From the Inside Flap
Parents act as a mirror to show a child who she or he is. Throughout childhood there will be other mirrors, but children inevitably return to the reflection in that original mirror in order to determine their goodness, importance, and self-worth. In Healing Your Emotional Self, Engel offers her highly effective Mirror Therapy program to help you reject the distorted images your parents either intentionally or unintentionally projected onto you. She explores the seven types of emotionally abusive or neglectful parents and the seven most common parental mirrors, providing specific advice and recovery strategies for each one.
Helping you raise your self-esteem and improve your self-image, this innovative step-by-step program provides you with the skills you need to:
- Create a positive self-image separate from your abusive parents' distorted picture
- Separate emotionally from your parents and provide for yourself what you missed as a child
- Discover who you really are—including your likes, dislikes, values, goals, and dreams—by creating a word self-portrait and using other Mirror Therapy techniques
- Overcome your tendency toward self-blame, self-hatred, and self-destructiveness
- Learn self-nurturing and set effective limits to help you control your tendency to overeat, drink too much, overspend, and/or overwork
- Become the person you are meant to be by being more accepting of yourself
Learn to love who you see in the mirror with the breakthrough program found in Healing Your Emotional Self.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
"Emotionally abusive parents are indeed toxic parents, and they cause significant damage to their children's self-esteem, self-image, and body image. In this remarkable book, Beverly Engel shares her powerful Mirror Therapy program for helping adult survivors to overcome their shame and self-criticism, become more compassionate and accepting of themselves, and create a more positive self-image."
—Susan Forward, Ph.D., author of Toxic Parents
"Engel's insightful questionnaires and exercises provide concrete help in the healing process, and her writing style is lively and engaging. This book is destined to positively affect many lives."
—Joyce Catlett, M.A., coauthor of Fear of Intimacy
In Healing Your Emotional Self, Beverly Engel, one of the world's leading experts on emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, explains how to heal the damage to your self-image and self-esteem caused by negative parental messages and offers treatment to help you lead a happier and healthier life. This breakthrough guide is designed to help you reject the distorted images your parents either intentionally or unintentionally projected onto you. Step by step, this innovative method will give you the skills you need to quiet your inner critic, boost your self-esteem, create a positive self-image separate from your abusive parents' distorted picture, discover who you really are, learn self-nurturing, and become the person you are meant to be.
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