--John Fox, author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-making

"This is a thoughtful and important book for people dealing with upheavals in their lives. In a fascinating mix of cutting edge research and ancient wisdom, Linda Joy Myers makes a compelling case for the power of words as a form of healing and growth. A smart and heartfelt book."

--James W. Pennebaker Professor of Psychology, University of Texas

Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story by licensed psychotherapist Linda Joy Myers is an informed and informative self-help guide to chronicling truth, grief, and problems ranging from physical diseases to ills of the heart in the pages of a cathartic memoir. A thoughtful and thoroughly "user friendly" guide focusing upon the emotional healing process of creative work, rather than the nuts and bolts of a "how to" writing manual, Becoming Whole is an exceptional and highly recommended addition to personal and community library self-help and self-improvement reference collections.

--Midwest Book Review by James Cos

Writing one's memoirs can be more than just an exercise in recalling past events and committing them to paper; it can be a healing process in itself. This is the premise of psychotherapist Linda Myers' excellent self-help writer's guide, Becoming Whole.

Our life stories are filled with a myriad of characters and events, some which have wounded us and left us suffering from a wide variety of physical, emotional and spiritual ills. Myers herself relates how her own memoir writing helped her discern and break free of the pattern of abandonment that had characterized her own relationship with her mother - and her mother, in turn, with her mother. Therapeutic writing can create an atmosphere of exploration where one can face denied aspects of self and break through invisible barriers as the unconscious moat is breached. But Myers warns that sometimes writing about painful memories can reawaken trauma before a person is ready to deal with it successfully. Her advice is to first write about these unresolved issues from the past indirectly, or to write about positive past happenings until enough strength is gained to process and accept all experiences as a part of one's own life story.

Becoming Whole is filled with many inspirational and touching autobiographical vignettes written by Myers' students as well as questions and writing prompts to get you going on your own memoirs. There's no need to let the ghosts of the past haunt you anymore with the help of this well-written guide.

--Featured title from Silver Threads, reviewed by C.Appel