When you encounter difficult people in your daily life, the easiest solution is to cut and run. But when the difficult people in question are your parents, siblings, children, or all of the above, you can't always end the relationships. What happens when you're stuck with people who don't respect boundaries or listen to reason? Author Eric Maisel, a licensed family therapist and life coach, tackles this awkward question in his new book Overcoming Your Difficult Family, providing answers gleaned from his own therapy practice. The first half of the book lists eight strategies for dealing with difficult relatives, whereas the second half acts as a kind of "field guide" to common types of dysfunctional families - authoritarian families, factionalized families, drug-addicted families, and more. By following Maisel's battle-tested advice, you'll learn to maintain inner peace in the midst of family chaos, and in the process, make everyone's life a little better. A former family therapist shows readers how to stay sane when their family isn't
"With gentle humor and compassion, Eric Maisel acts as a wise friend in this clear and practical guide that offers specific tools for navigating the roughest of family seas. It even helps you calm the waters! A wonderfully useful, unique, and comforting book."
- Judith Schlesinger, PhD, author of The Insanity Hoax
"Eric Maisel rejects diagnostic labels in this insightful, practical, and extremely helpful book. Anyone should find his no-nonsense approach and practical tips useful."
- James B. Gottstein, Esq., President of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
"Throughout this book, Dr. Maisel maintains a nonmedical and non-pathology theme, describing family problems as natural human phenomena rather than mental disorders. His eight skills are introduced and applied step-by-step within the context of several unique family cultures whose members unwittingly develop problematic ways of coping. This refreshing guide to overcoming interpersonal conflict with respect for personal diversity, coexistence, and cooperation is invigorating to those of us who struggle to rehumanize the mental health industry!"
- Chuck Ruby, PhD, executive director of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry
"With characteristic clarity, Dr. Eric Maisel lays out an approach to family difficulties that cuts through the surface tension to reach the compassionate core of human relationships. An accessible guide grounded in current research and the author's own clinical experience."
- Dr. Dale McGowan, coauthor of Raising Freethinkers
"Dr. Maisel offers more than just understanding; he also offers hope by way of practical suggestions for dealing with difficult family members that can provide relief for those who have for years been beleaguered by hard-to-deal-with parents, siblings, in-laws, and others. I recommend this book not only to family, individual, and couples therapists but also to the clients with whom they work."
- James E. Maddux, PhD, George Mason University Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology
"Overcoming Your Difficult Family is a treasure trove of ideas and strategies. Eric Maisel has a gift for making complicated ideas easy to understand. I'm sure anyone who is struggling with family relationships of any sort will find something in this book that they can identify with and that's bound to help them!"
- Sami Timimi, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Director of Medical Education, Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
"This may be the most important book you will ever read. If you want to have a more joyful life and a relationship full of real, lasting love, this book is for you. Practical and powerful, it will teach you how to be smart, strong, calm, clear, aware, brave, present, and resilient - qualities that too many of us lack living in our stressed-out world. Get a
