The Box of Daughter: Healing the Authentic Self - A Memoir [Kindle Edition]

Katherine Mayfield (Author)

Book Description

Winner of the 2012 Reader's Favorite Memoir Award, The Box of Daughter is the compelling true story of the author's struggle to recover from childhood emotional abuse, and her quest to raise her self-esteem and create a more authentic life.

In her twenties and thirties, the author pursued a professional acting career, appearing Off-Broadway, in independent films, and on the daytime drama Guiding Light. Entering therapy in her thirties in response to a divorce, she began to unravel the threads of dysfunction in her family.

More than a decade later, armed with the truth about her family, she sought to understand the challenges her parents faced and recover from the trauma while simultaneously acting as the family caregiver for her parents in their late 80s and early 90s. Freed from the abuse by the deaths of her parents in 2005 and 2008, the author began an inspiring journey to wholeness--developing self-esteem, uncovering her true self, and finally creating a life that is truly her own.

Katherine Mayfield is the author of Dysfunctional Families:  The Truth Behind the Happy Family Facade, Acting A to Z, and The Box of Daughter & Other Poems.

Signed copies can be ordered through the author's website.

This is the second edition of The Box of Daughter.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Compelling....gripping....a triumph of the human spirit."
-Nashua Telegraph

"Mayfield's memoir is a testament to the merit of psychological healing through the understanding and expression of feelings.... Full of stark realities of abuse but also the hopefulness of healing, Mayfield's memoir provides helpful insight to those facing similar struggles."
-Kirkus Reviews

"This is an excellent book to give to a friend struggling with family entanglement issues. It took courage and a lot of personal pain to write this book, but I have no doubt it will help many, many people."
-TCM Reviews

"This book changes you. You'll walk away more compassionate and inspired to live your best life."
-Ellen Padnos, Women.com

"The Box of Daughter...is a hopeful story of a woman unraveled by abuse but found again in self-love and recovery."
Karyl McBride, Ph.D., author of Will I Ever Be Good Enough? Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

"Fresh, bold and inspiring."
-Examiner.com

From the Author

I wish you peace and happiness, and a journey to your true self filled with light.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 400 KB
• Print Length: 204 pages
• Publisher: The Essential Word Press; Second edition (June 23, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005DRCFC6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,386 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eternally greatful for finding this book January 16, 2013

By Bakiri

Format:Kindle Edition

I wish I could give this book an extra 20 stars. I felt a connection with the author's words on every page. This book has pushed my recovering psyche forward by leaps and bounds. I recommend this book for anyone who had a difficult relationship with their parents, particularly if narcissism played a role in either parent.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving Emotional Abuse August 25, 2011

By Alana Sue

Format:Kindle Edition

I was inspired by Katherine's memoir and her struggle to find her own true identity. She worked hard and long to claw her way out of a dysfunctional family relationship where communication and expression of emotion was taboo.
Anyone that has come from a dysfunctional family, anyone that cannot meet their parent's expectations, anyone that has had to be a caregiver for aging ill parents will appreciate this book. Simply knowing that you are not alone, knowing that you too can eventually rise above the damage that was done and free yourself from entanglement, is a wonderful comfort. I feel consoled, grateful and calmed.

Only after 7 years of caregiving and nurturing and her parents' eventual death was the author able to free herself from the spider web that trapped her. She was finally able to venture outside of the Box of Daughter and view the world and herself from her very own perspective, not theirs.

I took pleasure and comfort in knowing that she found solace in her pets and plants. Somehow just knowing that gives me a sense of peace. I also retreat to my pets and plants when under duress, and it was a warm fuzzy to know others do too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BOX OF DAUGHTER (GMTA REVIEW) November 6, 2012

By GMTA Publishing

Format:Kindle Edition

TITLE: "The Box of Daughter"
AUTHOR: Katherine Mayfield
PUBLISHER: The Essential Word Press
RATING: 5
AGES: 17 +

REVIEW: Every now and then we come across a book that hits so close to home it's astounding. This was the one for me. As I read Katherine's recounting of being a little girl and being expected to be exactly the way her mother wanted her to be no matter what I began to recall my own childhood and it amazed me how much like Katherine's it truly was.

I grew up with a mother that was zealously religious, everything I did was wrong, and I could never please her. My mother also had serious mental issues that were never diagnosed or treated. There were even some of the things in this book that Katherine's mother did to her and said to her that were synonymous with my own memories and I felt horrified that someone could have lived the same life I did.

Before long though I began to feel a kinship with the author and in the realization that I had not been the only one to go through this made me love the book and the story all the more. I somehow felt as though I had been able to get my own story out without ever having lifted a pen or pressing a key.

Thank you Katherine for this story and for what it means to those that may have lived much the same life we did... in 'the box of daughter.'

This is most certainly a healing and spiritually enlightening book, one everyone should read.

More About the Author

Katherine Mayfield is the author of the award-winning memoir "The Box of Daughter," two books on the acting business: "Smart Actors, Foolish Choices" and "Acting A to Z," both published by Back Stage Books, the Kindle book "Dysfunctional Families: The Truth Behind the Happy Family Facade," and a book of poetry, "The Box of Daughter and Other Poems."

"The Box of Daughter" won the Bronze Medal in the 2012 Reader's Favorite Book Awards. Ms. Mayfield also won the Honorable Mention award in the 2011 Warren Adler Short Story Contest for her short story "The Last Visit," which is based on the last time she visited her father in hospice care.

She has been published in Dance Teacher Now magazine, Dance Spirit magazine, The Significato Journal online, Sasee magazine, The Women's Times, the Greenfield Recorder, and on Women.com, Fiftyshift.com, and numerous other websites.

She loves writing, painting, jigsaw puzzles, and cats, and teaches writing in Maine. She blogs on Dysfunctional Families on her website, TheBoxofDaughter.com.