Book Reviews:

 

"Curl up with this book and meet your new best friend, Melissa Groman. Sharing wisdom from both personal and professional experience, she will meet you exactly where you are on your journey to recover. Sometimes, you might even think that she is reading your mind! In Better is Not So Far Away, you will find understanding, connection, and most of all, unfailing hope.”
 

 Jenni Schaefer

Author of Life Without Ed andGoodbye Ed, Hello Me

 

"This book is ideal for people who in their constant pain and anguish feel like they are the only person struggling with their specific problem. Filled with personal stories, the pages of this book will bring encouragement and hope to those who read it."

 

Terry Sandbek, Ph.D.

Author: "The Deadly Diet" and "The Worry Free Life"

 

"As a modern analyst who has worked with many young women struggling with depression and eating disorders, it is delightful to come across a book that is clinically wise, readable, and comforting to the reader.  Concrete  suggestions for dealing with anger and frustration that often lead to maladaptive responses are examined with great sensitivity." 

 

Vicki Semel, PsyD

Executive Director,

Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis

 

“Better is Not So Far Away is about overcoming the internal conflicts many people feel about even wanting to get better. Sometimes staying trapped in an eating disorder or in a state of self injury feels like the only way to cope with pain, abuse, or trauma. The numbing effect of bingeing, purging, or starving anesthetizes suffering and provides temporary comfort. Psychotherapist Melissa Groman captures the agony and the ecstasy inside the heart and soul of women with eating disorders in a way that is rich, vivid, and deeply poignant. She describes the wrenching hurt and anguish that lead people to binge, purge, starve, or cut themselves. She writes, "When you take every measure possible to distance yourself from your feelings and from your hunger and pain, you miss out not only on the experience of learning that you can survive, but the experience of finding out who you are." Only when patients learn to fully acknowledge the depth of their despair ─ as Ms. Groman experienced in her own life ─ are they ultimately led to a place of hope, recovery, and peace. The author identifies and describes in detail the six feelings that bring people to their knees: anger, fear, worthlessness, self-pity, loneliness, and grief. She teaches that recovery is a conscious choice to be made over and over again through self reflection, journal writing, cultivating patience, self compassion and spiritual awareness. Most importantly, Ms. Groman recommends, finding a safe support system ─ be it a friend, psychotherapist, or 12 step support group. "Some pain takes a billion words. But it has to come out of you or you will continue to starve or stuff your body," she encourages. "Telling your story is like walking through the door of life... By practicing 'feeling your feelings' you will develop a six-pack set of abs in your psyche." From "hurting to healing, resistance to recovery, struggle to strength," Ms. Groman has written a compelling and original book. I strongly recommend Better is Not So Far Away.”

 

 Mary Anne Cohen, Director of The New York Center for Eating Disorders, author of French Toast for Breakfast: Declaring Peace with Emotional Eating and Lasagna for Lunch: Declaring Peace with Emotional Eating