SARAH SIMMS ROSENTHAL
THE UNAVAILABLE FATHER
SEVEN WAYS WOMEN CAN UNDERSTAND, HEAL, AND COPE WITH A BROKEN FATHER/DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP
(June 2010)
by Sarah Simms Rosenthal
“There is no member of the human family who would not learn something essential
from reading The Unavailable Father.”
- Kati Martin, author and former chairwoman of the International Women’s Health Coalition
Many young women can’t imagine their dad walking them down the aisle because they are devastatingly crippled — emotionally — and struggle daily with the void left by a disapproving, mentally ill, substance-abusing, abusive, unreliable, or absent dad. Unloving fathers have a profound impact on women’s sense of self-worth. Now, in a life-changing book, Sarah Simms Rosenthal, Ph.D., shares how women can alleviate and even conquer this deep legacy of pain and gain back their self-esteem, joy, and ability to live richly emotional, full, and rewarding lives. The author, a crusader of women’s rights, seeks to improve their destinies by setting them free from the shackles of their pasts.
In THE UNAVAILABLE FATHER: Seven Ways Women Can Understand, Heal, and Cope with a Broken Father/Daughter Relationship (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint; June 2010; $16.95; Paperback; ISBN: 978-0-470-61414-3), Dr. Sarah Simms Rosenthal helps women understand and move forward from difficult relationships with fathers. “Unavailable fathers come in many forms, but they all have a common characteristic: they fail to provide their daughters with the unconditional love and the feeling of security that a child requires to become a woman,” writes Dr. Rosenthal, “but these women can recover and find fulfillment.”
Dr. Rosenthal, a therapist in private practice in New York City, uses inspiring stories to outline her seven proven strategies for healing these long-standing relational wounds. Combining insights gleaned from her private practice and her interviews with women from a wide range of economic, ethnic, educational, and geographic backgrounds, she shows how, despite a lack of fatherly recognition, women can become successful and at ease in their personal and professional lives.
From Dr. Rosenthal, women learn to recognize and change the patterns their dysfunctional fathers tried to impose, and move past them to reach their full potential:
• Taking a personal assessment and beginning the conscious act of healing
• Feeling the liberating realization that you are admirable, gifted, and valuable
• Learning to accept care, praise, and warmth, and expanding your possibilities for happiness
• Ending the fallout of a father’s failure, letting go of old behaviors that hold you back, and becoming a stronger woman, partner and mother
• Understanding that most unavailable fathers are unaware of the harm they inflict
Dr. Rosenthal’s empowering message in THE UNAVAILABLE FATHER assures women that they have deep worth, are loveable, and can sustain healthy adult relationships. I look forward to speaking with you about Dr. Sarah Simms Rosenthal and THE UNAVAILABLE FATHER.