"If
you have been hurt in a relationship and have unresolved pain, I
encourage you to READ THIS BOOK. If you are a therapist or are in a
position of nurturing the emotional well being of others, I encourage
you to READ THIS BOOK. Whether your relationships are fraught with
resentments or filled with love, this is a book not to be missed!"
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Robin Casarjian
Author,
Forgiveness: A Bold Choice for A Peaceful Heart , Director, The
Lionheart Foundation, sponsor of The National Emotional Literacy
Project for Prisoners and Youth-at-Risk
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"Your
new book is great. I wasn't able to put it down once I got started. It
really hit home. It had me sobbing twice. Thank you."
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Rose Mack, Duarte, California
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�Anybody
who has given up on the possibility of reconciliation should read this
book. Davis builds a web of hope that human beings can indeed move on,
even when relationships have been painful and very destructive.�
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Ron Kraybill
Professor, Conflict Transformation Program, Eastern Mennonite University
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"This
positive, yet realistic guide to repairing broken relationships is a
pleasure to read. It is filled with the compelling stories of real
people weighing the risks and benefits of re-connecting with estranged
loved ones before it is too late. They do so in a remarkable variety of
ways, some with cautious trepidation, others with relieved abandon.
Laura Davis leads the pack, courageously modeling her own experience of
reconciliation with her mother, after years of painful separation. I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again inspires a deep understanding that
although they can be hurtful, relationships are crucial to our human
experience. I strongly recommend this book."
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Esther Giller
President and Director, Sidran Traumatic Stress Foundation
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"I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again provides crucial guidance for anyone who
needs inspiration, courage, and guidance in making peace with troubled
relationships. Davis's powerful stories teach us that by bridging the
separations between us, we heal what is fragmented within us. I
recommend this book with my whole heart. It changed my life."
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Charlotte Sophia Kasl, Ph.D.
Author of Women, Sex, and Addiction, and If the Buddha Dated: Finding Love on a Spiritual Path
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"I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again is an impressive, deep, and thorough
guide to relationship healing. It is filled with insights, tools, and a
wide variety of poignant stories that help readers figure out whether,
when, and how to reconcile troubled relationships. Laura Davis writes
with heart and soul and offers a path to self-love, compassion for
others, community, and inner peace."
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Wendy Maltz, M.S.W.
Author of The Sexual Healing Journey
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"During the twenty years of so that I practiced psychotherapy I�ve helped
several patients reconcile estranged relationships. The process was not
specifically taught in my therapy training, and I had to work it out in each
instance from more general therapy principals. Your book would have
been an enormous aid. The vignettes were fascinating, and it is an
invaluable professional resource to have well-detailed and documented
examples of successful reconciliations that illustrate the process."
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Martin Teicher MD, Psychiatry Department, Harvard Medical School
Psychiatry Department, Harvard Medical School
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"The
best books offer readers the tools they need to become better people.
This one will surely inspire many to say, "I still care about you;
let's try again."
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Mariah Burton Nelson
Author, The Unburdened Heart: Five Keys to Forgiveness and Freedom
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"I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again is a book I will always treasure, a book
I will read again and again, a book that caused me to take a deeper
look at my part in creating the commotion that has derailed some
friendships, shipwrecked some love."
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Allison Costello
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�Your book provides food for thought for the world. The whole world needs this book.�
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Clara Rosemarda
Santa Rosa reader
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"Your
book is fantastic. As I started it, I thought about a relationship I'd
had with a woman that ended badly, without any closure. It was hard not
to contact her but she made it clear she had no interest in hearing
from me ever again. I was thinking, as I read, how it would be to hear
from her. And when I checked my mail, lo and behold, she�had left me a
message!�We connected and talked for a while, apologized and began to
forgive. The�energy of reconciliation is powerful, even after�almost 9
years! I plan on sending her a copy, as well a everyone else I know who
has a relationship they long to reconcile."
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reader from Taos, New Mexico
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"In
order to practice nonviolence and peacemaking, we must first understand
the principles of forgiveness and reconciliation. Laura Davis
illuminates the suffering and losses which keep us isolated from each
other, as well as the steps required to mend broken relationships. Her
book gives us the courage and hope we need to confront the fears that
keep us from living full and healthy lives."
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Dot Walsh
Global Peace Coordinator and Peace Chaplain The Peace Abbey
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"Laura
Davis understands that in order to deeply touch the human heart, you
must touch it with relevant story. It is a rare adult who has not come
to know the bitter pain of estranged, bruised. or broken relationships.
Davis provides a vehicle for giving those stories voice, never glossing
the pain or suggesting panacea, but masterfully stitching them together
and offering to us all a counterpane of comfort, a harbinger of hope."
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Dave Gustafson, M.A.M R.C.C.
Canadian pioneer in victim-offender reconciliation and restorative justice
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"Laura
Davis has a real knack for putting her finger on the pulse of what
people are struggling with, and what they need to hear. With this
groundbreaking book on reconciliation, she has done it again. With
grace and clarity she brings us a critical message: that making peace
in our own lives and in the larger world needs to be first and foremost
on both our personal and national agenda."
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Marilyn Van Derbur
Former Miss America and National Speaker for Children's Rights
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�Much
anger, particularly at people we once loved, is unnecessary,
destructive, and so much more self-destructive than we realize. I
Thought We�d Never Speak Again is a compelling, practical, and
inspiring guide to reopening relationships that should not remain
severed.�
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Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
The Book of Jewish Values and Jewish Literacy
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"I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again will be useful to anyone who wants to
use dialogue and reconciliation as a healing path. Davis' narratives
reveal the complexity of personal transformation and the challenges of
reconciliation with individuals who have caused great harm. Persons
seeking such transformation need boundaries, time, and most of all,
choices. Davis' book shows us that there are multiple doors through
which even the most damaged and estranged individuals can find a
healing path toward reconciliation."
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Gordon Bazemore, Ph. D.
Director, Director, Community Justice Institute Florida Atlantic University
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"This
book changed my life. Halfway through the first chapter, I started
crying, and by the time I got to Chapter 6, I called my sister, who I
hadn't spoken to in ten years. I was scared to death, but she was glad
to hear from me, and we have I Thought We'd Never Speak Again to thank
for our reconciliation."
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Gina Barton, Seattle reader
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"I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again landed on my desk two months ago. I read
it from cover to cover, finished it, and turned right back to page one
and read it all over again. Then I sent copies of it to everyone in my
family. Because of Laura's new book, our family now has a tool to begin
thinking about how the rift that is tearing us apart should be healed,
could be healed, and how to go about doing it. I think everyone needs
to buy this book."
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Veronica Swain
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"A
most helpful and practical book about finding the stepping stones of
releasing the past and healing the hole in our hearts so we can move on
in our lives."
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Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.
Author, Forgiveness: The Greatest Healer of All
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"As
we hunger for authentic expressions of peace and reconciliation, Laura
Davis has given us a true gift. She offers pathways for us to let go of
pain, bitterness, fear, and even hatred. She presents a continuum of
reconciliation that goes far beyond simple answers and allows for the
individual needs and cultural context of the involved parties. Davis
eloquently presents her message that attaining peace in our lives and
in the larger world must be first anchored within our own personal
journey of healing. Few authors have addressed the issues of
forgiveness and reconciliation with such clarity, compassion, and
sensitivity."
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Mark Umbreit, Ph.D.
Founding Director, Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, University of Minnesota, School of Social Work
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�With
prodigious love and wisdom, Laura Davis teaches us new ways to view and
resolve a wide array of ruptured relationships so that we can come out
whole, perhaps for the first time. She describes excruciating struggles
to find love and self after interpersonal fractures ranging from
painful misunderstandings to criminal assaults to ethnic wars. Ms.
Davis shows us ways to reconcile with our own fear and pain and rage,
if not always with our adversaries. I Thought We�d Never Speak Again is
a gift of the heart, full of wisdom, courage, and hope. I highly
recommend it."
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David C. Hall, M.D.
Family Psychiatrist and Author of Stop Arguing and Start Understanding: Eight Steps to Solving Family Conflicts
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�This
is a book of enormous personal and social significance for a society
steeped in conflict and alienation. It is a deeply moving and
spiritually uplifting work that you will want to give to family,
friends, and colleagues alike."
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Donald T. Saposnek, Ph.D.
Family therapist and author of Mediating Child Custody Disputes
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"Leave
it to Laura Davis, who opened a whole generation with The Courage to
Heal, to once again give us what we need�a book about how we come home
to each other and ourselves. I want to buy this for everyone I know.
And Davis has presented this healing with such compassion, clarity,
warmth, and good solid prose that this book is unbeatable. No one can
turn from its truth."
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Natalie Goldberg
Author of Thunder and Lightning and The Essential Writer's Notebook
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"I
came to hear you speak the other night. Then I went home and started to
read your book and it inspired me to pick up a pen after 4 years. The
tears and the words came pouring out as if a faucet was turned on and a
release valve was opened. Thank you for helping me let go�of the hurt I
was carrying."
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Adonica, Charleston, South Carolina
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"Congratulations,
Laura! You have taken an in-depth look at a timely and difficult
subject. This book will be an inspiration to all those who read it."
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Dr. Eileen R. Borris
Psychologist and Founder of Peace Initiatives
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"Your
book 'I Thought We'd Never Speak Again' helped me tremendously in my
reconciliation with my mother. We were estranged for 14 months. Halfway
through the estrangement, I came across your book, which was absolutely
instrumental in my healing process. It gave me the breathing room I
needed to have patience with Mom so I could give her the space she
needed to reach out and find her way through the mire. Thank you so
much for your tremendous work!"
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Brenda Zeller, Emmaus, PA
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�I
highly recommend Laura Davis� I Thought We�d Never Speak Again as a
guide that brings hope and clarity to many caught up in their crippling
histories. A valuable resource for helping us understand and appreciate
the obstacles to change and the keys to forgiveness.�
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Roman Paur
Executive director, Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute
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"With
warmth, humor, and sensitivity, Laura Davis teaches us personal and
practical truths about healing painful, broken relationships. She does
not offer simplistic answers, nor tell us that there is only one way to
reconcile. Her book is a tremendous gift, and will change the way we
think about reconciliation in our personal lives, in the criminal
justice process, and in the greater world."
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Greg D. Richardson
Restorative Justice Institute
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�I
Thought We�d Never Speak Again is a great successor to The Courage to
Heal. When we heal we regain our integrity and our grounding.
Reconciliation may require even more growth and transcendence, but
through this process we can become more whole, complete and connected.
I suspect that nearly everyone has an estranged or distant relationship
that could be improved. Your book is the best place to begin."
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Martin Teicher MD, Psychiatry Department, Harvard Medical School
Psychiatry Department, Harvard Medical School
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