Customer Reviews

Making Peace with Your Past: The Six Essential Steps to Enjoying a Great Future

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MAKING PEACE WITH YOUR PAST is the best book I've yet read of the "self-help" variety. Reading the book has helped me move into a calmer, more open and happy place in my life, and I continue to reread it whenever ancient, and not-so ancient history, in the form of regret, grief or hurt, visits me. The exercises in the book make sense and WORK. The writing style is welcoming, nonjudgemental, and understanding. Whatever negative experiences you've gone through in your life, from childhood through the recent past or present, there is help for you here. Bloomfield and co-author Philip Goldberg have given a great gift to anyone seeking the calm and happiness which may have been, until now, elusive. I never write reviews on Amazon, but I am too impressed by the results of this book to keep quiet. Simply put: the book works.

www.signonsandiego.com
Psychiatrist pleads guilty, may avoid jail
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 24, 2002
VISTA - A Del Mar psychiatrist and best-selling author admitted yesterday he illegally drugged women in his home and office, but he probably will not be sent to jail as punishment, lawyers said.

Harold Bloomfield, 57, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of illegally furnishing drugs yesterday, defense attorney Bob Grimes said.

"This is the first time he's been to court since his release on bail," Grimes said in an interview. "He wanted to admit what he did and help with the healing process with the victims. He didn't want the victims to go to court and be cross-examined."

Prosecutor Richard Madruga said the two women whose drinks Bloomfield admitted drugging said they don't oppose a sentence without jail time.

"They want to see that the community is protected, that he not practice medicine, that he not be able to prescribe medications and that he get help for drug dependency, and counseling," Madruga said.

Such conditions are likely when Superior Court Judge Frederick Maguire sentences Bloomfield at a hearing scheduled for March 22, Madruga said.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped three drug-related felony charges and a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery.

In court papers, detectives said a glass of lemonade Bloomfield gave a woman in July contained Ecstasy and methamphetamine.

The woman said Bloomfield met her in his Del Mar home for a therapy session wearing only a pair of blue boxer shorts printed with martini glasses, according to court records.

She felt strange after drinking the lemonade, and Bloomfield offered to examine her breasts after she complained of pain from recent surgery, according to the documents.

When asked about that, Bloomfield blamed his daughter for the drugs in the drink, detectives said. The daughter denied any involvement.

Then, in December, a woman who visited Bloomfield's home said he undressed her and fondled her after giving her a funny-tasting green smoothie.

At the time of Bloomfield's arrest Dec. 19, prosecutors said they were investigating reports from other women who said he drugged and then sexually assaulted them.

Madruga said yesterday that additional charges are not supported by evidence in the case.

Bloomfield was released the week following his arrest after posting $500,000 bail.

He and his wife, with whom he wrote several books, are divorcing.

He was once a frequent guest on television talk shows, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show," on which he last appeared in 1993.

Defense attorney Grimes said Bloomfield descended into drug use during a bout of depression about four years ago. It worsened after he emerged from plastic surgery with chronic pain, for which he took larger and larger quantities of painkillers.

"Ultimately he started on his own, medicating himself by smoking marijuana and ultimately using Ecstasy," Grimes said.

As a condition of his release from jail, Bloomfield agreed not to practice medicine.

Having resented my parents all my life, after reading this book I now understand why they treated me the way they did and why they reacted with such anger. Now that my father is deceased I can no longer tell him I love him and forgive him for what he did. This book helped me make peace with myself and my past. Dr. Bloomfield is a master at healing people and having them achieve peace within themselves.

What an awesome book! I have read all of Dr. Bloomfield's books, however, I felt change taking place deep within 'as I read' this one. The third chapter on 'Breaking the Shackles of Shame' is worth buying and reading the whole book. It gave me a direct plan to dealing with the deep seated issues of shame in my psyche. It also uncovered things in me that I have repressed for many years. It taught me the language of knowing what was really going on inside of me. Helped me to specifically identify hurts and obstacles that were holding me back from living the quintessential life. Read this book if you want to experience healing for your past. Dr. Bloomfield not only identifies your past issues, he gives you remedies for dealing with them successfully.

Michael Murphy

Powerful Attitudes

This book was extremely vital in my process of healing some wounds from a breakup of a marriage. I used all the exersices and I find myself picking it up just to review some of the material. I felt soothed and released by the message. Thanks thanks thanks so much, Marissa Walters.

I just completed the audio version of this book. It was hard to restrain myself from posting a review because there there is great good and even greater danger in this book! Red flags are waving! You may be drinking poison when you're looking for nutrition!

First the danger, then the good...

DANGER:
The author and his wife are unapologetic new age pantheists. Throughout the book the "virtues" of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and buying herbal remedies from a Hindu based organization are touted. Sadly, the "science" behind these practices and their application to "Making Peace With Your Past" are glossed over. Is there a connection? A clear explicit correlation is never REALLY made (it's implied) AND, frankly, I felt that this was one of the major flaws with this work.

Next danger, the author encourages you to "question" any resistance that you may have to the suggested therapies in this book. While is true that resistance to change can be an obstacle in therapy does this mean that discernment and moral judgment should be jettisoned as well? Apparently the author's answer is, "Yes". The author and his co-author wife trapple all over time honored and proven Western European values and sensibilities. Visualization - a controversial practice in some religious, medical, and cultural contexts is used and discussed as if there is no controversy at all and there is universal consensus on it's effectiveness and use.

Frankly, I DID feel uncomfortable at many points during this book. However, I can assure the reader that it had NOTHING to do with resistance to change and EVERYTHING to do with the fact that my value system and moral code was being directly challenged by the pan theistic (or more accurately "pan-everythingistic") approach of these authors.

Because I knew that this "if you feel uncomfortable..." tactic is used by cult leaders and unethical therapists to cause their followers to "snap" and allow an unreasonable level of control over their followers, I kept my value/moral boundaries in place while I waded through the author's thin veiled belief systems (Hinduism and New Age practices) and world view (Existential, Post Modern Relativism).

I feel that authors would be advised in future works to state up front: "We are practicing Hindus, New Agers, and moral relativists" THAT would at least be honest!

If you are a practicing Christian, Moslem, or conservative Jew, you will find MUCH to hate in this book!

THE GOOD:
Despite this work's obvious flaws there is *some* value here. Ironically, the author is at his best when he sticks to go old Western European style psycho-therapy. He is obviously well educated, experienced, and very intelligent. His explanations of the inner mechanics of unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, painful memories are excellant and liberating.

Even the visualizations would have great value IF a greater emphasis on keep the patient in their cognitize mind via maintaining a very LIGHT, constant Alpha state rather than the deep Alpha state that the co-author employs. However since the authors are TM practitioners it should surprise no one that they advocate a very deep alpha state mode that makes the patient vulnerable to unwanted suggestion. Again, keep that "moral judgment" and "value system" switch set to "off"!

However, her word pictures are indeed very powerful and I have used them - while maintaining a cognitive mode alpha state - since finishing the book.

In the end, I can not recommend this book. The underlying world view and dishonesty of the authors is just too pronounced! I would encourage to explore the OTHER authors on this web-site. Personally, I don't think that you can go too wrong with the work of either Norm Wright or John Bradshaw (although Bradshaw's moral relativism does tend to "leak" at times). I especially Bradshaw's "Healing the Shame that Binds You" and his books on family.

Finally, I would add that the clipping from the San Diego Union regarding this author is not surprising to me having read his book. The TM/Hindu guru that he mentions in the book as his spiritual leader and guide has accused (and I believe indicted) of similar moral lapses. In the words of Adam Smith...

Emptor Caveat!

Or, in the words of Jesus Christ concerning false prophets: "By their fruit you will know them".

Very readable and user-friendly. All the information is well founded and I highly recommend it.

(I wasn't aware of the charges against the author until preparing my review. How disappointing.)

I found this book useful in that it offered suggestions on how to heal the past when you are aware that you need to "get over it." Whether you decide to actually "go deep" and follow his six steps is a matter of choice. The book was helpful to me in that it simply named the problems (shame, guilt, remorse, etc.) and more or less pointed out how "normal" (or, "common") these problems are for many people.

As for the TM/Hindu connection- I didn't find it to be too much of a bother, as I skipped over parts of the book I wasn't interested in. I think the $2,500.00 fee to learn TM with a qualified instructor in my area is a bit much for me, so I more or less dismissed the TM completely, but any form of meditation can be very useful in dispelling anxiety and stress. Bloomfield's Six Essential Steps are only ONE man's program- this and similar books are nowhere near the only or final word on self-help.

If you're looking for information, or maybe a way to start addressing your feelings, most of what's in this book is good to know. Putting it to use is up to you.