Khara Croswaite Brindle’s brilliance communicatively is simply, to be frank, telling it like it is. Too often books belonging in the psychology, self-help, and motivational nonfiction subcategories can make one unintentionally bristle. The flowery language, sometimes verbose word choices, and semi-intangible stereotypes haunting the text of such books can alienate readership bases who may desperately need them. Books that probe relationships from a therapeutic perspective can be especially a hit or miss. It’s nice to see though that Brindle bucks all of these potential foibles, instead delivering concepts, insights, and facts in bell-clear house style.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/kharacroswaite/
This is indicated literally just by the titling of the book, perfectly encapsulating the crux of its ideology and approach from A to Z. Simply put, Understanding Mother-Daughter Relationships: Guiding the Adult Daughter’s Healing Journey Through the Estrangement Energy Cycle. “You need this book if you work with women,” Brindle states matter-of-factly. She adds, “…(Women’s) relationship(s) with their parent can influence therapeutic goals and shape who they are as adults…If parent-adult child relationship conflict is a concern for clients, how can clinicians feel prepared to address the possible treatment focus of estrangement in the therapeutic space? Specifically, the ruptured relationship between mothers and daughters? Depending on your client, the goal of therapy may land somewhere on the spectrum of repairing an estranged relationship with her mother versus finalizing parental estrangement and redefining herself as the result of that separation.”
Brindle’s transparency also extends itself to a full-on generosity of spirit. She’s able to speak from a place of personal expertise, and isn’t afraid to share that personal expertise as paramount to the philosophies and psychologies she swears by in the rest of the text. “I am…married into a family with multiple estrangements, which has contributed additional depth to my writing. I consider their experiences enlightening and vulnerable, affirming what clients have helped me see and understand about estrangement over the years,” she says. “I’ve written this book in my first year of becoming a mother, an experience with timing that is not lost on me as I attempt to build the strongest, healthiest attachment I can in my infant daughter’s first year of life.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/-/he/Khara-Croswaite-Brindle/dp/1538174022
I felt these elements were important to disclose in full transparency on the difficult topic of estrangement…I have taken it upon myself professionally to speak for women who seek compassion and understanding from professionals and community members alike, to better understand their challenges and needs when navigating the immensely difficult and defining event of a mother-daughter relationship rupture.”
The profundity of mother-daughter relationships, when you think about it, is often an underrated phenomenon. Often narratives cater to the mother-son rapport, with the father-daughter relationships heightened over portrayal of the mother-daughter bond. As a man, there are certainly things in the text I can appreciate, but will be the first to admit my own, lived ignorance on. But I greatly appreciated how upfront Brindle is, and in terms of that process making the text emotionally vivid as much as therapeutically insightful on the topical subject matter.
Garth Thomas