This book made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me think.
-Rachel Berrisford, BSc (Hons), MBChB, MRcPsych (United Kingdom)
I have worked in the disability arena for over 20 years concentrating on the young with extreme, challenging behaviors. Fifteen years ago I read a paper by Shirley Deane/Midyett on her amplified "Survivor's Checklist." I refer to it constantly, even teaching the principals to my clients - particularly to one young woman with multiple diagnoses of autism, PTSD, transient psychosis, and pervasive development delay. When she lost control, I took a few moments to narrow her needs and establish a foundation to work with. This had resounding results, enabling a dramatic and positive behavior change. And with repetition, she learned how to use the Survivor's Checklist herself.
-Tina Marie Fiedler (Perth, Western Australia)
Shirley Deane has an astute grasp for psycho-dynamics and an outstanding ability to integrate dynamics, mental image, and brain function. Shirley is unusually perceptive and creative.
-Frank Holmes Chesky, MD (Kansas)
The Survivor's Checklist, re-parenting through developing a healthy "adult," and looking at developmental stages of growth have been very beneficial to me in creating a foundation for clients for on-going recovery while stabilizing sobriety. I have implemented and used Shirley' tools in my work as a chemical dependency counselor since 1988, with outstanding results.
-Carla Jean Harper, ADC III, NCAC II, LCDC (Texas)
We see in others what we see in ourselves. I saw in Shirley what I wanted to see in myself. I was fresh out of graduate school, working as a master's-level therapist, and Shirley agreed to be my mentor. "Reframing Survival: A Survivor's Checklist" changed my life and my ability to be an effective therapist.
The Survivor's Checklist is invaluable in emergency services. I am able to assess a client's situation by asking a few simple questions to identify what needs are not being met, and evaluating the client's willingness to change to get those needs met.
The truths I gleaned from Shirley's writings have become more and more relevant over the 20 years I have worked as a therapist. They are simple truths, but oh so powerful. Feelings are not good or bad; they are our body's way of pointing to needs that are not being met or that we are afraid are not going to be met.
Today I am willing to assess any situation using the Survivor's Checklist and to take actions in meeting my basic survival needs.
-Angela B. Catlett, MS, LPC (Muskogee, Oklahoma)
While helping prepare this book for publication, I unexpectedly became beneficiary of its teachings. I had fallen into a debilitating habit that I happened to raise in a conversation with my son on a long road trip we were sharing the driving of. Because I had been telling him about Shirley's book, I spontaneously said that I thought I would ask Shirley & Vic for advice for how to overcome the habit. Because it was several days before we finished the road trip and I returned home, I didn't get around to writing the Midyetts for about a week, by which time I had overcome the habit myself! All from just working on the book, and not even reading it straight through!
-Morris Dean, Writer & Editor (North Carolina)
