Category: memoir

advocacy My Kid is Back!

My Kid is Back!

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With my co-author, Professor Daniel Le Grange, I’m delighted to announce the worldwide release of My Kid is Back, Second Edition. We thank families from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand for contributing to this new book’s powerful message about Family-Based Treatment (FBT), the most effective...

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advocacy When the dark times become a gift

When the dark times become a gift

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“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.” The Uses of Sorrow, American poet, Mary Oliver (1935-2019) “Life is not fair. Don’t expect it to be.” I was sitting in the psychiatrist’s consulting suite, feeling...

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advocacy When a private diary collection becomes public

When a private diary collection becomes public

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I am surrounded by 10 family members inside the National Library of Australia, Canberra. We are in a private reading room to visit my diary ‘family’, the early years of which are spread before us on a long table. Emotions bubble within—I feel exposed, unclothed, with my mind, heart, and...

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advocacy Gifts of human kindness on a Christmas Day train ride

Gifts of human kindness on a Christmas Day train ride

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I travelled by train instead of car on Christmas Day 2024. Instead of the usual two-and-a-half hour drive to the home of my children’s dad, George, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, I took the country train. On Christmas Eve, in a burst of planning, my Melbourne-based daughter and her family collected...

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advocacy When mother has an eating disorder

When mother has an eating disorder

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I reached for the phone. I was ready to accept the guidance of my minister and psychiatrist so I could become a person with normal behavioural habits. ‘I will go to the mental health hospital this Sunday,’ I vowed. ‘If I don’t go I will defer my recovery. I want...

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advocacy The private diary: from life coping tool to research resource

The private diary: from life coping tool to research resource

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Until a few months ago, my diaries and I had been inseparable for more than 60 years. We had stuck together despite moving house more than 24 times in my search for peace within. Never a day apart. The diaries were my one constant from age 12. They were my...

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advocacy When the eating disorder is all you can hear

When the eating disorder is all you can hear

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I have suffered from an eating disorder (ED) for 18 years, and I don’t know how to break free … I would like you to share strategies for those times when my ED is the only thing I can hear.  – M. I want to reach through the email box,...

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Anorexia Writing your life story with a memoir mentor

Writing your life story with a memoir mentor

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As a life-writing mentor, I offer guidance in transforming your life experiences into a tangible memoir. You write your truth, crafting your story in your unique voice. This form of self-expression is a precious gift to yourself and your loved ones. Writing a memoir is not just a healing and...

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advocacy Eating disorders are no match for memoirist Betsy Brenner

Eating disorders are no match for memoirist Betsy Brenner

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A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-2021, was the gift of time to embark on the incredible journey of writing my memoir The Longest Match: Rallying to Defeat an Eating Disorder in Midlife. A project of this magnitude always seemed daunting but as soon as I began pouring through...

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advocacy My diaries have a new home in the National Library of Australia

My diaries have a new home in the National Library of Australia

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My eating disorder has gone to Canberra, Australia’s national capital. The eating disorder has travelled there within the pages of my diary collection, acquired by the National Library of Australia (NLA). There, the eating disorder will be open to public scrutiny. Canberra is an eight-hour road journey from where I...

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