Finding Your Voice (ebook)

Argumento de Finding Your Voice (ebook)

A successful career . . . a happy marriage . . . a fit body . . . a picture-perfect family–these idealized images of today’s woman confront us on all sides. We believe they should be attainable–because we enjoy greater opportunities, freedom, and resources than ever before. And yet, the notion that any woman with a little determination really can have it all traps us in a new oppression. The fact is that external obstacles, societal attitudes, old parental messages, and other internal barriers still stand in our way–leaving us unsettled about our choices and dissatisfied with our accomplishments, sometimes making us our own worst enemies.

Now, in Finding Your Voice, a team of highly credentialed and experienced women psychologists have written a groundbreaking book that helps you uncover what you want and need in order to create a more fulfilling, happier life. Finding Your Voice shows you how to use self-talk to identify your own true voice, feel more confident and capable, believe in yourself, and make decisions based on the real you. The authors explore the popularly promoted image of the modern woman and tackle all the issues that challenge us today: family, friendships, work, money, self-esteem, child-rearing, and marriage. Through real-life profiles based on women they have counseled, the authors reveal how such idealized expectations so often lead to feelings of malaise, anxiety, and discontent.

By reading this book, you will see how to combat those defeating emotions, get unstuck, and move forward. You will learn to:

• Identify the messages that are guiding your actions
• Stop doing what you don’t want to do but think you should
• Envision better ways to deal with the "old stuff" in your life
• Adopt new behaviors that allow you to reach for new achievements
• Accept and applaud your unique strengths

A remarkable journey of self-discovery, Finding Your Voice will help you realize your true desires–and live the life you were meant to live.

DOROTHY CANTOR, Psy.D., a past president of the American Psychological Association, is the coauthor of What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up? and was interviewed on the Today show.
CAROL GOODHEART, Ed.D., SANDRA HABER, Ph.D., and KAREN ZAGER, Ph.D., are past presidents of Psychologists in Independent Practice.
ELLEN McGRATH, Ph.D., and ALICE RUBENSTEIN, Ed.D., are past presidents of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychotherapy.
LENORE WALKER, Ed.D., executive director of the Domestic Violence Institute, is a past president of the American Psychological Association Division of Media Psychology and the author of Terrifying Love. ANDREA THOMPSON is a former McCall?s articles editor and a professional writer.

As a group, these seven psychologists, all of whom are in private practice, have formed the Women to Women Psychology Group, W2W. Each has served as president of a national psychological organization with a total of ten presidencies among them. Together they have received fifty-eight awards and honors, have authored twenty-eight books and more than eighty-five articles and book chapters, and have been quoted in many national magazines and newspapers, including Time, Newsweek, Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, Ladies Home Journal, Working Woman, Family Circle, Parenting, Woman?s Day, Psychology Today, YM, and Working Mother. They have counseled more than 50,000 clients. Visit their Web site at www.finding-your-voice.com.0Preface.

Acknowledgments.

1. Introducing Self-Talk.

2. The Friendship Expectation: ?I?ve Always Got My Girlfriends?.

3. The Dating Expectation: ?I Can Find the Perfect Partner (but If I Don?t, I?ll Be Just Fine without One)?.

4. The Sex Expectation: ?I?m Healthily, Happily, Wildly Sexual?.

5. The Marriage Expectation: ?I Can Achieve the Marriage I Want (but If I Don?t, I?ll Just End the Marriage)?.

6. The Child-Rearing Expectation: ?I?m Raising a Perfect Child, and Loving Every Minute of It?.

7. The Work Expectation: ?I?m Happy with My Career (or Happy without One)?.

8. The Money Expectation: ?I Have My Financial Life Well in Hand?.

9. The Balancing Act Expectation: ?I?m Running My Life, It?s Not Running Me?.

10. The Appearance Expectation: ?I Love My Body Just as It Is?.

11. The Self-Esteem Expectation: ?I Believe in Myself?.

12. Self-Talk among Friends: Beginning the Conversation.

Index.