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Contact:  Patricia O’Gorman, (518) 392-2902, information@ogormandiaz.com
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Resilience is a Woman's Key to Love and Self-Fulfillment, says Leading Psychologist-Author Dr. Patricia O'Gorman

Dancing Backwards in High Heels Offers Women Practical Advice for Mastering Work-Life Balance & Happiness

Aug. 17, 2005 — East Chatham, N.Y. — "Resilience? What does it have to do with me?" is a question commonly asked by women to leading addiction-recovery psychologist Dr. Patricia O'Gorman, author of Dancing Backwards in High Heels: How Women Master the Art of Resilience. Her answer? "Everything."

"Resilience is the ability to recognize our personal power, to see ourselves and our lives in new ways," said Dr. O'Gorman, psychologist in East Chatham, N.Y. "Women develop their own natural resilience depending on challenges and reinforcements they experienced in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood — in over 20 years of clinical practice, I've come to see resilience as a universal trait."

In psychology, resilience is used to describe people who lead normal, fulfilling lives despite having been subject to trauma, or who, because of their early home life, are at high risk for developing personal and social problems. Dancing Backwards in High Heels teaches such readers how to use their resiliency, which naturally enhances one's relationships, work and career decisions, and parenting-style.

Each chapter of Dancing Backwards in High Heels directly empowers women through 24 comprehensive checklists, including the Personal Resilience Profile, based on the "Six Styles of Resilience" — balanced, undeveloped, paradoxical, self-contained, overwhelmed, and stellar. This book is every woman's practical guide to discovering her own everyday heroism through:

• Using personal experiences & family history as a means of growth
• Identifying expectations & pressures that may be sabotaging a balanced lifestyle
• Using one's resilient voice to make better choices
• Meeting personal goals and priorities & realizing one's full potential

"As women, we do not realize how much we ask of ourselves, having done so much and yet expecting ourselves to do more," Dr. O'Gorman added. The book's title, a reminder of this, is based on wisdom conveyed by Governor Ann Richards of Texas in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic Convention. As a political leader, and a woman in recovery, she pointed out the irony that while Fred Astaire received top billing, "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."

Dancing Backwards in High Heels: How Women Master the Art of Resilience is published by Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services. Copies are available for purchase from Hazelden.org, Amazon.com and in the Women's Issues/Self-Help/Psychology sections of neighborhood bookstores throughout the United States.

About the Author

Patricia O'Gorman, Ph.D., is a psychologist, consultant, and author noted for her work in the child welfare and substance abuse fields. She is currently the Chief Psychologist of Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth in Canaan, N.Y. She has held national and statewide positions including: Director of the Division of Prevention for the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; Founding Director of the National Council on Alcoholism's Department of Prevention and Education; and co-founder of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

Additional books by Dr. O'Gorman, with co-author Philip Diaz, include The Lowdown on Families Who Get High: Successful Parenting for Families Affected by Addiction, available from the Child Welfare League of America; 12 Steps to Self-Parenting for Adult Children and 12 Steps to Self-Parenting Workbook, available from Health Communications, Inc. For more information, visit www.ogormandiaz.com.