Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

Arthur Miller’s deeply moving drama reunites two long estranged middle-aged brothers. Nostalgia and recrimination erupt as they sell off an attic full of furniture, their last link to a family and a world that no longer exists. This 1968 classic is a wrenching saga of plaintive gestures and missed opportunities. A co-production with the BBC.

After a life in care, with both good and bad experiences of the system, Hope knows all too well what the risks are for children in care as they approach adolescence. Lacking any sense of self-worth or belonging, children in care are often dismissed by the authorities as impossible to manage and, worse, perceived as children who have invited sexual abuse by placing themselves in 'dangerous' situations. Hope lifts the lid on this untold chapter of her story and the devastating effects she experienced when she reconnected with her past.

"I was one of 28 children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long." Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been rescuing women and children from the FLDS.

When Marc was a small child, his father committed suicide. When his mother remarried, Marc thought his life was going to be OK but he could never have imagined just what was going to happen... Unloved is Marc's powerful story of sinking into the depths of addiction and despair and then finding the inner strength to rise above it. Marc is now at peace with his past and leads a happy and productive life.

Betrayal, family loyalties, secrets: not all gangsters live in the East End. Two families run this part of Manchester: the Johnsons and the Bennetts. With the head of the Johnson family banged up, the Bennetts have made their move. But power comes at a price. Now Charlie Johnson is out of prison and he wants his empire back. But the Bennetts have had a taste of the money and the control. Charlie’s sons want to strike now and destroy their rivals, but Charlie wants to wait. He has a personal score to settle.

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) is a 12 Step organization that helps people deal with trauma, neglect, abandonment and abuse experienced in childhood that still affects as adults. This book is an official conference approved book of the fellowship of ACA. These daily readings, one for each day of the year, offer shared experiences from actual ACA members about the subject for the day that also include a passage from the Adult Children of Alcoholics / Dysfunctional Families Big Red Book. The pages are cited and the readings can be used as part of a daily meditation exercise.

Barbara was 12 when she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital Aston Hall in 1971. From a troubled home, she'd hoped she would find sanctuary there. But during her stay, Barbara was systematically drugged and abused by its head physician, Dr Kenneth Milner. Somehow, eventually, she started to campaign for answers. This is a shocking account of how vulnerable children were preyed upon by the doctor entrusted with their care.

Confusing. Crazy making. Draining. Does this describe your relationship? Do you wonder if they will ever change? Do you want to know why they lie so much...even when the truth would work better? Have you wondered why they never seem to change - no matter how much you are willing to do for them, or how much love, understanding, rehab, religion, therapy, second (or 22nd) chances you’ve given them? If so, you are not alone and this book is a great place to start.

In 2016, against all odds, Nicola Hanney survived a terminal cancer diagnosis and decided to live life to the full. When she matched with Garda Paul Moody on a dating app, she thought her dreams had come true, but never could have imagined she would be plunged into another nightmare: a four-year campaign of violence and coercive control at his hands.

When a parent singles out a child for special privileges and attention, that child is often unaware that the relationship is unhealthy - even incestuous. As adults, these children struggle to feel validated, because while they have not been directly abused, they feel a sense of violation and crossed boundaries - usually done in the name of 'love' and 'caring'. The parent's love feels more confining than freeing, more demanding than giving, more intrusive than nurturing. Yet these children suffer from what psychologist Kenneth Adams calls The Silent Seduction.

Tilly hates her stepfather, Dave. He abuses her mother, but she refuses to leave him. Frightened for her own safety, Tilly asks to go into foster care and is placed with Cathy. Tilly arrives with a graze on her cheek and Cathy becomes increasingly concerned by Dave’s behaviour, especially when...

The shocking first true account from one of the young girls who lived through and survived the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. In the summer of 2014, the Rotherham sex abuse scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. A report revealed that, since the 1990s, up to 1,400 young girls in the town had...

Innocent is the shocking true story of little Molly and Kit, siblings, aged 3 years and 18 months, who are brought into care as an emergency after suffering non-accidental injuries. Aneta and Filip, the children’s parents, are distraught when their children are taken into care. Aneta maintains...

Set against a backdrop of East End London, Georgia experienced a childhood few of us could imagine. Though brought up in a loving family, she watched her family break apart through deceit and her mother descend into heroin addiction. Escaping into what she felt was a loving sanctuary, Georgia ended up trapped in a violent relationship with a man who would beat and abuse her. After having her three children by him, she knew she had to escape to finally find safety.

After years of suffering multiple forms of abuse, a vulnerable young girl flees her home only to land straight into the arms of her biological father - a sexual predator. My Daddy the Pedophile tells the harrowing true story of a teenage girl’s affair with her manipulative sociopathic father. After a terrible dark secret comes to light, the real story unfolds and her courageous journey of healing begins.

Toxic relationships exert a power over us like few things in life can, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for them. In fact, by simply deciding you want more from life, you can start to reclaim your worth and take action. The problem is that this is so much easier said than done. If only you could stumble across a step-by-step guide that would show you how to reclaim your life and rebuild from the ground up.

Shame is one of the most destructive of human emotions. If you suffered childhood physical or sexual abuse, you may experience such intense feelings of shame that it almost seems to define you as a person. In order to begin healing, it's important for you to know that it wasn't your fault. In this gentle guide, therapist and childhood abuse expert Beverly Engel presents a mindfulness and compassion-based therapeutic approach to help you overcome the debilitating shame that keeps you tied to the past.

Three-year-old Lexie, five-year-old Amelie and thirteen-year-old Leo come to Maggie after Leo confesses to a teacher that his mother's addiction problems and her latest violent relationship has left him as the sole carer to his younger sisters. Maggie welcomes the three children into her home and is touched by the gentle care Leo shows to the two little girls. It is clear that Lexie and Amelie adore their big brother and rely on him for comfort and reassurance.

When police are called to a local supermarket late one evening, they find an angry shopkeeper and a silent young woman. It's the third time 24-year-old Zoe has been caught stealing in the past few days. Eyes filled with panic, Zoe has been hiding bread, milk, Calpol and nappies under her coat. As police officers break down the door of Zoe's flat they find seven-year-old Coco and two-year-old Lola, home alone, huddled on the floor in a freezing cold bedroom, crying out for their mummy.

In her memoir, Monica, 54, tells the story of her childhood, when her mother, Betty Mount, forced her head under running bathroom taps and tried to strangle her. She had previously tried to kill Monica as a baby. Monica was taken into foster care, where her new parents ran a brutal regime. To the outside world, the family was devoutly religious and respectable, but behind closed doors, Monica was physically and sexually abused.