Reeling from I family rift, I found this book and it proved to be a godsend.

A family rift feels like a death, but you are not dead. For a time, I carried the book around everywhere. When I felt down, I referred too it, it really helped. It helped me recognize though in pain, I was alive and that even though my life was not so great at that time, it was nonetheless a gift from God.

You are never the same after a family rift, but this book makes it clear that you can choose whether the change is good or bad. You will come to realize that you can't change the family member from whom you have become estranged but you can choose how you react to them and the estrangement.

Read this book and embark on a wonderful journey of healing.

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.

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.

With insight and compassion, the author sensititvely explores the highly-charged world of those affected by family rifts. The book is made all the more powerful as the author reveals his personal experience with this devasting experience. The book offers a clear understanding of how family rifts come to be and provides workable solutions. A compassionate and down-to-earth handbook. And a must-read for those seeking to better understand the human condition.

I was impressed by how the author outlined the effects and underlying trauma that accompany a family rift. Such insights are really helpful and useful in understanding how to move on from the feelings of paralysis that often accompany rifts. Rarely does a book leave you feeling that a problem is much more manageable, but this one does. I have gotten copies for family members and friends.