The Courage To Be A Stepmom: Finding Your Place Without Losing Yourself - Softcover

Thoele, Sue Patton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482040565 ISBN 13: 9781482040562

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

From her personal and professional experience as a mother, stepmother and psychotherapist, Sue Patton Thoele provides valuable nuts and bolts advice to women juggling the complex and confusing demands of the stepmother role. Sue helps women take loving care of themselves and their marriages, as they learn how to make step-mothering more manageable and enjoyable. This revised edition was first published by Council Oak Books in 2003.

About this title

From the Publisher:

What's the first word that pops into your head when you hear the word "stepmother"? Wicked? Thanks to Cinderella and other popular myths and fairytales, most of us have received powerful, overt, and subliminal messages that all stepmothers are cold, uncaring, evil women.

Despite these antiquated images, stepmoms are regular women who love their husbands, are committed to their marriages, and take the role of caring for their stepchildren very seriously. Acting as chauffeurs, maids, confidantes and punching bags, many stepmothers endlessly try to please everyone in their families-and in the process may exact a heavy toll on themselves. No matter how secure and psychologically sophisticated a woman may be, often the combination of negative stereotypes, unresolved grief, societal pressures, and unrealistic expectations, places her smack in the middle of an "emotional minefield."

In The Courage to be a Stepmom: Finding Your Place Without Losing Yourself, Sue Patton Thoele, a psychotherapist since 1974 and stepmother of twenty-five years, takes an honest, updated look at this huge and growing population of women. Offering practical skills and hands-on advice, she explores the complex emotional labyrinth of stepmothering and prepares stepmoms for the roller-coaster of emotions that often accompanies the role.

The Courage to be a Stepmom is a powerful book that will help thousands of women get a handle on their new families, and their lives. And, while perfect, "instant" families are as fictitious as evil stepmothers, the experiences and advice of Ms. Thoele and the dozens of stepmoms she interviewed help pave the way to harmonious, blended families, and just maybe, a "happily-ever-after" ending.

About the Author:

Popular speaker, psychotherapist, mother, stepmother, and author Sue Patton Thoele has been a practicing therapist since 1974 and a stepmother for almost all that time. More than 500,000 copies of her books are in print and her work has been translated into nine languages. A member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and of Spiritual Directors International, Thoele received her B.A. in drama from Kansas University, and her M.A. in psychology from Santa Clara University. She lives with her husband, Gene, in Colorado, and has two adult children and two adult stepchildren. The Courage to Be a Stepmom is her tenth book.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1482040565
• ISBN 13: 9781482040562
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 314