This book combines the expertise of practitioners and researchers to address the wide range of debates currently taking place in relation to the politics of the practitioner-client relationship.

"We all know the difference between how we are when life is sweet for us -- easy, open, generous, and connected with other people -- and how we are when we feel guarded, defensive, on edge, suspicious, or vindictive. Why do we get trapped in negative emotions when it's clear that life is so much fuller and richer when we are free of them? Bonds That Make Us Free is a groundbreaking book that suggests the remedy for our troubling emotions by addressing their root causes. You'll learn how we betray ourselves by failing to act toward others as we know we should -- and how we can interrupt the unproductive cycle and restore the sweetness in our relationships."--Publisher's description.

"Inner Bonding is a cutting-edge process for self-love. It gets profound results, and it gets them quickly. Margaret is truly a master, and the Inner Bonding process creates miracles."–Marci Shimoff, #1 NY Times bestselling author, Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, and creator of Your Year of Miracles POWERFUL 6 STEP PROGRAM FOR LEARNING TO LOVE YOURSELF! This powerful life-changing Inner Bonding Process is the result of Dr. Margaret’s more than fifty-three years of personal work with clients. Heal the cycle of shame and self-abandonment leading to anxiety, depression, addiction, aloneness and relationship failure. Discover how to love yourself and connect with your personal source of spiritual guidance. Learn how to: • Rapidly heal false beliefs about yourself, others and higher spiritual guidance • Heal guilt, shame, emptiness and aloneness • Move beyond self-judgment into self-compassion • Address the resistance that’s keeping you stuck • Heal relationship conflicts and attain the intimacy you’ve always wanted Unless you were raised by people who were loving to themselves, each other and to you, you may not have learned how to manage your painful feelings and may be operating from your ego wounded self, controlled by your fears and false beliefs. Self-abandonment perpetuates fears of rejection, abandonment, aloneness, engulfment or failure, and can also contribute to illness. Inner Bonding will help you love and value yourself. Your wounded self may often take over in unloving ways, trampling on your hurts, ignoring them or avoiding them with various addictions and controlling behavior including: • Addictions to drugs, food, nicotine, alcohol, relationships, work, TV or gaming • Co-dependence—trying to control others with anger, violence, guilt or compliance—making others responsible for your sense of safety and worth • Staying in your head rather than being present in your body • Self-judgment, shaming yourself • Obsessive thinking, ruminating, worrying • Resistance to self, others, spirit—to taking loving care of yourself

Here is a practical guide to a new and different method of treating addictions in group therapy.

The growing popularity of alternative therapies poses challenging questions for the medical establishment and the state. By confronting these questions, The Healing Bond makes an important contribution to current debates about health care. The contributors, who are all experts in the fields of health care, social science and the law, focus on the relationship between patient and healer in both orthodox and non-orthodox forms of healing practice. They consider whether different forms of healing involve widely differing conceptions of the role and responsibilities of the healer, and deal with topical issues such as medical litigation, codes of ethics for complementary practitioners, and co-operation between orthodox and complementary medicine.

This classic book, written 17 years ago but still selling more than 13,000 copies every year, has been completely updated and expanded by the author. "I used to drink," writes John Bradshaw,"to solve the problems caused by drinking. The more I drank to relieve my shame-based loneliness and hurt, the more I felt ashamed." Shame is the motivator behind our toxic behaviors: the compulsion, co-dependency, addiction and drive to superachieve that breaks down the family and destroys personal lives. This book has helped millions identify their personal shame, understand the underlying reasons for it, address these root causes and release themselves from the shame that binds them to their past failures.