index index index index I learned about The Pathway in a health magazine and bought it immediately. It was the first time I read about research about feelings and getting to the root of over-eating, over-working, over-shopping, over-everything. I have since completed Solution Training and my life has never been the same.It is almost impossible to describe how powerfully effective the method desribed in this book is without coming off sounding like a raving loon. If you buy the book, you can read about a convincing array of corraborating scientific evidence, but I can only tell you my personal experience:

After suffering from the most severe, chronic depression you can probably imagine for 15 years, I can say that - six months after picking up this book - I am off anti-depressants and happy/fulfilled for the first time since my mother died when I was a teenager. I have energy and vibrancy again, food and spending are no longer my primary wells of comfort, and my relationships have an intimacy I never even knew I was missing. Astonishingly enough, I have barely completed the 'middle' steps of the pathway. There is more to come! I believe any individual could benefit from the wisdom in this book, but I am living proof that it stands up against some serious baggage.

The Solution Method (i.e. The Pathway) costs less that therapy, less than many other treatments to deal with over-eating, over-spending, co-dependency, etc., AND it is designed to foster independence. You follow the Pathway method until you achieve your "solution," and then you're done. That's it.

The method itself is a way of learning the self-nurturing and self-discipline skills that are learned naturally when everything goes pretty "right" during childhood - i.e. your parents are responsive, emotionally healthy individuals, and you have a relatively secure passage to adulthood. You learn what the skills are and how to grind them into your consciousness until they become second nature, the way they would be if you'd learned them from the beginning. It's simple, but it's amazing powerful.

I only hope Laurel Mellin gets the recognition she deserves within her lifetime.
This book explains so much about the skills needed to be an emotionally secure adult. Living a life of balance and joy is within reach and this book shows us how.I hav'nt finished reading the above book - but to this point I am finding it to be very well written, interesting, and easy to read.
Good value for the money.I wrote the review below "Older Book May Be Better for Some" three years ago. What a three years it has been! I went on to complete Solution Training as described in The Pathway with a person that Laurel had personally trained in the method. I cannot tell you how much this work has changed my life for the better.

I regret writing the earlier review, and reading it now is strange - I am no longer the person who wrote it. It was an accurate account of my reaction at the time, but I am so grateful that I did not heed my own advice.

I have the Solution in my life that she promised, and the world is truly a different place - a much warmer, friendlier, more intimate and more spiritual place. I no longer need to overeat compulsively, distance myself from others, hide my authentic self from the world, or drag others into my personal melodramas. Most importantly, I never feel completely lost - I always have my connection with myself, as near at hand as a moment to breathe and check in.

Just as Laurel's thinking and methods evolved between The Solution and The Pathway, Laurel has continued to evolve the work, as neuroscience has continued to advance, confirming many of her theories about how people can deeply change. I hope that she will release an updated version that shows these connections.

I am still concerned about the cost of the work, which only begins when you purchase this book. However, Laurel Mellin now has a cadre of mentors who have completed the training, and who are leading small groups to bring this method to more people. In the end, the cost ($300 or so for the Solution Kits that she mentions, plus about another $2,000 in professional support, spread over three years) seems like a bargain. The Solution Kits come with membership in a free web support community, and I found my own ways to keep the costs down while getting the support that I needed in the difficult parts of the work.

In short, I now heartily recommend this book and this work to anyone.

A revolutionary program that goes to the roots of not just one common excess, but all of them, turning off our emotional appetites and offering us a pathway to better health and greater happiness

If we have not mastered two simple skills -- self-nurturing and effective limit setting-we cannot soothe and comfort ourselves from within. So it is only natural that we soothe and comfort ourselves by overeating, drinking, spending, overworking, and smoking or by finding our way into the softer excesses-people pleasing, putting up walls, rescuing others, or thinking too much. When we master these two skills, we experience a Solution-that is, freedom from the whole range of common excesses and a life abundant in life's rewards: integration, balance, sanctuary, intimacy, vibrancy, and spirituality.

The Solution was developed over the last twenty years at one of the nation's most prestigious medical schools and may be one of the world's best-kept secrets -- until now. Health magazine recognized the research on The Solution as one of the top ten medical advances of 2000. Emerging understandings of neurobiology suggest that using the skills over the long term may retrain the elusive feeling brain to spontaneously favor a life of emotional balance, relationship intimacy, spiritual connection, and freedom from excessive appetites.

The Pathway shows you how to use the method and why it works, while sharing the stories of Tom, Emily, and Drew, who mastered the skills and reached their Solution. You can use this book to begin to reach your own Solution, and if you want more support, there are more than one hundred Solution Groups nationwide led by health professionals, as well as self-help Solution Circles and an active Internet community.

The Solution is very simple but so powerful that many psych psychotherapists who use it believe it will supersede all current healing methods for one reason: it works.

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