordinary people right within the local body of believers. That same approach can help ensure your own church is never at a loss for dependable men and women to enter the leadership race with wisdom, vision and passion.Drawing on the field-tested expertise of the Center for Church Based Training, The Leadership Baton will help you get the leaders you need up and running, developing leadership qualities they can in turn hand off to other up-and-coming leaders. Part 1 casts a vision for church-based leadership training—not merely a program, but a leadership development culture based on biblical and historical foundations. Part 2 presents a whole-life approach to leadership development that is wisdom-based (through courses), relationship-based (through the church community), and personal (through mentoring). Part 3 describes a comprehensive plan for leadership development, then breaks it down to target the needs of governing boards, emerging leaders, pastoral staffs, and interns. With discussion questions at the end of each chapter, this book concludes with two appendices, including a self-inventory for church leaders to help them assess their personal strengths and weak areas that need development. Put the principles in The Leadership Baton to work with patience, and in time your church will never lack the right people at the right time to help it fulfill its kingdom mission.

Practitioners seeking the most current advances in the field of ADHD and LD must often bridge the gap between research and practice. The Therapist's Guide to Learning and Attention Disorders provides that bridge through the authors, who are both researchers and practitioners with extensive experience in providing direct services to children and adults with ADHD and LD. Practitioners are often faced with the choice of reading research or consulting text that suggest strategies or techniques for serving children and adults with ADHD that are not base on research. This book provides practitioners a translation of research to practice in one source. This book provides practical forms, illustrations, and rating scales that can be readily incorporated into practice. The last chapter takes a fascinating look into the role of various practitioners twenty years into the future. - Contains innovative strategies for assessment of ADHD and LD - Provides practical and useful illustrations, forms, and rating scales for use in practice - Provides discussions of future practice and developments in the field of ADHD and LD - Presents case studies illustrating best practices

In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron addressed a complex subject in a way that has allowed millions of aspiring and working artists to tap into their own creativity. With her companion book The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal, Cameron focused readers on one of two primary tools in her programs. Now The Artist's Date Book directs readers toward the second tool. Encompassing a year of creativity, with illustrations by Elizabeth Cameron Evans, 365 provocative tasks, and ample inventory space, it is whimsical, inspiring, entertaining, and wise. The book leads readers to involve themselves in daily meetings with their creative self, guiding them to authentic growth, renewal, and confidence.

'Different minds learn differently' writes Dr Mel Levine, one of the best-known education experts and paediatricians in America today. And that's a problem for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. In A MIND AT A TIME, Dr Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child's strengths and bypass the child's weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of frustration and failure. Different brains are differently wired with eight fundamental systems of learning that draw on a variety of neurodevelopmental capacities. Certain students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all eight. Learning begins at school, but it doesn't end there. Frustrating a child's desire to learn will have lifelong repercussions. We must begin to pay more attention to individual learning styles, to individual minds, urges Dr Levine, so that we can maximise our children's learning potential. A MIND AT A TIME shows us how.

One of the most common complaints parents hear is that their child has great potential but is lazy. In the workplace one hears that a colleague is brilliant but just can't seem to deliver on time. Dr Levine believes that in reality very few people are truly lazy. Nearly all 'lazy' children and unproductive adults are in fact suffering from some sort of 'output failure,' that is, some problem of the mind that inhibits their productivity, despite their good intentions. In this book Dr Levine draws heavily on his years of clinical experience to construct the stories of representative children and adults who failed to be productive for the most common reasons. Too often we focus only on failure but people benefit enormously from recognition of their successes. In explaining outside or environmental factors that can affect productivity, Dr Levine points to the role of parents as well as teachers in identifying a child's weaknesses and nurturing the capacity to deliver, with such practical suggestions as describing the ideal study environment for a child. Whether the problem is manifested in motor breakdown, memory shortfall, verbal problems, lack of mental energy or underlying disorganization, Dr Levine provides a workable solution and dismisses the 'lazy' label.

For most people, the pain of loss dominates their experience of grief. Grief then becomes something to be avoided or completed as quickly as possible. In her new book, Lisa Irish presents grief as our “ally” in the Land of Loss and offers pathways and resources to navigate the confusing and challenging terrain. She explores “conscious grieving,” as she gathers the wisdom of bereavement experts, spiritual leaders and everyday people walking their own individual paths. Lisa encourages us to let seeds of hope find their way into our grieving hearts, to allow self-compassion during the journey, and to trust grief’s healing process. Grieving - The Sacred Art makes a space for love in our sadness and leads us into a Land of Hope.