RSS FeedLinda Joy Myers, Ph.D., MFT, is the President and Founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and the author of The Power of Memoir–How to Write Your Healing Story. Her passion for memoir writing began many years ago –she likes to tell the story about a featherbed, her great-grandmother Blanche, and the pioneers.
Linda Joy has been a therapist in Berkeley, California for thirty years, following her belief that deep patterns can be healed and changed. She learned about changing these patterns through her own inner work and writing her memoir Don’t Call Me Mother: Breaking the Chain of Mother Daughter Abandonment which received the Gold Medal Award from BAIPA, the Bay Area Independent Publishing Association. Linda received her Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Mills College, and has taught Marriage and Family Therapy at JFK University and Argosy University in the Bay Area. Linda’s early life was immersed in music, the piano and the cello, and she earned her B.S. in Music Education from the University of Illinois. Her love of art–etching, painting, and collage led to second B.A. in Art from the University of California, Berkeley.
Through her art background Linda understood the power of art to heal, and studied many psychologists and artists who used art as transformation and healing–from Jung to Alice Miller, Vincent Van Gogh to Beethoven. Her first book Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story is used as a text by therapists, ministers, and writing coaches, and the book was a finalist in the ForeWord magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year Award.
Linda integrates the principles of healing and creativity in presenting the powerful healing process of writing true stories through her workshops, online courses, and coaching. Her expertise in supporting writers to heal and learn has helped many writers begin and complete their memoirs.
Linda’s prize-winning nonfiction and poetry has been published in various literary journals. Her novel excerpt, Secret Music, a novel about the kindertransport, was a finalist in the San Francisco Writing Conference contest. Her memoir piece Aunt Edith’s Lemon Meringue Pie can be read here: http://www.themonthly.com/feature6-07-07.html
Linda is co-president of the Women’s National Book Association–San Francisco branch, and past-president of The California Writers Club, Marin branch, and has served on the board of Story Circle Network.
Linda is available to speak to writing groups, therapy groups, and self-help groups about the power of writing to heal, how to write a memoir or Creative Nonfiction work and get it published, and how to use the deep processes of writing a memoir to change your life.
Testimonials
Your book is a true gift. Having been abandoned by my mother, and hers before her, I have sought validation for my loss all my life. Your openness and willingness to put it out there and expose the raw hurt will be of help to anyone who is lucky enough to find your book. —Angela Anatasion
“I have long been one of those who avoided dealing with death, who dodged sentiment, who felt that stories about the loss of a loved one were a bit indulgent, a way of saying ‘my pain is greater than your pain.’ That was before I lost my father and my wife lost her mother, both within ten days. And that was before I read Linda Joy Myers’s Don’t Call Me Mother. This is powerful stuff, richly layered, emotional without being manipulative, insightful without being indulgent. It’s a wonderful read and a marvelous examination of life and its inevitable conclusion. I loved it.” —James Dalessandro, author of 1906
“This haunting story chronicles a lonely child’s attempt to understand her complex and difficult family and make sense of a confused and chaotic world. Myers does what a good memoirist always does. She reveals a great deal about herself and, at the same time, helps us to understand more about our own lives.” —Susan Wittig Albert, best-selling author of Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul’s Story
“Could you still love your mother, even if she left you? In this gut-wrenching, poetic memoir, Linda Joy Myers explores three generations of maternal abandonment in her family–and movingly explores her own quest to break the chain.” —Melanie Rigney, former editor, Writer’s Digest
“Linda Joy Myers eloquently renders the details of her past in this transformative memoir, allowing all of us to find redemption through her honest courage. For anyone yearning for self-discovery, Don’t Call Me Mother serves as a compelling guide on a journey to wholeness. I loved the book.” —Michele Weldon, assistant professor, Northwestern University and author of I Closed My Eyes and Writing to Save Your Life
“Today, psychiatry offers medication for genetic bipolar disorders, but there is no way to repair the broken limbs in one’s family tree caused by the disease, save that of retelling the tale with the salve of forgiveness. I admire Linda’s courage and perseverance in writing about the primal pain of mother abandonment.” —Tristine Rainer, author of Your Life as Story: Discovering the New Autobiography and director, Center for Autobiographic Studies
“Linda Joy Myers’ Don’t Call Me Mother is a moving testimony to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of writing to trigger insight and healing. With unerring honesty and painstaking detail, Linda explores and re-experiences her family’s many generations of loss and grief, and in the process frees herself from her history and uncovers her deep ability to love. Her memoir will inspire readers with the courage to record their own inner journeys.” —Elizabeth Fishel, author of Sisters and Reunion: The Girls We Used To Be, the Women We Became, co-editor Wednesday Morning Writers
You may reach Linda through this form. Her personal blogsite is www.memoriesandmemoirs.com
