Love in a Time of Broken Heart

By her own account, this is the most personal of the author's three books. It arose in the aftermath of the break-up of a relationship which she had expected to last, plunging her into the depths for a new and more profound exploration of love, including Divine Love. As she writes, it is at times of profound vulnerability that a deeper intelligence emerges and life renews itself. So the book as a whole is a spiritual journey which can help others understand patterns in their emotional relationships as they relate to their parents, to stories or myths and to the process of reconciling the masculine and feminine within. Like David Brazier's book reviewed above, love is seen as a primary drive in overcoming our sense of separation and achieving wholeness. Interestingly, she drew her inspiration not so much from psychology books as from mystics and poets like Rilke, who is quoted often. One notable feature of the book is the way in which it is interspersed with stories, real and imaginary, to highlight the issues. One of her clients was able to initiate a dialogue with her unborn baby, in the course of which she understood what gift the child would have brought her and that she was not ready to become a mother herself before resolving some further issues with her own mother. In the chapter on healing broken hearts, there is some particularly good advice on soul work that can be done in the metaphorical desert as one patiently waits for the seeds to germinate in the new cycle. The book is full of spiritual and emotional wisdom of the kind which can only be gained through experience and reflective understanding.