book: finding the gems
The search for meaning in Life's traumas and losses.
Available from Balboa Press, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon
"Throughout my life, trauma and loss have been my greatest teachers. I often caustically joked that death and grief are the gifts that keep on giving."
During a career spanning four decades, Dr. Finestone has often been asked by patients: "Why did that happen to me?" "Why isn't life more joyful?" "Why can't I have what others seem to have so effortlessly?" "Why do I feel stuck?" "Why didn't my previous therapy help?" "Was I born only to suffer?" "Where was God when this was happening?" "What is spirituality?" "How can I let go of my grief?"
In Finding the Gems, she explores these themes--paying particular attention to how the losses and traumas we've experienced as children affect us in our adult lives. Even if your more significant losses or traumas occurred as an adult, lessons learned in childhood will inform your interpretation of adult experiences.
Personalizing the work of the great Viennese psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, she blends psychology, spirituality, humanism, meaning and purpose in a soulful and penetrating account of her own traumas and bereavement.
She argues that finding the meaning in painful experiences is what can free each one of us to be who we want to be.
Each chapter is introduced by a quote and concludes with a spiritual lesson that will help you find the "gems" in painful memories and experiences.
"Life is filled with losses and traumas, both big and small. We have a choice: will we be squashed by life or will we find the joy in living every day? Regardless of what life brings us, or what we bring to our own lives, if we can find the meaning in our experiences, the wisdom buried deep within, we have the opportunity to transform trauma and loss into precious spiritual gems."
Finding the Gems, p. 109
