If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

I Feel Green: One Man's Account of His Return To Life

by David A. Ralph

161 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0007; ISBN 1-55212-343-X; US$22.00, C$30.71, EUR20.00, £13.90

I Feel Green: One Man's Account of His Return to Life tells the moving story of one middle-aged man's experience of brain injury and his subsequent recovery.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      excerpts     reader comments     catalogue info

About the Book In 1986, David Ralph suffered a serious brain injury in a car accident. Now, several years later, he tells of his brave and, some would say, miraculous recovery. The author recognizes the wonders of modern medicine and their role in his recovery. Nevertheless, his account of the aftermath of the crash speaks of a painful healing process where even the best that medical science has to offer is reduced to thin gruel if it lacks human warmth and understanding. The hopeful message the author offers lies in his own healing and growth. His story is a lesson to us all. It offers remarkable insight and an urgent message to a society that has lost its soul. Robert Johnson, acclaimed Jungian analyst and best-selling author of He, She, and We, says "David Ralph's book chronicles a wonderful, heroic journey of recovery from an accident, incapacity, regeneration, and return to normal functioning. His warm and sensitive appraisal of that torturous path makes the most ordinary things, which we all take for granted--walking, driving, examinations, stepping over a curb--into adventures." Read the news release for this title.

---

About the Author

David Ralph, the second-oldest of four boys, was born in the U.S.A. in 1952. During his college years he majored in biology at St. Andrew's Presbyterian College and went on to earn his doctorate in clinical psychology in 1982 from the California School of Professional Psychology.

After three years in private practice as a marriage, family, and child psychotherapist, Dr. Ralph was severely brain-injured in an automobile accident. Despite an extremely grim prognosis, he defied the medical odds and went on to achieve a near-miraculous level of recovery from brain injury. During his seven-year recovery period, David Ralph completed a certification program at the Gestalt Training Center in San Diego, earned a California psychologist's license, and wrote an account of his extensive healing process and its subsequent transforming effects upon his life.

Contact David at (858) 481-7328 or via Trafford Publishing at editorial@trafford.com

---

Excerpts

Preface

This is more than a story about my recovery from a tragic accident; it is the story of a human life being transformed. When a profound life circumstance jolts one's attention, it is impossible to avoid listening. After my automobile accident, the windows of my senses were shaken open. A new manner of being alive unfolded in me. The means of participating in my healing, not only from the many physical injuries of my crash, but also from the many wounds within my whole life became apparent. I cannot keep myself from sharing my vision; it bursts from me. My hope is that this story will inspire in you the joy of living. It is healing for me to tell it.

David Ralph
Del Mar, California
June, 1995

From Chapter 15

. . . "I concluded that my life, however hideous it had sometimes been, had afforded me several insights that many people didn't seem to have, like the importance of fulfilling one's needs and the significance of having a sense of personal responsibility. A particularly compelling image began taking form in my mind. I envisioned a person straddling a branch high in a tree, sawing between himself and the trunk. This person, who would come to represent most of humanity in my mind, occasionally stopped and questioned not the wisdom of his action, but rather--was he cutting the branch quickly enough?"

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Foreword - Maurice Friedman

Chapter 1 - Shattered Expectations
Chapter 2 - The Aftermath
Chapter 3 - The Bridge Back
Chapter 4 - Relational Awareness
Chapter 5 - Suffering
Chapter 6 - Coming Home
Chapter 7 - Reaching Out
Chapter 8 - Reframing
Chapter 9 - Reintegration
Chapter 10 - A Calling
Chapter 11 - Gaining a Foothold
Chapter 12 - Gaining More Ground
Chapter 13 - The Healing Power of Vulnerability
Chapter 14 - Personal Responsibility
Chapter 15 - The Seeds of Hope
Chapter 16 - Balance
Postscript

Appendix - Human Needs

---

Reader Comments

"Forthright and inspiring--a moving and witty account of David's winning battle against tragedy." -Erving Polster, Ph.D and Miriam Polster Ph.D. Gestalt Training Center, San Diego

 

---

Catalogue Information

---