Telling the Truth
A Review of The Truth (I’m a girl I’m smart and I know everything)
Review by: Sandra Prince-Embury, Ph.D.
Director, The Resiliency Institute of Allenhurst, LLC.
Author: The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents
Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist
The Truth by Dr.Barbara Becker Holstein, Positive Psychologist, is the secret diary of a ten year old girl. Although exquisitely simple in form and expression the words of this unnamed girl suggest insights that are clinically and developmentally significant. Embedded in the journal are messages about childhood that are important for adults to hear, presented in the words of a child. One such message is the importance of communication for children.
The girl telling the ‘Truth’ identifies and verbalizes her feelings in her own words. In this way she models skills of self awareness and expression. Children and teens often have difficulty putting feelings into words. It is the absence of these skills that result in pent up negative feelings expressed in acts of violence when they have reached the boiling point. In The Truth, the girl believes in herself and her own experience, even when the feelings are not positive. In this way she models self-acceptance….
Come back tomorrow for more of Dr. Sandra Prince-Embury’s review of The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything). I’m thrilled to share her penetrating review the captures so well so many of the reasons why the ‘girl’ had to come to life and speak in this little book. Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, www.enchantedself.com
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