About the Book
 There is no perfect family. We are all works in progress. This book is a must read for anyone searching for answers to the family happiness puzzle, which in many ways is all of us. It serves as a guide to find the "sticky glue" that supports the family bond, to enhance the family's spirit and energy, and to deepen connections across the family network, which is today refreshingly diverse in membership and structure.
 Every family has some degree of imbalance (some more than others) and every reader of this book can gain a clearer picture of how to nurture happiness, care for a family's soul and, just as importantly, engage and encourage other family members in this quest.
 You can't touch the soul of the family, but you are touched by it every day. Family soul is the memories and traits that make the family unique, including rituals, stories, experiences, conflicts, and love. It is the family's complex network of relationships, values and activities. It is how we talk, feel and interact when we're together. Through this book, you will learn how to:
 - Fortify the family soul with six vitamins or strengtheners: humor, emotion, acceptance, renewal, togetherness, and struggle - Identify and applaud the caretaker the champion of the family soul - Use the happiness tool kit ten tangible ways to help families think and do differently - Recognize and apply practices that are integral to carving out happy and dynamic families: start a family of one's own, welcome in-laws and special people, bond with friends, discover a soul friend and add pets to the scene.
 The exercises and tools are practical, accessible, and easy to implement. The author weaves together dozens of colorful, funny, and tender anecdotes that surfaced in her research, with illustrations that capture their spirit and theme. Written with empathy and good humor, the inspiring ideas and tips found here will motivate you to listen selflessly, speak from the heart, and practice whooping and praising descriptively - starting now!
PRAISE FOR Becoming A Happy Family: Pathways to the Family Soul
The secret to making yourself happy is to make someone else happy. The author lays out a clear step-by-step path for bringing happiness home. - Deepak Chopra, author of over sixty books on spirituality
Family is the foundation of our lives. The values we learn from these early, intimate relationships guide our choices for many years. Dr. Kuczmarski understands the vital importance of family and offers valuable insights and tools to cultivate greater connection. Her expertise will help any family grow stronger and discover its soul. - Dipak C. Jain, the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Marketing
With insight and empathy, Dr. Susan Smith Kuczmarski charts new ground in helping families discover and nourish the soul that makes them unique. - Mary W. Quigley, mothering21.com and author, Going Back to Work: A Survival Guide for Comeback Moms
 This book will help American families in all their beautiful and diverse forms thrive and prosper in the ever-changing landscape of today. In embracing the uniqueness of modern families, Dr. Kuczmarski powerfully navigates the truths that define family life for us all: insecurity and confidence, doubt and courage, empathy and love. - Zach Wahls, author of My Two Moms, and LGBTQ advocate
In a time when much attention is being paid to families falling apart, the author focuses on how we can keep our families together. At the core is what she calls the family soul - a concept ephemeral to most of us, but Dr. Kuczmarski makes it real. This book provides a practical prescription and tools for restoring the soul in our ever-changing families. - Michele Moeller Chandler, Ph.D., Compose A Life Professor, Williams College

Becoming a Happy Family: Pathways to the Family Soul

Susan Smith Kuczmarski

Book Ends Publishing

Adolescence is a time of confusion and contradictions for teens and parents alike. Dozens of organizations are devoted to the problems of dysfunctional families and adolescents...as they should be. But few resources are available for parents struggling to proactively deal with the everyday probems of raising teenagers. The Sacred Flight of the Teenager provides the gentle, yet enthusiastic support parents need to help their teenagers devleop strength, become independent, and grow into responsible adults. 
The Sacred Flight is filled with practical guidance on how to nurture a teen's confidence within a loving, supportive family environment. Though based on sound theory, formed in the author's 25 years' experience as an authority on family culture, this book doesn't dwell in abstraction. Interviews with more than 100 "veteran" parents and with teens who earned their wings by meeting the daily challenges of real-life flight -- as well as anecdotes from her own home front -- all combine to infuse the book with a sense of reality and relatability that can only come from voices out of the "front lines." 
This book gives its profound insights and down-to-earth tools in short, easy-to-read vignettes that illulminate the "sacred flight" -- the life journey every child takes through adolescence and into adulthood. Written with kindliness, empathy, and good humor, in prose that speaks to the heart and gets to the heart of the matter, The Sacred Flight of the Teenager willl be a wise and supportive guide to every parent who reads it.

The Sacred Flight of the Teenager: A Parent's Guide to Stepping Back and Letting Go.

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

People are the heart and soul of every organization. They make the place. By tapping into the power of praise and recognition, every leader can learn to lift people up. Discover how to get the most out of people and give them the most in return--a process the authors call peopleship. Written with empathy and energy, the game-changing ideas and tips found here will motivate you to listen carefully, trust respectfully, and praise authentically starting now! Lifting People Up is a must read for any leader searching for techniques to cultivate and motivate people, a team's most valuable asset. Innovation consultants and authors Dr. Susan Smith Kuczmarski and Thomas D. Kuczmarski share the secrets of how to become a people leader. You will learn how to: ---Activate six leadership tools--listen, include, free, trust, use rewards, and praise ---Help people unleash their inner leader ---Create a caring, high-performing culture, and just as importantly, engage and encourage co-workers in this quest. The leadership methodology is practical and easy to implement. The authors weave together dozens of anecdotes that surfaced in their field research, with stories that capture the spirit and theme of lifting up others. You will discover ways to: ---Build strong and effective relationships and teams within an organization ---Foster a culture of innovation and shared leadership ---Create a small start-up mindset within a large organization ---Spread leaders throughout the organization, not group them at the top ---Pay people on performance, not tenure nor title ---Nurture self-discovery, collaboration and recognition.

Lifting People Up: The Power of Recognition

Business & Money

Thomas D. Kuczmarski

Management & Leadership

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Books by Susan Smith Kuczmarski