Healing Through the Dark Emotions book cover

Welcome | Description | Excerpt | Endorsements


Buy the book - Amazon or
Shambhala Publications

Available in Dutch translation
from Zwerk Publishers

Ms. Greenspan welcomes inquiries, comments, or requests for workshops and speaking engagements. Please email her at: GreenspanM@aol.com




Webpage designed by
Nick Baker

Miriam Greenspan
Renowned Psychotherapist and author of A New Approach to Women and Therapy (bio)

Her new bestselling book -
Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair

Winner of 2004 Nautilus Award in self-help/psychology

Selected as one of the best spiritual books of 2003
by Spirituality & Health Magazine


In an age of global threat, emotions like grief, fear, and despair have become widespread and overwhelming. Our culture calls these emotions 'negative' and views them as symptoms of mental disorder or spiritual inadequacy, harmful unless controlled.

In this riveting book, Miriam Greenspan takes a fresh approach to the three emotions we most dread and devalue: grief, fear, and despair. She argues that our avoidance and denial of these dark emotions contributes to the epidemic of psychological ailments characteristic of our age: chronic depression, anxiety, psychic numbing, addiction, and irrational violence. By attending to and befriending the dark emotions, we discover their innate intelligence and purpose. We learn the emotional alchemy by which grief turns to gratitude, fear delivers us to joy, and despair becomes a doorway to a more resilient faith in life. The wisdom of the dark emotions not only helps us to heal and transform our lives, but strengthens our connections to one another and to the world.

Read some excerpts from the book

MIRIAM'S NEXT PROGRAM:

FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2008
10:45am - 12:45pm
Psychotherapy Networker Symposium East 2008
Washington, DC

Workshop Session 211: Healing Through the Dark Emotions

A world in crisis fosters an increase in raw emotions, like sorrow, fear, and despair, while a culture fearful of emotions fosters disconnection from them. The result: a decline in emotional intelligence. We try to avoid vulnerability by pushing away uncomfortable emotions, becoming more prone to depression, anxiety, addictions, psychic numbing, and violence. This workshop presents a positive psychology for "negative" emotions, including a 7-step process that transforms these emotions into gratitude, joy, and faith in life. You'll learn powerful but simple practices, including the emotion body-scan, the emotion-beliefs inventory, and the breathing-through process. You'll leave with a toolkit of mind-body-spirit practices for yourself and your anxious, depressed, grieving, or traumatized clients who are challenged to turn the lead of suffering into the gold of spiritual strength.

Click here to register

Other Writings and Talks by Miriam Greenspan

See www.shambhalasun.com for Miriam Greenspan's essay "The Wisdom in the Dark Emotions" in Shambhala Sun Magazine (January 2003)

See www.tikkun.org for Miriam Greenspan's article "Healing Through the Dark Emotions In An Age of Global Threat" (March/April 2003)

See www.soultospirit.com for an online radio talk with Miriam (February 27, 2003)

See www.aarp.com for a second online radio talk (March 18, 2003)