Description: When love hurts, you may wonder about your choice of romantic partners or risky sexual behaviors. Perhaps, like many others, you're experiencing the raw pain of an addictive relationship--the kind that's painful to be in, yet seemingly impossible to leave. A profound sense of emptiness can result. Repeatedly, you may feel pain, anger, and confusion rather than what you truly desire: closeness, warmth, and security. You may feel broken. The more you search for the comfort of closeness and safety, the deeper you sink into the quicksand of despair. As you read through the pages in this book, you will discover what happens when love and sex--our most primitive human needs--becomes a drug. This idea may be new to you. If you're in the midst of recovering from other addictions, the concept may make sense but leave you asking, "What? There's more work to do?" Ready to Heal explores how addictive relationship patterns get started and how to heal from the pain of destructive relationships. The phrase "love and sex addiction" will be referenced throughout the book as a way to name addictive patterns. While this term may not be one you would choose, that's okay. It's simply a name. Naming a problem is the first step toward healing. For a woman, healing from love and sex addiction requires an understanding of the disease from (1) an early rupture in attachment with your caregivers, and (2) patriarchal norms and expectations in culture. Both will be explored here.
Brief description: Kelly McDaniel is a licensed professional counselor, author, mother, and women's advocate. In her first book Ready to Heal, (2008) she named an attachment injury as "Mother Hunger" and started a movement. Women resonated with the concept and wanted treatment. Since then, Kelly devotes herself to nurturing insecure attachment and maternal deprivation in adult women. In her second book, Mother Hunger, Kelly speaks to the millions of women who suffer with a life-long emotional burden that adversely affects self-worth, eating patterns, and relational wellness. In addition to a busy private therapy practice, Kelly lectures about issues affecting women and relationships.
Review Quotes: "McDaniel offers rich reflections into the myriad of issues facing women sex and love addicts. Confronting cultural stereotypes that keep women in their shame and providing a clear path of healing, she uses her warm and perceptive insight to help women unburden and break free from the insidious hold of addiction. Her identification of "mother hunger" as a driving force for women sex and love addicts is one of the many gems this book contains. Ready to Heal is sure to become a classic for women struggling with addiction." --Kenneth M. Adams, Ph.D., CSAT Clinical Director of Kenneth M. Adams and Associates in suburban Detroit, Michigan and Life Healing in Santa Fe, New Mexico Author of Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners and When He's Married to Mom: How to Help Mother-Enmeshed Men Open Their Hearts to True Love and Commitment
"Nobody understands and explains sex and love addiction in women like Kelly McDaniel. Ready to Heal integrates compelling examples with clinical brilliance, lighting a path to personal healing and healthy relationships. The chapter on "mother hunger" is an invaluable work in and of itself. Therapists like us as well as our clients will be utilizing this powerful resource for many, many years to come." --Bill Bercaw, PsyD, CSAT, CST & Ginger Bercaw, PsyD, CSAT, CST Authors of The Couple's Guide to Intimacy: How Sexual Reintegration Therapy Can Help your Relationship Heal