In this third edition of the ground-breaking, global classic, Ruth E. Van Reken and Michael V. Pollock, son of the late original co-author, David C. Pollock have significantly updated what is widely recognized as The Third Culture Kid (TCK) Bible. Emphasis is on the modern TCK and addressing the impact of technology, cultural complexity, diversity & inclusion and transitions. Includes new advice for parents and others for how to support TCKs as they navigate work, relationships, social settings and their own personal development.
Everyone’s got a story to tell. If your story involves growing up among different cultures – either moving between them or having them move around you – then read this book. Growing up and transitioning cross-culturally can present unexpected challenges and bestow surprising skills. This is a book of adventures that helped me identify some of those challenges and realize some of those skills. Hopefully it can help you too – which is important because you’ve got more to contribute to the world than you realize.
Heralded by the New York Times and Time magazine as the couples therapy with the highest rate of success, Emotionally Focused Therapy works because it views the love relationship as an attachment bond. In Hold Me Tight, Dr. Sue Johnson introduced Emotionally Focused Therapy to the general public and taught that the way to save and enrich a relationship is to re-establish safe emotional connection. In this revised edition, Dr. Johnson has adapted her classic guide for Christian couples. Filled with Bible verses, inspiring passages, and Christian-specific advice, Created for Connection will inform a new audience of readers, bringing them closer to God--and each other.
Marriage Masala is a collection of 'spices' or skills collected from the experience we have gained in our own marriage of 35 years and from our family of four sons and a daughter. We owe them all so much; we love, appreciate and continue to learn from each of their unique relationships, never forgetting our fourth son who continues to spice the family with energy and ideas! Marriage Masala is resourcing many couples worldwide to build marriages. Our purpose is to give fun and inspiration to any couple willing to skilfully blend the masalas and share them.
Life is filled with transitions. Sometimes they happen in one geographical place. We move from childhood to adulthood, singleness to marriage, health to chronic illness. Other times they occur when we relocate from one place to another. In Life in Motion, we see how ever since Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, humans have had to deal with the reality of making geographic transitions. Amazingly, we discover that people who made such transitions in ancient times responded in remarkably similar ways as we do today. Through their stories, we gain insight into the normal stages of transition, how we often respond during each stage, and how we can grow through all transitions with strength and hope.
Ruth Van Reken describes herself as 'a person in process' – someone whose life is made up of the continuous interplay between her inner and outer journey. For more than twenty-five years, Ruth has traveled to over 45 countries sharing what she has learned while 'listening to life' about the often paradoxical nature of growing up globally. What she has learned resonates with expatriate children and adults from all sectors – corporate, diplomatic, military, missionary, immigrant and refugees.
Born and raised in Nigeria as the daughter of American missionaries, at age 39 Ruth needed to understand why, despite a life filled with rich experiences, a meaningful spiritual component, and family and friends who loved her, she often battled a secret depression. Through the journaling that became this book, she discovered that the very goodness of her life kept her from dealing with some of the challenges that also come with a global lifestyle – the realities of chronic cycles of separation and loss, reentry, and questions of identity. How could there be any struggles when she loved her childhood world so much?
As a way of examining this ‘other side’ of her story, Ruth's began to write many letters home such as the girl known as Miss Question Box might have written. This book contains her story from ages six to thirty-nine. Today, in her mid-sixties, renowned internationally for her compassion, knowledge and insight into what it means to be a child growing up among worlds, Van Reken, looks back over her life and adds a fascinating and reflective epilogue to a memoir that has already sold 32,000 copies and has helped and inspired its readers.
Journaling has always been Ruth's first port in a storm. Writing her memoir this way is a natural part of her process. That she would also turn to her journal as a way of making sense of the cancer that knocked her 'out of line' for a couple of years, is no surprise. As she writes: "This is the power of journaling – to see the obvious but not yet named places in life."