In the Company of My Sisters - by Julia A Boyd (Paperback)

About the Book

The first book of its kind, "In the Company of My Sisters" has tapped into a wellspring of interest, need, and excitement in the African-American community and turned Julia Boyd into a national figure. Drawing on Boyd's work as a therapist and an educator, this empowering book provides "practical, hilarious, and common-sense advice for self-care and self-recovery" ("Common Boundary").

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BLACKBOARD NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

Learn to love yourself in this wise, funny, insightful pocket-sized guide--the first book by a Black psychotherapist to address the issue of self-esteem in Black women's lives.

A collection of conversational narratives from a diverse range of unique voices, In the Company of My Sisters explores what it means to have self-esteem as a Black woman in the world today, confronting entrenched, internalized assumptions and offering new, empowering perspectives in their place.

"I wrote this book to validate and celebrate who we are," Boyd has said. "We have been the recipients of many distorted messages about our ethnicity and our femaleness." With this thesis in mind, Boyd has drawn from a wealth of experience--her own and that of her "sister circle"--to take a hard and honest look at the realities and issues Black women face, and in this anthology of their stories, you can discover a new and validating pathway forward toward higher self-esteem.

"Practical, hilarious, and common sense advice for self-care and self-recovery."--Common Boundary

Review Quotes

"The first self-help book by a psychotherapist to examine the realities of black women's lives and their shared problems."--Midwest Book Review

"Practical, hilarious, and common sense advice for self-care and self-recovery."--Common Boundary

"Black women are exposed to 'distorted messages about our ethnicity and our femaleness, ' notes Boyd, a Seattle psychotherapist. To countermand these messages, she offers this affectionate mix of feminist analysis, pop psychology and sisterly wisdom written in a colloquial style and interspersed with anecdotes and questions drawn from her 'sister circle' support group of friends. 'Our basic teaching tells us that thinking and doing for ourselves is 'selfish', ' observes Boyd, who recommends 'self-care'.... Healing the black woman's self-image must, Boyd stresses, be both an individual and collective act."--Publishers Weekly

"This is self-help and more. Issues such as sexuality, religious beliefs, racial discrimination, and domestic violence are addressed candidly.... What Boyd offers is a message to all women--regardless of race or color--that 'we are not our wounds of the past, and if we allow our wounds to define our present lives, we forfeit the opportunity to live our lives in the here and now.' This is a very important addition to self-help collections."--Library Journal

"This is more than good advice, it is about growing into your skin and loving that skin, along with the woman inside it."--Barbara Brown, The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women

About the Author

A psychotherapist with a clinical practice, Julia A. Boyd is the author of In the Company of My Sisters: Black Women and Self-Esteem, Girlfriend to Girlfriend: Everyday Wisdom and Affirmations from the Sister Circle, and Can I Get a Witness: Black Women and Depression.