Peace in the Heart & Home: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Creating a Better Life for You and Your Loved Ones

by Charlette Mikulka

Most people find it very difficult to manage the emotions that they experience in their family relationships. Instead of home being a safe haven, a place of emotional support, it is too often a source of hurt and deprivation. Loneliness, disappointment, fear, frustration and stress take a high toll on people's functioning and quality of life. As a result, depression, anxiety, panic, phobias, compulsions, addictions and attention problems are practically epidemic in our society. Dealing with emotions in self-defeating ways is the norm and psychological trauma is more wide spread than most people realize. It is common for the average person to turn to medications and over-the-counter substances to manage a wide range of mind-body symptoms. Serious health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, sleep disorders, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue interfere with feelings of competence, self-worth and peace. Fortunately, scientific research and knowledge have been proliferating in the past few decades, helping us to understand the brain, attachment relationships and their interplay with physical and mental health. We now know how to prevent and heal the relationship trauma that is at the root of most of the above-mentioned conditions. Also, mental health and marriage and family practitioners have been learning how to help couples create secure attachment bonds with each other and their children. Peace in the Heart and Home provides a clear and thorough explanation of the dynamics that overwhelm the average person, couple and family. It takes the mystery out of their struggles. The book then provides abundant, explicit advice and a wide array of effective skills, resources and methods for managing emotions, healing trauma, cultivating awareness and fostering effective and fulfilling relationships. Peace in the Heart and Home is the manual on life and relationships that so many have been wishing they had. A multitude of memorable anecdotes, metaphors and quotations bring the material to life and will resonate with readers' most meaningful experiences. This book will also be of great benefit to helping professionals in developing a deeper understanding of the most powerful dynamics and practices that undermine or foster wellbeing. A highly readable, accessible and very practical guide to living a more emotionally fulfilling life, both with oneself and in relationships. -- ALAN S. GURMAN, PhD , Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine Charlette Mikulka has written a deeply insightful and compassionate book...textured with heartfelt stories and ways in which we can address our own pain and suffering...a book of wisdom and immense helpfulness. An uplifting and empowering book. -- PAUL GILBERT, PhD , FBPsS, Mental Health Research Unit, Kingsway Hospital, Derby, United Kingdom and author of The Compassionate Mind One-stop shopping handbook for life...folksy, straight-talking...a wise and comforting hand. -- ELANA KATZ, LCSW, LMFT , Senior Faculty member, Ackerman Institute for the Family Sincerity, care and understanding about how to handle emotions and cultivate spiritual awareness..a wealth of information and resources...this is a beautiful book. -- DEBORAH ROZMAN, PhD , author of Transforming The HeartMath Solution for Relieving Worry, Fatigue and Tension A wonderful book...offers hard-won, useful lessons about inner well-being and outer harmony that drip with authenticity. -- RICK HANSON, PhD , neuropsychologist and author of Buddha's Brain A profoundly important book...an inspiration to all readers...delivers much-needed healing and will likely change the lives of many. -- GEORGE FALLER, LMFT , Director, New York Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy

286 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2010

About the author

Charlette Mikulka is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with three decades of professional experience. She maintains a full time private psychotherapy practice. She and her husband have been together forty years and have two adult sons.

Charlette's Peace in the Heart and Home has received

a Silver Medal - Parenting-2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards

a Bronze Medal - Personal Growth- 2011 Living Now Book Awards

has just been chosen as a finalist- Family and Relationships- 2011 ForeWord Review's Book of the Year Award

Reviews

[Lindsay Lamping · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was extremely hard for me to sit down and just read it for a couple of reasons. 1) diving deep into reason why I am feeling the way I do isn’t the easiest for me and 2) I don’t think this book was written very well. Overall I did enjoy some of the tips and questions at the end.

[Laura Gilfillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through a blend of psychotherapy and Buddhism, Peace in the Heart and Home offers insightful advice for how to deal with the unresolved issues and traumas from our youth. I found this book insightful and thought-provoking. I especially liked the discussion of different attachment styles. And also the value of facing our pain in order to cultivate our own spiritual growth, rather than hide behind delusions, which will only result in having our pain resurface in other problems. I am grateful to have received this copy of Peace in the Heart and Home from the Goodreads First Reads program. I will enjoy reading it again and again.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway and it's the first book in this genre I think I've ever read. However, I found it very hard to read. It took me a long time to read it and I actually ended up skipping some sections. The only reason I did this was because it read more like a textbook than anything else. I had learned a lot of the information in courses I took in college too. Regardless, it was very informative.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a first reads giveaway...

This book took me much longer to get through than I would have expected...it's definitely a heavier read, more like a professional or textbook level read. I found it to be thought provoking and well thought through. Definitely a book that you have to absorb in pieces, a little at a time. I enjoyed researching some of the listed resources, and will keep this book around as a reference!

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you’re looking for validation that all your problems in life are caused by things that happened during childhood, then this book is for you. My problem with the book is that the author seems to think that nearly everyone has been somehow damaged by childhood attachments and relationships, and that the path to emotional peace is through therapy. Is it any surprise that this book is written by a psychotherapist?

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to thank Goodreads for a copy of Peace in the Heart and Home on the First Read giveaway.
What I like about this book is the author uses her knowledge from her life and her private practice
to bring her training and others to bring her points across about facing are child self.
This book has several appendix which have websites to go to and list of self-care methods which makes this book a must for your bookshelf.

[Dara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book through Good Reads and I tried but I could just not get through it. I usually enjoy these type of books and when I saw the title I thought it would be uplifting, simple, etc but it was anything but. Maybe I'll try to get through it at a later time. I feel bad to have received it and not enjoy it and am willing to send it back.

[Corie L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it's the same old stuff I've read before, only more so in one book instead of different ones. It's a slow read, kind of confusing for me, it didn't change the way I feel about things maybe that's why I gave it a low rating. Just didn't keep me interested.

[Susan Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting with lots of new ideas.

[Bernoulli]

Just won this book through the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway! Thank you so much! Looking forward to reading!

[Flo Whitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is amazing! I have read it several times and can read it again.