Title: Healing Mind: Five Steps to Ultimate Healing, Four Rooms for Thoughts: Achieving Satisfaction Through a Well Managed Mind
Author: Janice McDermott, M.ED., M.S.W.
Publisher: BalboaPress
ISBN: 978-1504337014
Pages: 240
Genre: Self-Help
Reviewed By: Tiffany Ezuma
Pacific Book Review
Written by Janice McDermott, M.ED, M.S.W., Healing Mind: Five Steps to Ultimate Healing, Four Rooms for Thoughts: Achieving Satisfaction Through a Well Managed Mind is a guidebook for those looking to have a better understanding of their full self, both one’s conscious and their unconscious mind. Using psychology and Judeo-Christian teachings, McDermott has created the perfect resource for those readers willing to explore the inner workings of their own mind. It allows for introspection while paging this book, which has many examples and graphics to illustrate the mechanics of the mind.
The book starts with McDermott’s own personal story, including her childhood and upbringing. Having her reveal personal examples of her life brings the reader to understanding more of why she embarked upon this study, as well as humanizing her persona from being a professing teacher to that of a friend. Using her personal stories along with other examples, she gives the reader some context for identifying the key underlying elements existing in their own minds, in a way which can be used along with her suggestions to bring forth the elements into their own lives resulting in positive change. Structurally, the book is divided into sections, which explore the different steps in the process of becoming a self-realized person. Perhaps, the sections readers will find most fascinating are four different character types within us all: The Mentor; the Critic Destructive; the Divine Nurturer Instructive and the Divine Child. Each section comes with a characteristic breakdown including creative tools needed to process, identify and control each particular type.
Another bonus of the book is all of the visual models; it helps breakdown the information even further for those who need a different way to process the information, which strengthens one’s understanding of the material. McDermott has an uncanny ability to communicate information in a way, which breaks down the academic terms of psychology, making it easily accessible to the average person. She marries the intellectual along with the spiritual, which I was most impressed with, allowing her work to appeal to readers looking to enhance their entire life.
Overall, Healing Mind is a tremendous resource for anyone looking to change his or her life from down to the root cause being their way of thinking. Mainly it’s for those willing to do the self-reflective, therapeutic work and reap the life-changing rewards, yet due to the interlacing of theories and terms in lay terms, this book is accessible for all to benefit from in a variety of ways. Healing Mind will help you develop a plan and evaluate your actions.
