“Night Bloomers maps a path through adversity…Pearce suggests, we can come to dawn with more than we had when evening fell.”
—Washington Post
Charles Dickens got it right: Sometimes the worst of times is also the best of times. We don’t usually respond with gratitude or celebration when our lives get turned upside down by loss, tragedy, and grief. But we might if we could fast-forward into our future and see that the difficulty and devastation we are experiencing was the best thing that had ever happened to us.
Now, this kind of growth and transformation is not guaranteed; it’s a choice. It also requires a certain mindset, intention, perseverance, and the active use of proven tools to achieve. That’s why I wrote Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity. I wanted to empower you to use your adversity to transform and thrive.
It’s counter-intuitive, but a growing body of research on resilience and post-traumatic growth is revealing that the dark times in our lives can be the very catalyst we need to experience beauty, growth, and transformation. In short, we can intentionally use adversity to become the best version of ourselves.
As you work your way through this book, one principle and one step of at a time, this is exactly what you’ll do. You’ll learn and practice 12 psychologically-based principles using a proven healing tool—journaling using guided writing prompts—to develop resilience and experience healing and transformation.
***BONUS: When you purchase the book, you will have access to a free online companion resource that will help you practice and apply the principles and tools to your own life!
As a clinical psychologist, I have the honor of listening to the stories of many Night Bloomers. In the clinical context, although I can relate to my clients’ suffering, I can only allude to my own journey in the dark. Writing Night Bloomers was a way to share some of my blooming story without breaking the sacred contract between psychologist and client. It was also a way to share the inspirational stories of other Night Bloomers, both famous and people like you and me. And more importantly, it was a way to share the principles and tools that helped me—and will help you—to bloom in the dark.
Did you know that some flowers actually require the dark to bloom?
And so do some people. I call us
Night Bloomers.
If you’re ready to bloom in the dark, this book is for you!
Available at your favorite online retailer, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, Bookshop.com, and Books-A-Million
Additional Resources
Download the Guide for How to Start Your Own Blooming Group!
Discuss Night Bloomers in your book club with this Reading Group Guide!
Check out my self-paced online course, Moving Beyond Resilience: How to Transform Through Adversity, based on the book, Night Bloomers! Earn 6 CE credits for mental health providers!
Does religion belong in psychotherapy?
For anyone in the helping profession, whether as mental health professionals or religious leader, this question is bound to arise. Many mental health professionals feel uncomfortable discussing religion, while many religious leaders feel uncomfortable referring their congregants to professionals who have no knowledge of their faith, nor intent to engage with it.
If religion is important to a client, then religion will be a part of psychotherapy, whether it is discussed or not. Clients cannot check their values at the door any more than the professionals who treat them.
To me, the question isn’t really “does religion belong?” but rather “how can mental health professionals help their religious clients engage with and use their faith as a healing resource in psychotherapy?”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christian Clients with Depression is the answer to that question, as the book’s purpose is to educate mental health professionals and pastoral counselors about religion’s role in therapy, as well as equip them to discuss religious issues and use evidence-based, religiously-integrated tools with Christian clients experiencing depression.
In this book, readers will find the following resources in an easy-to-use format:
An overview of the scientific benefits of integrating clients’ religious beliefs and practices in psychotherapy
An organizing therapeutic approach for doing Christian CBT
Seven tools, specific to Christian CBT, to treat depression
Suggested dialogue for therapists to introduce concepts and tools
Skill-building activity worksheets for clients
Clinical examples of Christian CBT and the seven tools in action
Practitioners will learn the helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) role a person’s Christian faith can play in psychotherapy, and will be equipped to discuss religious issues and use religiously-integrated tools in their work. At the same time, clergy will learn how Christianity can be integrated into an evidence-based secular mental health treatment for depression, which is sure to increase their comfort level for making referrals to mental health practitioners who provide this form of treatment.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christian Clients with Depression is a practical guide for mental health professionals and pastoral counselors who want to learn how to use Christian-specific CBT tools to treat depression in their Christian clients.
Religion and Recovery from PTSD focuses on the role that religion and spirituality can play in recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other forms of trauma, including moral injury. Religious texts, from the Bible to Buddhist scriptures, have always contained passages that focus on helping those who have experienced the trauma of war. Many religions have developed psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual ways of coping and healing that can work in tandem with clinical treatments today in assisting recovery from PTSD and moral injury.
We review and discuss systematic research into how religion helps people cope with severe trauma, including trauma caused by natural disasters, intentional interpersonal violence, or combat experiences during war. We delve into the impact that spirituality has in both the development of and recovery from PTSD. Beyond reviewing research, we also use case vignettes throughout to illustrate the very human story of recovery from PTSD, and how religious or spiritual beliefs can both help or hinder depending on circumstance. A vital work for any mental health or religious professionals who seek to help people dealing with severe trauma and loss.