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H E A L
An Owner's Manual for how to heal emotional wounds and live your truth
Kirkus Reviews
'A brief, accessible guide to working through past traumas and current triggers.
This new self-help entry in a crowded field stands out for its brevity and down-to-earth, conversational style. Semas-Day, a marriage and family therapist in private practice in California, covers recent discoveries in neuroscience, emotions and repression, self-talk, relationships, boundaries, psychological triggers, and trauma in seven short chapters, each with helpful exercises. Specifically, the book focuses on the distinction between the “reptilian brain” and the “higher brain.” The former, she notes, is responsible for the “fight, flight, or freeze” response to perceived threats; and the latter can provide perspective, analyze, build relationships, and solve problems...To counteract fear, depression, and negative self-talk, Semas-Day offers a variety of mostly tried-and-true techniques, such as meditation, yoga, humor, gratitude lists, visualization, and unsent letters. Overall, her prose is clear and accessible as she illustrates key ideas with candid anecdotes drawn from her own experiences and those of her anonymized clients. The numerous exercises are simple, well explained, and will be useful for many readers....inspirational quotations are liberally sprinkled throughout the text along with Semas-Day’s own pithy statements, including that “life is a classroom, not a fairytale,” “emotions aren’t a problem to be solved but a wave to be ridden,” and “We survived by forgetting, now we heal by remembering.”
An often helpful and practical self-help manual.'
-Kirkus Reviews
Foreword Clarion Review
'Aimee Semas-Day’s self-help book Heal is about recovering from emotional scars and developing a healthier sense of self. The book’s topical chapters cover emotions, repression, healing, self-talk, romantic relationships, boundaries, and goal setting. Each chapter aims to help audiences work through their traumas and negative emotions. They are composed of brief discussions, anecdotes, guidance, and exercises...
The tone is conversational and encouraging throughout. Semas-Day’s personal stories are present to indicate that the book’s approach works, but the book also draws on her expertise as a therapist, which informs its exercises. They are gentle about encouraging audiences to acknowledge and move on from negative aspects of their pasts, as well as to train their brains to avoid and replace those negative thoughts and feelings in the future...for those who are ready to do the work: Heal is a calm, practical self-help guide that names methods for healing from one’s past, and for understanding one’s emotions going forward.
-Foreword Clarion Review **** (4 out of 5 Stars)