June 29, 2010

TV Interview!

Hello Everyone,
I was interviewed on a local television program last evening so I thought I would share a clip with you. It is just fifteen minutes of an hour show but most of the important information about my books including Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery was captured. Enjoy! Click link below:


June 25, 2010

BlogTalk Radio show Sat. 26th

Anjuelle Floyd's radio show on BlogTalk Radio online will be chatting with me tomorrow Saturday, June 26th at 12 noon PT - tune in if you can. The show is now archived for later listening - click link:



June 20, 2010

Never Give Up

Hi Everyone,

I just finsihed watching the movie "Invictus." It is a very moving movie to be sure. Without going into detail about the movie, I want to share with you the poem which is recited because while listening carefully, I still could not hear every word and knew it was a poem I needed to have and read for myself. It brought tears to my eyes as I heard clearly the last two lines.

I found it online with a little background information about the poet. It is copied below for you to read several times to grasp its message of hope, faith, and will.
Never give up my friends, never give up....
Barbara~

At the age of 12, Henley [the Englishman who wrote the poem] fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 25. In 1867, he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875, he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.


Invictus [Latin for “unconquered]

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.


In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.


Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.


It matters not how strait the gait,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.



June 14, 2010

New Book Review Released!

Recovery Stories Give Hope Beyond Practical Advice and Therapy


Dr. Barbara Sinor has assembled twenty stories of addiction and recovery from numerous authors and viewpoints, including her own son’s story of dealing with alcoholism. These stories aid recovery in ways that surpass instruction and therapy. Beyond the stories, Dr. Sinor provides insight into the steps from addiction to recovery by pulling from behavioral theory, recovery philosophy, new understandings from the world of physics, and spiritual development.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 14, 2010 —Storytelling has the power to move people toward understanding and inspiration in a way therapy cannot. Aware of storytelling’s magic, Barbara Sinor has assembled a powerful collection of recovery stories to help those struggling with addiction and recovery in “Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery: Twenty True Stories from the Soul” (9781615990375, Modern History Press, 2010).

When attempting recovery from alcohol, substance abuse, or any addiction, stories of how others have succeeded can be priceless. Stories are the basis of the “Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous,” one of the first and most successful recovery programs. Barbara Sinor has created a “Big Book” for the twenty-first century with twenty true stories of people dealing with addiction, undergoing recovery, and dealing with relapses. While pain and frustration fill many of these pages, so does enough hope to inspire any reader. Beyond the stories, Dr. Sinor provides insight into the steps from addiction to recovery by pulling from behavioral theory, recovery philosophy, new understandings from the world of physics, and spiritual development.

These true stories were collected from drug addicts and alcoholics as well as many authors who have written about the difficulties and ultimate successes of their recoveries. Interwoven throughout the book is the journal of Barbara’s son, illuminating his journey from alcoholism to recovery. Barbara also details the difficulties she and her husband experienced in witnessing their son’s journey.

In the book’s introduction, Barbara writes, “Addicted or not, we all have stories to tell.” Whether the reader is a codependent wishing to help an addicted loved one, or an addict him or herself, this powerful book grows with each story as readers come to understand the truth of addiction, how it affects people in different and similar ways, and how it is possible not only to choose recovery, but ultimately, to find a new day filled with hope and freedom from addiction. Although individual stories cover a myriad of substances, including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, barbiturates, and amphetamines, the reader will begin to discover a thread of humanity which binds us all, addicted or not.

Reviewers rave about “Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery.” Ken Seeley, author of “Face It and Fix It” states, “These heart-wrenching and ultimately heartwarming stories provide the inspiration for each one of us to know that recovery works.” Leslie Lovejoy, author of “Create Your Health Using the Five Keys to Wellness” testifies, “one is struck both with the pain and suffering that was experienced, and also the hope for a healthier future.” And Elaine DiNucci of Stanford University calls the book “gut-wrenching…The stories are riveting, each starting out with family history that is inevitably pivotal to the storyteller’s current situation. A must read.”

Barbara Sinor, Ph.D. has a Doctor in Psychology and has maintained a private counseling practice for over twenty-five years. She counsels individuals exploring the healing and recovery of addictions, PTSD, childhood abuse/incest, adult children of alcoholics, and codependent/self-esteem issues. Dr. Sinor is also the author of “An Inspiration Guide for the Recovering Soul” and “Gifts From the Child Within,” a recovery workbook for survivors of childhood abuse or trauma and their counselors; she is coauthor of “Beyond Words: A Lexicon of Metaphysical Thought” with Paula Slater, and co-author with Deborah McCloskey of “ ADDICTION--What’s Really Going on? Inside a Heroin Treatment Program (2009).”

Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery: Twenty True Stories from the Soul” (9781615990375, Modern History Press, 2010) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit www.DrSinor.com. Publicity contact: www.ReaderViews.com. Review copies available upon request.



June 13, 2010

Book Event was a Big Success!

Thank you everyone who attended the Copperfields Books event last night -- I was honored to have you all there to support me and buy my books. Here are a few pictures!


June 10, 2010

New Audio Interview

Personal audio Interview on InsideScoopLive now ready to listen to -- just click HERE to listen.

I also would like to share (with permission) a letter I received from one of the addiction story contributors in Tales of Addiction. Lacy wrote her moving story about struggling with her mother's alcoholism. After reading the book, she offers more insight for us. Thank you so much for your wondferful feedback Lacy.

Barbara,

Just wanted to write again and tell you just how much your story about your son so affected me. So many of the feelings that you described, I have felt so often in my own life. Wanting so badly to help someone, it can be so draining and so difficult to accept that you can’t. I just found your descriptions so moving, I couldn’t stop thinking about them long after.


One of the things you shared in the book that I identified with most was “Autobiography in Five Chapters.” You shared it as a better understanding for those with the addiction and how they need help sometimes to find that other path but I walked away from reading that passage with a better understanding for myself, as the family member of the addict.


So much of the past six or seven years have been spent going down that same road day after day, month after month. When you first wrote me to share my story, I was in an interesting place in my life. I had just made the move to remove myself from the situation. But it was only a mere two months later that I found myself in exactly the same place I’d always been when I let my mom move back in with me. As naïve as it sounds to me now, after about fifty times of trying, a part of me still believed that I could change her. I wanted and needed to believe that.


Your book coming out when it did couldn’t have been better timing. In April, I told my mother I couldn’t do it anymore and I chose to once again remove myself from the situation of “saving her.” But it was only by early May that I was once again wondering about the possibility of letting her back. And then I read your book, and the passage I had written, which feels like ages ago now.


Initially, I was taken aback by just how vague I had been. So much of my mother’s alcoholism had me living in shame, as though I was the one doing something wrong; but I think for the most part, I simply felt that by keeping quiet and to myself, it wasn’t all that real. I am in a completely different place now.


Also, while reading what I’d written, I was struck by the amazing similarities to my life now. I’d chosen then to save myself and now I was finding myself in that exact same situation with that exact same possibility before me, and I knew then that I had to take it. I wrote to my older brother to explain: “I am afraid. Afraid of what will happen if I let her back. Afraid of what will happen if I don’t let her back. There are no certainties except for one. If I do let her back, there is no guarantee that she will change, that she will get better. But, if I let her back, I know one thing--I will die.”


So, thank you for this book and for sharing your story :) It couldn’t have been better timing. I wrote my mother a poem just after I’d made my decision and I’d like to share it with you:


Caught


I hate you, I love you
This back and forth emotion
This up and down feeling
This stop and start life
Breathing in and breathing out
Getting up and falling down
Hiding while crying
Living while dying
Believing in nothing
Questions in the night
My soul in shadow
No one in sight
Bitterness screaming
Hopeful dreaming
Lost and alone
No place called home
Hating you, Loving you
Saving, then losing you
Finally free
Saving me
Learning to breathe


~ Lacy Lynnette




June 05, 2010

Another New Review!

Another Great Review for Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery

Genre: Self-Help
Title: Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery
AUTHOR: Barbara Sinor, Ph.D.
Recovering from any addiction starts with acknowledging the problem. In Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for Recovery, stories from everyday people at various stages of addiction and recovery put their honest personal lives, most of which aren’t pretty, on the page to help others.

Raw is the word that comes to mind when trying to describe this book. Reading each story is like sitting with the author and watching them open a vein. The tales are not for the weak. There’s no holding back. What they have to say is put there on the page. Addiction is not pretty and recovery is difficult, at best. So many lives are impacted by addiction and Tales of Addiction is a mere glimpse into a few realities. Love, interventions, pleading, and begging can be used to try to help an addicted person, but only the addicted have the ultimate power to make the changes. The inspiration gained from the stories uplifts and gives hope for a better tomorrow.

The author includes portions of her son’s journal as he struggled with addiction and recovery, along with her emotions and feelings woven between the other individual and unique heart-wrenching tales. Very few people aren’t touched by addiction in some way. Minimal editing was done in order to preserve the individual voices and each new story is indicated with a bold title. The chapters are broken into categories such as “The Early Years,” “Hitting Rock Bottom,” Searching for Recovery,” “Difficult Lessons,” and “The Spiritual Path.”

Barbara Sinor, Ph.D. is a Psychospiritual Therapist dealing with childhood abuse/incest, PTSD, addiction recovery, and adult children of alcoholics. She has several published books on her areas of expertise. The content for Tales of Addiction is in direct response to a public “call for submissions” asking for the stories from those who wanted to share them.

The stories in this book reach out to anyone who has an addiction, is recovering, has recovered, or is part of the life of someone in any of these stages. The stories let you know you aren’t alone and that there is hope. A good read.
Reviewer: Lisa Haselton, Allbooks Reviews.
Available at: http://www.amazon.com/   



Publisher: Modern History Press
ISBN: 978-1-61599-037-5
Pages: 264
Price: $19.95
June 2010