Journey of the Wounded Soul by Louis Hoffman & Steve Fehl

$21.95

From the sacred scriptures of the world religions through contemporary times, poetry has helped individuals express and work through spiritual struggles. Journey of the Wounded Soul continues this ancient tradition in a contemporary voice. This collection of poems brings voice to spiritual struggles, seeking to create a community through poetic voice. It was written for those for whom spiritual struggles are a transitional period as well as for those for whom spiritual struggles are an intimate part of their daily spirituality. In addition to the poems, the Foreword by Thomas Moore along with the Introduction by Hoffman and Fehl provide a powerful framework for understanding and approaching spiritual struggles. Journey of the Wounded Soul offers comfort to the many who wrestle with their spirituality and those who are struggling through difficult spiritual periods.

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Reviews

From the Foreword

I’d like every psychology major in the world to read the brilliant introduction that doesn’t miss a step in keeping us close to our humanity and offering solid, profound and reliable ideas for navigating the complex ways of the most ordinary life…
This is poetry that stands on its own but is especially useful when you are in one of life’s dark nights or tunnels. It doesn’t cheer you up; instead it takes you deep in thought to the mysteries working themselves out in what you feel to be problems and challenges.
Thomas Moore

Reviews

This volume does a masterful job of describing the true depth of life experience through poetic verse. Readers who may feel utterly alone in their misery will experience companionship and understanding.  In a unique way, they will be helped to “make it through the night” (in the words of Willie Nelson’s classic song).  While they will still know the truth of the old spiritual, “You have to walk the lonesome highway all alone; nobody else can walk it for you,” they will yet sense others are walking it, too.  This book is a valuable contribution in both theory and therapy.

H. Newton Malony, PhD
Author, Religion in the History of Psychology


Try reading each of the poems in this marvelous collection by therapists and clients, academics and students, poets and novices, who have advocated for the inclusion of the humanities in their theories, research, practice, and lives. Journey of the Wounded Soul is a collection of poems that bears testament to the human condition. Each of these carefully chosen selections tells its own story.  Each can be read—and read again—to provide insight, compassion, and inspiration.

Stanley Krippner, PhD
Alan Watts Professor of Psychology, Saybrook University
Co-author, Personal Mythology, Co-editor, Healing Stories


In this book, Journey of the Wounded Soul: Poetic Companions for Spiritual Struggles, authors Louis Hoffman and Steve Fehl do something extraordinary. They provide us with companionship as well as poetic license to share our own spiritual struggles and to find the gold hidden in these struggles. These struggles, that include existential loneliness, doubting, and questioning, are often best expressed through the arts. When discursive language fails, symbolism, image, and rhythm can sometimes convey more powerfully the depths life’s struggle. It is difficult and lonely to be a genuine seeker. By providing this book of thoughts and poems, Hoffman and Fehl give us permission to share our own struggles as well.

Ilene Serlin, PhD
Author, Whole Person Healthcare


Journey of the Wounded Soul helps you take off the familiar glasses that frame your life and open you up to different ways of experiencing. These poems enable you to take suffering by the hand and walk with it as you might with an old friend. There are no empty promises in this book but just an open and honest invitation to walk with suffering wherever it leads. The Journey of the Wounded Soul is challenging, wise, and surprisingly hopeful.

Glendon Moriaty, PsyD
Professor, Regent University
Author, Pastoral Care of Depression and Integrating Faith and Psychology


The beauty inherent in this gem of a book is embodied in the way it organically weaves the thread of spirituality through the terrible and sublime, through sadness and joy, through grief and illumination, and through despair and hope. It celebrates the paradox and mystery of spirituality and provides raw, rare, precious glimpses into the heart of healing that is usually such a private, solitary experience. I am deeply grateful for these courageous offerings. I look forward to using this book in my work with clients in their own journeys through trauma and loss and the recovery of spirituality. I also plan to gift my therapist colleagues as a boon for their own personal and professional journeys.

Drake Spaeth, PsyD
Associate Professor, Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Adjunct Faculty, Saybrook University
Ordained Minister, Earth Traditions

Journey of the Wounded Soul is available in eBook format at:

Apple iBooks

Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble Nook

Google Play

Published June 16, 2016
Pages: 224
ISBN (print): 978-1-939686-13-8
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-939686-45-9

Acknowledgements
Foreword by Thomas Moore

Introduction

Waiting for the Blessing – Louis Hoffman
Always Sunset – Steve Fehl
Passeggiata with Saint Francis – Lorraine Mangione
Coal Town Hospice – Robert A. Neimeyer
Manufracture – Richard Bargdill
A Simple Game with Stones – Sean Gunning
A Little Sesshin to Soothe My Soul – Virginia (Gina) Subia Belton
Leaves – Glenn Graves
Preparing for My Medicine Dance – Candice Hershman
Drawing an Angel – Carol Barrett
A Very Thin Line – Paul T. P. Wong
“Potter to the Pot about the Wheel” – Ted Mallory
The Struggle – Nathaniel Granger, Jr.
False Prophets – Nesreen (Alsoraimi) Frost
Ode to a Teenage Life – Steve Fehl
A Feral Innocence – LeesaMaree Bleicher
Not Even Tinsel – Lorraine Mangione
Something in Those Blue Eyes – Louis Hoffman
Colorado to New Hampshire – Lorraine Mangione
Blessed End; Sorrowful Beginning – Rodger E. Broomé
Inevitability – Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove
Last Christmas – Hajnalka Kurti Woosley
Panning – Robert A. Neimeyer
Silent Night – Jyl Anais Ion
The End of Self – Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove
Filing a Soul Exemption – Candice Hershman
Animal & Angel – David Bentata
The Human Legacy – Monir Saleh
In Praise of Sheep – B. M. Lyon
No Samaritan – Sean Gunning
Grant Me a Second Chance, Lord – Paul T. P. Wong
Redemption – David N. Elkins
The Human Condition – Emily Lasinsky
Starving Children – Wade Agnew
Preacher Man – Louis Hoffman
Falling for Fall – Kristen Beau Howard
Nature’s Refuge – Larry Graber
Autumn – Steve Fehl
Saint Fido – Dan Hocoy
Medicine Woman – Juanita Ratner
Simpler Times (A Cantankerous Old Man’s Perspective) – Nathaniel Granger, Jr.
A Path? – Tom Greening
Idea of Reference – Hans Cox
Checkmates and Exes – Nesreen (Alsoraimi) Frost
Day by Day – Sean Gunning
On Hadrian’s Wall – B. M. Lyon
First Religion – David Bentata
Pilgrimage – Carol Barrett
All Souls’ Day – Lorraine Mangione
My Quiet Place/Further Meditations on My Quiet Place – Larry Graber
The Call of the Search – Shelley Pizzuto
The Anti-Christ – Candice Hershman
silly little buddha – Banu Ibaoglu Vaughn
Collecting Christian Sentiments – Louis Hoffman
Be Still – Michael E. Moats
I Pray for Scars for my sister – Richard Bargdill
An Empty Soul – Steve Fehl
Sacrifice at Eleven Years Old – Erica Loberg
Taking the Prayers Back – Candice Hershman
Lost and Found – Emily Lasinsky
Made in the Image – Dakota Gundy
Prayer – Edward Korber
Prayer in Poetry – Yasna C. Provine
In the Trenches – Sean Gunning
Absolute – Tracy Lee Sisk
Oh, How I Wish – Steve Fehl
Soul Sisters – Nesreen (Alsoraimi) Frost
Revelation – Nick Owen
Nurturer of Spirits – Natalia Mello
Strangers – Michelle Sideroff
Abhidharma – Katherine Kreil-Sarkar
Already Lost – Jyl Anais Ion
In Darkness Lives… – Lorraine Mangione
It’s Personal – Nathaniel Granger, Jr.
The Stars Speak – Erica Palmer
Autobiography – Keaneasha Garcia
Perpetual Motion – Kat V. Rosemond
“Immaculate Combustion” – Joshua Ferguson
Spirituality – David Bentata
Spirit and Stardust – Carrie Arnold
Temptation – Carol Barrett
Prayer – Matthew D. Eayre
Life is a Contradiction in Terms – Richard Bargdill
Moon Half-Full – Sean Gunning
Life – Steve Fehl
Of Ashes and of Dirt – Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove
Stranger – Nesreen (Alsoraimi) Frost
The Addict – Juanita Ratner
Blend – Emily Lasinsky
Transcendence is Not the Way… – Candice Hershman
Supplication – Katherine Kreil-Sarkar
The Dahlia – Nance Reynolds
Eyes – Louis Hoffman
Send-off – Robert A. Neimeyer
Invocation – Lorraine Mangione
Here – Jyl Anais Ion
Equanimity – Bruce Elliot Alford
When a Student is Ready – Wade Agnew

Appendix – Poetry Activities
About the Editors

Louis Hoffman, PhD, spent 19-years in full-time academia before deciding to leave to pursue writing, publishing, private practice, and teaching in more innovative and flexible contexts. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as five divisions of APA (Divisions 1, 10, 32, 36, and 52) for his contributions to the field of psychology. Dr. Hoffman has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books, including ten books published by University Professors Press. Read more about Dr. Hoffman and his publications at his author page.

Steve Fehl, PsyD, is a bereavement educator and grief counselor. Previous writing projects have included being a regular contributor to The New Existentialist blog, as well as a contributing co-author of chapters in Unearthing The Moment; Explaining Evil; Existential Psychology East–West; Miracles: God, Psychology, and Science in the Paranormal; and Whole Person Health Care. In addition, Steve serves on the Editorial Board of University Professors Press. Prior to earning his doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of the Rockies in 2011, Steve served Lutheran parishes in Texas, Michigan, California, Minnesota, and Colorado. His clinical interests include faith and spirituality; spiritual abuse; existential theology; the role of spirituality in existential psychology; bereavement and grief; as well as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) issues. Steve lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado with his wife, Chris, and two dachshunds – Jed and Gracie.

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