Hidden Victims: An Eight-Stage Healing Process for Families and Friends of the Mentally Ill

by Julie Tallard Johnson

Too often, siblings, spouses, parents, and adult children of the mentally ill allow fear and guilt to govern their lives. Parents may fear that their mentally ill child will become violent. Siblings may fear that their children will inherit the disorder. Adult children may so fear abandonment that they avoid intimate relationships. Now there is help. Written by a psychotherapist who has counseled hundreds of troubled family members, "Hidden Victims" will help you realize that there are alternatives to common patterns of coping. You CAN care for your mentally ill loved one without losing sight of your own needs.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

191 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 1988

About the author

Praise for The Zero Point Agreement

“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach

“In this resource-rich book of practical wisdom and wise practices, Julie Tallard Johnson offers readers multidimensional insights, inspiration, and skills for living with greater authenticity, creativity, and happiness. Integrating science, spirituality, and art in an engaging and deeply thoughtful approach to becoming who you already are, this gifted teacher demonstrates how each of us can create more meaning and joy in our lives--in ourselves, in the world around us, and for our power to create and shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.”
Amber Ault, Ph.D., clinical sociologist and psychotherapist

“In The Zero Point Agreement, Julie Tallard Johnson intelligently presents elegantly simple yet remarkably powerful practices for personal and societal transformation. Through the masterful weaving of teaching stories that touch the heart and inspire, she helps foster the development of an authentic identity. This is what our children, our families, our communities, and the land need.”
Corinna Stevenson, ecopsychologist and creator of Dragonfly Healing

“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is full of wisdom. We are invited to challenge our beliefs, habits, and assumptions and make ourselves vulnerable so that we can easily access the truth within our lives and experiences. Julie teaches us that by becoming our own meaning maker, we transform ourselves and the world in which we live. A true gift!”
Amy DeLong, M.D., Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health

“I was captivated by Julie Tallard Johnson’s accessible treatise on how we are all charged with making meaning in our daily lives. I found The Zero Point Agreement dazzling because it is so packed with actual, practical wisdom. I can honestly say it has already changed my life.”
Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions

“I love that the big beautiful zero is a central tenet of this book. What I see is a big round open door through which we can all walk on our journey toward wholeness. It’s a journey with no destination, of course, since wholeness is not a place as much as a perspective, ever-shifting. Put on your dancing shoes; this is not a book to be read propped up in your La-Z-Boy!”
Claudia Schmidt, singer-songwriter

“The Zero Point Agreement offers a clear, practical path to taking control of what you are able to and living the life you want to live.”
Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life

“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is a brilliant resource for deep and lasting change. I have used the zero point agreement in my own life and have shared it with clients and students. It is not another pie-in-the-sky promise of change. It is straightforward and effective.”
Tamar Zick, LPC, RYT, licensed psychotherapist and registered yoga teacher

“What a generous, wise, and useful book this is! Each chapter is so filled with quotes, anecdotes, hands-on exercises and more that help and inspire us to fully claim our own lives. There’s enough here to guide and inform you for many years to come.”
Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., award-winning poet, and author of Soul on Earth: A Guide to Living & Loving Your Human Life

“A delightful companion for those of us seeking greater levels of balance, meaning, and joy--this book offers many gems of inspiration as well as the welcomed reminder that the journey toward wholeness always begins within.”
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D., author of Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit

Reviews

[Jennifer]

Hidden Victims Hidden Healers by Julie Tallard Johnson outlines eight stages of healing for those who care for someone suffering from a mental illness. Tallard does an excellent job explaining the role of the caregiver and offers support to those who are often neglected in books or made merely a footnote; the loved ones who are caring for someone with a mental disorder. I found Tallard's advise to be very helpful and view this book as another invaluable source to my growing collection. Hidden Victims Hidden Healers is for the caregiver, offering up support and ways in which to deal with the stress that come from caring for someone with a mental disorder.

[Dana]

This book is an excellent resource for the caregivers who are living with a family member(s) who have some form of mental illness. The author discusses the difference between caregiving and caretaking and the coping strategies that they tend to have. She also discusses the importance of caregivers taking better take care of themselves and explains how to go through The Eight Stages of the healing process with suggested work to complete for each stage.

[Patt Joslin-Bray]

Wish this book had been available thirty years ago, when our son was first diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is a great resource with sound, practical advice for anyone who finds themselves in the orbit of a person who is mentally ill. Julie provides insightful examples to reinforce her suggestions. She also writes in an 'every person's' language, making it so much easier for the reader to understand and translate into real life situations.
If you have a loved one who is mentally ill, I'd recommend you make this one of your top ten reads.

[Mckinley]

Really helpful. Still very on the mark. Highly recommend.