A Weekend to Change Your Life

The author's one-year retreat away from her family inspired the book A YEAR BY THE SEA--and now this radiant follow-up primer on discovering oneself on a weekend escape. Based on Erik Erickson's eight stages of life, Anderson's advice that women examine their overgenerous ways is supported by a maturity and balance you don't always hear in personal growth programs for women. Her thoughtfulness about women's identity issues is impressive as each of her insights and suggestions clicks into place and begins to seem possible. Renee Raudman's tender interpretation of this material is satisfying--a perfect means to help women summon up the courage to do the retreat and find something special in themselves. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

January 30, 2006
In her popular A Year by the Sea
, Anderson wrote about a time she chose to live apart from her husband on Cape Cod in order to better understand herself. Anderson has turned her private retreat into a program, Weekend by the Sea Retreats, to help women learn how to have a full life apart from the needs and demands of spouses, children, aging parents and careers. Here, Anderson shares the exercises and activities she has developed to encourage change and growth. She draws on Erik Erikson's eight stages of life from infancy to old age and suggests listing the gains and losses from each phase in order to identify one's personal strengths. Another technique is the beach walk, which allows women to get in touch with their bodies and emotions as they trek alone on the shore, collecting shells, rocks and driftwood, swimming, or drawing pictures in the sand. Anderson's warm, inviting tone will appeal to women who feel, as she did, that they need time and space to reinvent themselves.

June 1, 2007
Read by René e Raudman, this program offers listeners the opportunity to plan and execute their own weekend (or longer) retreat without the expense or trouble of traveling to Cape Cod to work with Anderson. It's geared toward women of all ages who no longer find satisfaction in the role of "superwoman." With gentleness and humor, the author shows how she and her clients have confronted the exhaustion and pain of trying to control their life, looks, relationships, and environment. Techniques to reconnect to one's authentic ideals and values are suggested. Drawing from numerous women's experiences, Anderson ("A Year by the Sea") explains that there are no "one size fits all" solutions. She is particularly strong in offering methods to transition between the world of retreat and one's "real" life. Highly recommended for libraries that own Anderson's earlier works and for all self-help collections.Kathleen Sullivan, Phoenix P.L.

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