Healing From Family Rifts: Ten Steps to Finding Peace After Being Cut Off From a Family Member

by Mark Sichel

Book Overview

Ten steps to surviving a family rift, finding peace, and moving on

A family rift is one of the most traumatic experiences a person can face. It can have a profound effect on virtually every aspect of life, causing depression, relationship problems, and even physical illness. Healing From Family Rifts offers hope to those coping with a split in their families. Family therapist Mark Sichel addresses the pain and shame connected...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071412425
• ISBN13: 9780071412421
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Concrete and constructive help

If you are experiencing a rupture in the family,I hope you do get Mark Sichel's book, Healing from Family Rifts. I did. I wish I had it years ago. After 11 years of learning to deal with my only child's addiction, and surviving a divorce after 24 years of marriage, Mark's book is opening up new avenues of exploration for my own life. There is great information and concrete ideas throughout Sichel's book. There are ideas to implement that help us deal with the problems involved in family estrangement. We discover ways to make meaning out of our experience - a meaning from which we can grow as individuals. Mark's ten step program gives us a way out of the trauma we have experienced. It will make you think. And thinking about our lives is always a positive good. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Mark helps us examine our lives. I highly recommend Healing from Family Rifts for anyone dealing with family dysfunction and fracture. We've got nothing to lose but that pain we are feeling. We do have everything to gain - most importantly, our lives.

This book is a must-read

Mark Sichel's book offers practical and helpful advice from the first chapter to the last. I read about the book in the Ask Amy column in my newspaper (she replaced Ann Landers), bought it here, and have devoured it. His insight, compassion, and courage to share his personal experiences helped me to not feel crazy about the situation with my own family, and his practical suggestions for repairing a fractured family are like a Bible for the dysfunctional family. I highly recommend this book. I think other readers who have been suffering as I had will feel relieved, calmer, and saner after reading Sichel's book. If you're having estrangement issues or chronic feuding with your family, this is the book for you.

Help the Healing!

This book allowed me to go on with my life.  I felt like a total flop as a mother  because my son and his wife haven't spoken to me and won't return calls or letters or allow me to see my grandchildren. As I read the book, I learned I need to focus on all the succesful relationships in my life. I finally feel okay knowing I made every effort to mend things and they refuse to do so.   I highly recommend it to anyone who's got a relative who's said that they're never again speaking to them, especially to a parent who's going through a tragedy like mine. The author is smart, compassionate, and gives many practical tools for moving on and feeling better about yourself, whether you can heal the relationship or not.

A Wonderful and Helpful Book!

This book really cuts to the heart of the subject of losing one's family. What I really like about the book is the author's empathetic and effective approach to understanding, coping, and finally recovering from the tragedy of involuntary exile from family or relative. Step by step, he makes it possible to understand and deal with an often deeply painful life trauma. Mr. Sichel gives us all the gory details: but the book is ultimately one of hope and healing. As someone who has in some measure experienced family cutoff, I found the book to be of great comfort and usefulness; and would unconditionally recommend it to anyone who faces similar circumstances, or to those who know a friend or loved one going through such an ordeal.

A Suture for the Soul

This book was just what I needed. After my brother and I went through a painful fight, he vowed never to speak to me again. My whole being had been shattered. Days would go by where I would barely eat and just lie in bed for hours and hours. Looking online for some help, I discovered this book and it changed my outlook. Reading the stories of those who've gone through trials like my own helped heal my wounds. With each step, I found the courage to move on with my life and continue living. Finally, I regained the strength to let the pain wash away. If you've been cutoff or disowned by your family and feel yourself shaken to the core, this book will be your map to finding happiness again.