This is a groundbreaking work for healing long-term emotional problems. "The Power of Memoir" is a pioneering how-to book that provides a new step-by-step program to use memoir writing as a therapeutic process. By going through these steps you'll learn how to choose the significant milestones and turning points that make up a coherent story leading to a life-changing epiphany. This work help you: uncover the secret stories that are the keys to healing; explore the dynamics and roles of dysfunctional families; and, heal old wounds, creating a better present and brighter future. Using many examples from her students and clients, the author shows how creative, well-planned, and carefully researched memoir writing can offer a process for sorting out the truth from lies and family myths.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Kathleen Adams). Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part 1 Eight Steps to Writing a Healing Memoir. Step 1 Understanding Your Reasons for Writing. Step 2 Doing Your Research. Step 3 Planning Your Memoir. Step 4 The Psychology of Memoir Writing. Step 5 The Dark Stuff. Step 6 Organizing the Narrative Arc. Step 7 To Publish-or Not. Step 8 The Power of Writing to Heal. Part 2 Spirituality, Therapy, and Stories. Chapter 1 Spirituality, Meditation, and Inner Listening. Chapter 2 For Therapists Who Use the Healing Power of Memoir. Chapter 3 Stories from the Workshops. Epilogue. Resources. Recommended Reading. Reader's Guide. Bibliography. About the Author. Index.

About the Author

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., is president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and a practicing psychotherapist. She is the author of Don't Call Me Mother: Breaking the Chain of Mother-Daughter Abandonment, which won the Gold Medal Award from the Bay Area Independent Publishing Association in 2007.