Therapist turns a new chapter with self-help book
Following an ankle and back injury which left her inactive for months, Martina Lehane wrote a self-help book based around the real-life experiences of Irish people.
Her book, Seeing Anew: Awakening to Life’s Lessons which has been snapped up by a top publisher, focuses on the profound life lessons that are to be found in the day-to-day doings of ordinary citizens.
Lehane, a native of Macroom and a counsellor and psychotherapist for 20 years, was forced into inactivity for about three months over the summer of 2011 to allow her body to heal from injuries incurred from a fall.
During this time she wrote a book. At the time, she says, she viewed it as little more than a therapeutic exercise. “I didn’t write it for publication,” she recalls.
However, her husband Pat insisted on sending the completed work to a publisher: “I finished the manuscript and showed it to some people who were very excited about it but I didn’t see what they saw in it! Then Pat said he was going to send it to a publisher.
“I didn’t think they’d be interested. I thought he was wasting his time, but they came back very enthusiastic about publishing it.”
The book is divided up into stories or personal experiences, each of which comes with a lesson or moral, and a meditation section for the reader.
One story looks at the turbulent childhood experienced by two brothers — one lived a very positive life as a result, while the other used those negative experiences as an excuse for his violent behaviour.
The lesson, according to Lehane, is clear: “One brother transformed his life because of the past, but the other repeated the past. That’s a real-life example of how we all have choices.
“Bad things happen to all of us but we have the choice whether to transform our lives or to transfer it into our lives. The book is very much about self-help and focuses on the theme of human and spiritual development.”
lSeeing Anew is published by Veritas at €12.99 and will be launched by Adi Roche at the Vienna Woods Hotel on Nov 22. A public reading and book-signing will take place at the Veritas Bookshop in Carey’s Lane, Cork, on Saturday, Dec 1 at 2.30pm.
