Searching for Soul — 2009 ·

A Survivor’s Guide

By Bobbe Tyler

With a foreword by Lucia Capacchione

“Though our lives and hearts are often fraught, each page of Bobbe Tyler’s book offers some new invitation to grow our appreciation and gratitude for the ungraspable, nitty–gritty miracle of being a human being. The insights she shares with us about relationships, regrets, losses, the joys of finding oneself—all the stuff that life is made of—ring true in the convincing language of an individual who has won her authenticity and learned that life, just as it is, is so much more than she—or we—can ever imagine.”

James Finley — clinical psychologist and author of Merton’s Palace of Nowhere and The Contemplative Heart

“(A)n intricate, exquisite and deeply moving account looking backward and examining all the slings and arrows of her life. It is positive, healing, upbeat and uplifting—but with a deep, melancholic twist—for a life lived well, but sometimes not well enough. . . .”

PsychCentral

“Bobbe Tyler’s book is without a doubt the most thought-provoking read of the decade. Dense in wisdom and profound in understanding, Searching for Soul: A Survivor’s Guide leaves you a more enlightened, authentic human being. Tyler’s language is rich and her revelations personally haunting. For those of us who ask the profound questions—but move on before we find or look for the answers—Tyler provides us with the insights we’ve been seeking.”

Madelyn Cain — USC Master of Professional Writing Program faculty, author of The Childless Revolution: What It Means to Be Childless Today

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To dive deep into your inner life. To navigate its complexity and explore your story in depth. To discover who you are exactly—the courage you have when life breaks apart, how conscious you become in that process, and how rich you feel learning the meaning of your life. On a search for wholeness, Bobbe Tyler delves deep to find and tell her story—the trauma of familial mental illness, marriage and divorce, spiritual despair, accountability, addiction and the joy of recovery, surviving loss, and finally that which matters most: love in all its ways. The rewards of her wisdom belong not to her alone but, by way of her unflinching examination of life’s many paths, to all who have a story of their own to tell—who have faced a life-choice gone wrong, or met the peace that had always seemed just out of reach. This searing self-appraisal provides a model for those who seek to know themselves better and are willing to sound their depths to find their story in full.

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Bobbe Tyler is a nonfiction writer and retired communications coordinator who worked for several corporations including Lucasfilm, Ltd. and the Times Mirror Company. She lives in California.