Dr. Sandra Parker shows us the key to lasting personal growth.  Sandra's book To Have And to Hold: Loving Your Vulnerable Self to Live Your Biggest Life bridges the gap between understanding self help and making changes stick.  Many authors tell us we must be present.  Sandra tells us how.  As she says, the key to sustainable change is really paying precise attention to our own bodies.  Her focus on the body experience of vulnerability as an imminent opportunity to grow is simple, compelling, and powerful.

Sandra's ideas are so inspirational and accessible that I have been able to immediately integrate them into both my personal life and professional work.  As a seasoned psychotherapist with special expertise in the area of eating disorders, I naturally encourage patients to tune into their bodies, rather than using them as a battleground.  Little body sensations and behaviors such as picking at cuticles, shallow breathing or dry mouth become invitations to explore the messages from the body, rather than something to fight against.   This work fosters a relationship with the body that is deeply healing.

Sandra is truly the embodiment of her life's work.  She does live vulnerably and believes that others can too, becoming all that they can be.  I highly recommend this work and believe those who use it will be called to become all they are meant to be.

Patricia Kitchener, M.A., Registered Clinical Counselor, Registered Social Worker

Advisor, Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association