Posts tagged therapy
December 16, 2011 · Filed under My Book: BookMark, News, Personal · Tagged abuse, alcoholism, career, healing, inspiration, Jerry Sandusky, Mike McQueary, mother, optimism, pedophilia, Penn State, physical health, positive thinking, rape, relationships, self awareness, stepfather, therapy, trauma
Brutal news week.
I used to draw down a wall between my life and the news. As I anchored the news, reading about others’ pain, I didn’t feel my own. I was inured from the intrusions of decades of sexual abuse. I could focus on WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow and script the stories, read my own words, tell the story. That’s over. It’s actually been over for a few years until I could finally break down that inviolate partition. I was healed. I thought.
But this was a brutal news week. Read the rest of this entry »
May 29, 2011 · Filed under Personal · Tagged abuse, alcoholism, career, dancing, diabetes, father, fearless, happiness, healing, inspiration, Marisa Russo, mother, pedophilia, rape, therapy
For years, I hid it, never spoke about it. Until finally, it pushed up out of me like a beach ball you press down in the water – it pops out. Has to.
And, one day, the gift of that childhood trauma becomes apparent.
First, the damage and danger twists synapses, neural pathways, belief systems, trust, whom you love and who you run from. What does a four-and-a-half year old girl learn from being raped by her mother’s new husband? Handsome guy, her mother head over heels in love with him, her cutting the little girl’s real father out of every photo, changing the girl’s name, and silencing her when she tries to speak it. Mother, an alcoholic, suicidal, schizophrenic. Real father, gone, after the little girl reaches age six, because the stepfather beat him up and told him to never come back. She never saw her dad again.
Little girl escapes Read the rest of this entry »
May 6, 2011 · Filed under Personal · Tagged abuse, career, father, fearless, film, healing, inspiration, mother, movie, optimism, pedophilia, positive thinking, rape, relationships, self awareness, stepfather, storytelling, The Kings Speech, therapy
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. And, this is, in part, an apology for not having checked in. I’ve been making my own art, and making a living. I’ve been interviewing and reading – just haven’t written here.
I decided to take tonight “off,” and not produce the 30-minute podcastor, not prep for my next appearance on KOIN-TV’s Studio 6, not rework the last two chapters of my memoir. Instead, my housemate, who is leading me into learning how to “play,” watched with me the Academy Award winning movie, The King’s Speech.
The film struck me deep. Read the rest of this entry »
October 3, 2010 · Filed under Author Interviews, Book Reviews, Open Book · Tagged career, diabetes, goals, healing, inspiration, manifest, optimism, passion, physical health, positive thinking, self awareness, therapy
The Secret Language of Your Body
By Inna Segal
Published August 31, 2010 (Paperback) Atria/Beyond Words
The oddest thing happened during intermission at the Michael Beckwith/Bob Thurman event a few weeks ago. A petite brown-haired woman walked down the aisle toward my seat, and I rose, as if beckoned, to speak with her. We didn’t know each other. We had never met before. But it seemed like we were supposed to speak. So, we did. We parted a few moments later, a bit puzzled. Later in the evening, I was chatting with an event organizer from Beyond Words, and mentioned that I’d be interviewing one of their authors soon – Inna Segal. The co-founder of the publishing company pointed a few rows away, and said, “There’s Inna.” Inna was the very same petite brown-haired woman. After our interview a few days ago, we still have that sense of something more – yet to be discovered.
One thing for certain, Inna Segal has come a long way – as she mentions briefly in her book The Secret Language of Your Body, and, at length, on my show – Open Book with Diana Page Jordan – which will air tomorrow at 1:30p Pacific on www.pdx.fm. Inna – pronounced EE-nah – was barely out of her teens when her body felt ravaged with pain, particularly her back. She visited doctors and chiropractors, none able to diagnose and heal her. Finally, nearly bent in pain, she visited a chiropractor who frankly told her to go home. She was shocked and angry. He simply told her that her body was stuck, and there was nothing he could do to help her. Inna said she was so furious, she hardly felt the pain as she returned home. But it stirred her to action. Read the rest of this entry »
July 23, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged angels, death, friendship, happiness, healing, inspiration, magic, marriage, nde, relationships, self awareness, storytelling, therapy, trauma, writing
If I Stay
By Gayle Forman
Published April 2, 2009 (Hardcover) Dutton, and April 6, 2010 (Paperback) Penguin
I remember the news story on which this novel, If I Stay, was based. Or at least one very like it.
I have reported on dozens of tragedies during my years as a broadcast journalist. And, when a cop’s voice quivers during a phone interview as he speaks from the scene. Or when – in the early days – I could actually report from the scene, and I walked away with the story in my head, and an ache imprinted in my heart. Or when I heard on the scanner snippets of a young person waving a gun at police, and the anguish that followed. The story stays. Read the rest of this entry »
July 21, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged dancing, dating, he's just not your type, he's just your type, inspiration, men, non-types, relationships, self awareness, soul mates, therapy, your type
He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s A Good Thing)
By Andrea Syrtash
Published April 27, 2010 (Paperback) Rodale Books
I canceled the date that I would have gone on tonight, and read He’s Just Not Your Type instead. But it wasn’t until after I read the book by dating expert Andrea Syrtash that I understood why I had to not go.
It would have been a second date, and something inside me said no. He was cute enough. Read the rest of this entry »
July 20, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged fashion, fashionable, grandmother, mother, retail therapy, shopping, therapy
Never Pay Retail Again
By Daisy Lewellyn
Published May 4, 2010 (Paperback) Gallery Books
Shopping is one of those hand-me-down things between mothers and daughters. Daisy Lewellyn paints a lovely portrait of her mother and grandmother – total fashion-lovers. They could whip up a couple of dresses on the sewing machine – dressing to the nines on a dime. Never Pay Retail Again is a natural off-shoot.
I’m not one of those women who Read the rest of this entry »
July 5, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, inspiration, memoir, pedophilia, rape, relationships, self awareness, stepfather, storytelling, therapy, this boy's life, trauma, writing, writing group
This Boy’s Life
By Tobias Wolff
Published March 2000 (Paperback) Grove Press
For years I have not wanted to read This Boy’s Life. I already had an evil stepfather. What was the point of revisiting the grief through the eyes of another tortured stepchild?
Members of my writing group – according to the Oregonian – “the hottest writing group in Portland,” insisted that I read Tobias Wolff’s book. Read the rest of this entry »
June 10, 2010 · Filed under Author Interviews · Tagged abuse, career, father, fearless, inspiration, manifest, media industry, optimism, pedophilia, rape, relationships, screenwriting, self awareness, stepfather, storytelling, therapy, trauma, writing
101 Things I Learned in Film School
By Neil Landau with Matthew Frederick
Published May 20, 2010 (Hardcover) Grand Central Publishing
The little black, white and red book between us, Neil Landau pointed out how it’s a small coffee table book – and the kind of book you can stash in your backpack, whipping it out for quick reference. 101 Things I Learned in Film School - as a title – has Read the rest of this entry »
June 8, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, death, Debbie Ford, Deepak Chopra, father, fearless, goals, happiness, healing, inspiration, love, Marianne Williamson, mother, optimism, pedophilia, rape, relationships, self awareness, shadow, stepfather, therapy
The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self
By Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson
Published May 4, 2010 (Hardcover) HarperOne
We each have a shadow side, and these three luminaries – Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson – pull the wraps off how to transform this into a blessing in The Shadow Effect.
Yes, The Shadow Knows. My shadow nearly swallowed me up – until Read the rest of this entry »
