Overcoming Your Difficult Family

Book excerpt: Many of the difficult people you encounter in daily life can be avoided, but what if they’re family members? What if the difficult person is a parent, a sibling, one of your children, or your mate? In Overcoming Your Difficult Family, life coach and retired family therapist Eric Maisel offers useful strategies for dealing with the people you’re connected to for life, even when they are not cooperative. Dr. Maisel tackles the problematic aspects of families, describing eight vital skills to help you cope with challenging relationships. The book also serves as a unique “field guide” to common types of dysfunctional families — authoritarian families, anxious families, addicted families, and more — and how to thrive despite those dynamics. By following Dr. Maisel’s battle-tested advice, you’ll learn to maintain inner peace in the midst of family chaos and create a better life for your whole family.