Outgrowing the Pain. A Book for and About Adults Abused As Children

Customer Reviews

Hard to find book; great service here!! THANKS!!

2008-07-24
The author has a wealth of experience working with children. The book is easy to read. It is really helpful and each page is a thought provoker. Better is read slower so the reader has plenty of reflective time. This book and the author will be classics in the child abuse and treatment category. Self-help or in therapy, the book and its author are right on.

Essential resource

2008-03-08
This book presents a simple, friendly clinical resource that is helpful to therapists and as bibliotherapy for clients who are dealing with abuse.

Not what I thought it was

2008-02-08
This is a tiny little book with lots of pictures and very little substance to it. It's designed to ask questions of the reader and point out certain behaviors, and that's it. I didn't find the information in it very useful, but since I do volunteer work with children I decided to keep in around to refer to from time to time. I didn't find it to be a book for adults at all. My advice is don't waste your money.

Good introduction

2007-09-15
I agree with some of the other reviewers that this book is very simplified, but keep in mind too that the author's stated purpose is not to provide an exhaustive overview of childhood abuse and techniques of dealing with it. She says in the first chapter, "This book has more questions than answers. I ask the reader to explore slowly the issues of abuse in the past. Seek help from friends, relatives, or counselors in order to fully understand the abuse, to put it in perspective, and to move on the a healthier way of relating in the world." To this end, I think Dr. Gil was successful, and I could see how some survivors of child abuse would find this book helpful as a complement to therapy. But I agree with another reviewer that if you are at the point of seeking out a self-help book on surviving child abuse, you are probably already convinced that you underwent some form of it and are now most interested, and would most benefit by, specific advice or techniques to help you cope. As a survivor myself, the most interesting lesson I took away from this book was the theme of extremes playing a prevalent role in the life of an adult survivor of abuse. The brief descriptions of the different reactions/roles that adult survivors take on almost always point out that those reactions lie in one extreme or the other. The paradigm "all things in moderation" has been reinforced in my life after reading this book, which is indeed an important lesson but one that I already knew anyway. If you are struggling with this issue I can't say I wouldn't recommend the book, but only as a supplement to therapy or other, more exhaustive books.

good book for my clients

2007-05-27
This is a book I give to clients who have past molest or abuse history. Eliana Gil has a beautiful and succinct way of explaining the "side effects" of such abuse - how it reveals itself in every realionship and how it is so disabling to it's victim. The best part is that it's easy to read and small in length making it a good book to give clients.

Outgrowing the pain

2007-03-21
This much-needed book pinpoints the typical problems abused children experience when they become adults. The information is presented in a friendly and thorough manner for victims and professionals. Original.

simple

2007-03-16
This book is very simple. Large text and pictures. Its easy reading and I was able to whip through the book pretty quickly.

Outgrowing the Pain

2007-03-09
Helpful for my final project in Psych. It taught me there are strategies that can be used to help those who suffered during childhood.

Very Basic

2007-02-13
This would be a good book for those just coming to terms with having been abused. It would be a good book for younger readers as well. It was a very basic read and didn't offer me any useful insights that I haven't gotten from more in-depth reading.

An excellent book for abuse survivors

2007-02-09
This is a good,basic book with useful information for adult abuse survivors, with excellent illustrations to go with it. This book is a good introduction on what it's like to be a survivor of the abuse. It is easy to read and was useful to me, and I have other books that are more complex, but this is a favorite of mine because it explains it simply and accurately.