Showing results by publisher "Lake Drive Books" in All Categories

Are you tired of feeling weighed down by your past or your family history? Are you looking for practical ways to heal and let go? In You Are Not Your Trauma: Uproot Unhealthy Patterns, Heal the Family Tree, mental health and addiction recovery expert Caroline Beidler, MSW, helps you identify unhealthy patterns that keep you stuck and live more freely without your trauma—or your family’s trauma—holding you back. Through personal stories, accessible research, and practical steps, Beidler provides a framework for healing.

“You were like this once. What did you do to get better?” A day out from a mental institution, a woman devastated by flashbacks from childhood trauma poses this question to her big brother. Within a few weeks, she took her own life. This book is the answer that her brother wished he could have offered. Spiritual director and professor Frank Rogers had been there. As a young adult, he too was tormented by trauma suffered in the same family.

In I Hardly Knew Me, Nia Chiaramonte offers a powerful, intimate account of gender transition—told not in hindsight but in real-life moments that became a path to survival. With humor and vulnerability, Nia brings us into the everyday world as a trans person: from the complicated grace of coming out to the people she loves most, to the flood of silence after posting her truth online while watching her children accept her regardless.

When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist Convention: male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children. A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland weaves together Christa’s revealing story of hope amid Southern patriarchy and religious fundamentalism.

The grieving process is part of being human, but far too often, Christian grievers are pushed out of grief and rushed into rejoicing that their loved one is in heaven. Alternately, Christians who allow themselves to grieve openly are shamed for doing so, often resulting in turning away from faith. It is time for a better way to acknowledge that you can struggle with grief and still love God. For grievers, helpers, and those wanting to better understand loss, let Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief help you embrace the fullness of grief and discover the first steps toward hope.

After a devastating betrayal shattered her faith and her sense of self, writer Lauren Cibene found herself paralyzed by anxiety, borderline agoraphobia, and depression. Desperate for something—anything—to pull her back to life, she took a spontaneous leap: India. Cibene fled to escape the church that wanted to rush past the pain and get to the promise.

R. Scott Okamoto had no idea that his job as an English teacher at an evangelical Christian college meant facing bigotry as an Asian American and faux intellectualism as a teacher—and what it would mean for his own journey.

If our quest for faith leaves us disappointed by systems and people who claim to have the corner on the truth, what are we left with? We are left with the place where it all began.

All her life, Julia Rocchi has searched for both the stillness and community that would connect her with something real and powerful-something like God. But religion, often consumed by its certainties, sometimes fails us. We want to find a new way. Could it be that faith is instead a conversation we carry on in questions?

Intersexion is a life-giving true story about choosing between social acceptance or health, fear or authenticity. Cynthia, an adjunct professor with a trunk full of ungraded papers and snack wrappers, has been an LGBTQIA+ ally for years—in convenient ways. She enjoys the company of her queer friends—but her support isn’t risky; it hasn’t cost her anything. Until she meets Danny.

Lost Faith and Wandering Souls acknowledges the religious identity crisis of our time and the full power of the psychological journey. By looking beneath the surface at deep, lifelong dynamics, it shows a way past our losses individually and socially toward a healthier, inclusive spirituality.

After author Marla Taviano wrote unbelieve, a book of poems chronicling her faith deconstruction, her plan was to move on from white evangelical Christianity to bigger, lovelier, more all-embracing thoughts. But she couldn’t do it. Why? Because she was still jaded—and knew there was work left to do.

If you doubt and you’re angry, if you’re confused and hurting, if Sundays feel weird and you want something more, this book is for you. As millions exit the church due to its politics and treatment of LGBTQ people, Brandon Flanery brings us Stumbling: A Sassy Memoir about Coming Out of Evangelicalism, an LGBTQ memoir that gives us a glimpse into why he and others are leaving and to show us the hope he’s found on the other side.

In Theologizin’ Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly, pastor, podcaster, and public theologian Trey Ferguson encourages you to re-engage your imagination, and to construct theologies that speak to our current contexts, just as people of faith have done throughout history. With personal stories and some lo-fi truth telling, Ferguson leads us through topics like how we read the Bible, our inherited traditions, the shame and confusion we experience, and a faith that can shape tomorrow.

Embark on a transformative journey through this compelling narrative about giving up a belief in God and finding a new, wilder, and more authentic life. Sarah Henn Hayward spent over thirty years as a devoted believer, passionately immersed in her born-again faith. But her search for truth also led her to science, psychology, and social justice. She asked really hard questions and uncovered the hypocrisy around concepts like hell, evolution, and Christian exclusivity.

In Help, I'm Dealing with Trauma, pastor Lemuel R. T. Blackett reveals honest, heartbreaking experiences growing up in a struggling family in London and then New York. He witnessed trauma and at times was himself on the brink of self-destruction. He shares his insecurities, disappointments, loss, betrayal, even church hurt, experiences that have left him resistant to letting his guard down. Though a minister, he avoids sugarcoating religious jargon and brings you real stories about how he found his way through with prayer, therapy, and simple patience and strength of will, and how you can too.

So whole: poems on reclaiming the pieces of ourselves and creating something new talks about looking back to move forward, new thoughts on god, our inner lives, embodied living, and books, books, books. If you long for the freedom to be your true self, if you ache for healing and wholeness for yourself and a broken world, if you need some lighthearted fun amid all the hard, Marla's got you. This book is a collection of mini-love letter poems to herself and all of us.