Customer Reviews

Passages Into Womanhood: Empowering Girls to Love Themselves

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Throughout history and across all cultures, we observe common human strengths and needs. Children becoming adults is a universal celebration and a universal challenge. A girl becoming a woman is an especially important celebration and challenge which Dr. Pam Chubbuck, LPC, elucidates from several helpful perspectives in her latest book, Passages Into Womanhood.

First, Pam's book is practical, full of suggestions and examples that adults can put into practice in their own relationships with girls who are becoming women. For example, Pam tells the story of a preteen girl, abused in early childhood, who was torn between her birth father and her adoptive father. What did her mother and these men do to help her have a positive connection to both fathers? How did they help her to fit her history with men into her emerging identity and to feel confident in her sexuality? And looking back, what would they have done differently?

Second, Pam speaks from her heart as a daughter, sister, mother and grandmother. She discloses candidly but professionally some of her own story and how empathic mentors, women and men, helped her grow to be the strong spirit that she is. She talks about her girlhood friendships, how some friendships are hazards, and she shares ways she uses her current freindships to continue to grow as a woman.

Third, Pam has an archetypal perspective. She writes from her cross-cultural curiosity and understanding of history, demonstrating respect for all religions and faith systems, including those that predate Judeo-Christian tradition. She reminds us of the prominant and leadership roles women have played as spiritual leaders and mind-body healers through history, providing models for us today as mentors. And providing models as well for our girls to aspire to. Pam risks helping us look at grim challenges, some of which will force the reader to choose between denial and developing new values. For example, she reminds us of the emotional, economic, health and safety prices girls will pay when patriarchy places stones in their pathway to womanhood. Pam clearly has faith in our love for our girls, that through our love we will craft individual, family and community solutions.

Dr. Chubbuck writes from the experiences of her prestigious career as a midwife, mind-body healer, and Licensed Professional Counselor. She has been trained by scientist-practitioners world-renowned in their fields and in turn she has been training psychotherapists internationally in the method of Core Energetics for fifteen years. Dr. Chubbuck has treated numerous women whose transition into womanhood were compromised either by early childhood trauma or by their caregivers' inability to individualize, celebrate and mentor them through the transition into womanhood.

It's fair to caution the reader; be prepared for occasionally abstract language. For example, Dr. Chubbuck sometimes draws on psychoanalytic concepts and uses that jargon. And she shamelessly favors what some will perceive as New Age cliches. Don't allow this to diminish your curiosity or distract from the practical strategies you will gain from this read. Written for a general readership, this book is especially useful for foster and adoptive parents, paraprofessionals such as group home amd residential treament staff, educators, youth group leaders, health and human services professionals including licensed psychotherapists.

Passages Into Womanhood is a useful guide for all of us with girls in our lives who we love. And it is itself a celebration of the common human passage into womanhood.

E. Douglas Pratt, DSW, LCSW
Licensed Psychotherapist and
Human Services Staff Development Specialist,
Policy-Practice Resources, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia
770.998.3548 ppr_edp@bellsouth.net

Dr.Pam Chubbuck's empathetic but professional book guides young girls to look forward to the events of pre-puburty, puberty and beyond. Our society has viewed menstruation as a malady or at least an inconvenience rather than a doorway to fullfilment in womanhood. It helps them appreciate the significance of being the earth-mother, even if they don't bear children. Thank you Dr. Chubbuck for your insights in Passages into Womanhood: Empowering Girls to Love Themselves.

I opened your new book, Passages into Womanhood: Empowering Girls to Love Themselves, and I felt your energy reach out and hug me, as if you have imprinted yourself (I suppose you have!) in the pages themselves. The loving embrace I felt, as I was scanning the table of contents, wishing, of course, that something like this had been around when I was younger, touched me on a level I did not expect. I cried tears of many emotions for the next several minutes. I have never had an experience like that, from simply looking at the table of contents of a book before. It is abundantly clear to me the love that you hold, and that you have put in this project. I am looking forward to reading it completely. I am in awe already.