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Family Secrets - The Path from Shame to Healing Paperback – April 1, 1996
John Bradshaw (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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but it can also lead to self-acceptance and healing.
Family Secrets gives you the tools you need to understand your family—and yourself—in an entirely new way.
In his bestselling books and compelling PBS specials, John Bradshaw has transformed our understanding of how we are shaped by our families. Now join him on this fascinating journey of discovery, which starts with your life today and takes you back through the conflicts, the strengths, and the weaknesses of your parents’ generation—and even your grandparents’. Using a powerful technique for exploring your “family tree,” you’ll trace the visible and invisible patterns that have influenced you. You’ll learn about family secrets that are healthy and necessary, and also about the secrets that can limit your wholeness and freedom—even if you don’t know they exist.
This work is sometimes painful, but it is always enlightening—filled with the kind of “aha” moments and realizations that make everything fall into place. With John Bradshaw’s guidance, you will come to a new appreciation and acceptance of yourself. You will also be able to build more open, honest, and loving relationships with the people who matter most.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBantam
- Publication dateApril 1, 1996
- Dimensions5.3 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-109780553374988
- ISBN-13978-0553374988
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
John Bradshaw's compelling new book takes us into the heart of the family's mysterious power to impact our lives. It ex-plores how secrets are created, how they influence us (even if we don't know they exist), and the risks we take in exploring them.
At the core of Family Secrets is a step-by-step guide to uncovering the secrets of the past and present, using a tool called the genogram to chart key relationships. Through many fascinating examples, this unique book shows how to recognize crucial gaps and silences, reconstruct missing information, and decipher partial memories.
It also offers readers vital advice on how to deal with the truths revealed, plus ways to stay safely and honestly connected with our families.
John Bradshaw's six-part PBS television series, "Family Secrets," first aired in summer 1995, and will remain in syndication in the United States and Canada through 1997. A second new series, "John Bradshaw on Eating Disorders," is also in circulation.
From the Back Cover
John Bradshaw's compelling new book takes us into the heart of the family's mysterious power to impact our lives. It ex-plores how secrets are created, how they influence us (even if we don't know they exist), and the risks we take in exploring them.
At the core of "Family Secrets is a step-by-step guide to uncovering the secrets of the past and present, using a tool called the genogram to chart key relationships. Through many fascinating examples, this unique book shows how to recognize crucial gaps and silences, reconstruct missing information, and decipher partial memories.
It also offers readers vital advice on how to deal with the truths revealed, plus ways to stay safely and honestly connected with our families.
John Bradshaw's six-part PBS television series, "Family Secrets," first aired in summer 1995, and will remain in syndication in the United States and Canada through 1997. A second new series, "John Bradshaw on Eating Disorders," is also in circulation.
About the Author
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Product details
- ASIN : 0553374982
- Publisher : Bantam (April 1, 1996)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780553374988
- ISBN-13 : 978-0553374988
- Item Weight : 12.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.3 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #75,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #198 in Dysfunctional Families (Books)
- #638 in Mental & Spiritual Healing
- #2,836 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

John Bradshaw was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood and took advanced degrees in psychology, philosophy, and theology before becoming a professional counselor. He is the author of such major bestsellers as Family Secrets, Healing the Shame That Binds You, Homecoming, and Creating Love. He lives in Houston, Texas, and gives lectures and workshops nationwide.
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In the end, I have to say it is always best to check with one's conscience, and follow the path to the greatest peace, no matter if you face rejection or abandonment. Our personal health - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - trumps any other criteria. When we are TRUE to our deepest sense, then we are in a position to give the best help to others. This book is an oldie, but a goodie.
The most valuable parts of the book are the techniques for uncovering family secrets, and the method for bringing all the information together in such a way that it makes sense. These techniques are practical and really work. I made several major discoveries about families I am involved with as a result of this book.
Bradshaw includes many new insights about how families work throughout the book.
Overall, highly recommended.
Top reviews from other countries

Anyways, probably a complete waste of time unless you are close to every single person in your family or if your family members do know a lot about the family history.


They are ecceptionally excellent books to work with for those of us in recovery from liufe issues and will blow your mind appropriately with the information contained and how to relate it to yourself. In my seventh year of recovery my mentor pointed me towards this book and I read it flat in 3 days and then re read it again doing the work set out in it along aside my mentor. It completely opened my eyes to things that I was tied to without realizing and how the sins of the forefathers are past down through the generations. It is a book that to read you must have linkage with a support network to deal together as the journey this book takes you is factual, obvious when it is explained as it is and a one size fits all personal journey for the individual. It totally changed my emotional recovery and more me to knew freedom and understandings I wouldn't have been able to see with out it.

