Belle’s Search for Meaning: An Adult Fairy Tale
Life is meaningful when we actively and lovingly engage our creative gifts or powers in the world to make it a better place
How do we know we’re living the life we’re supposed to be living? As a clinical counsellor with 18 years of experience, I see many people struggle with this question, and so I decided to use my counselling and journalling strategies to write a book to help guide people through periods of self-discovery. Belle’s Search for Meaning: An Adult Fairy Tale will share the same bookshelf as other self-help books dealing with the search for a meaningful life; however, what distinguishes it from other titles is that it’s in the form of an adult fairy tale, using elements of the fairy tale genre to draw the reader in and communicate complex ideologies in a comprehensible (and entertaining) manner. By turning aspects of our personality into separate characters, I’ve given voice to abstract concepts, therefore making it easier to understand those particular elements of our individual psyche.
In Belle’s Search for Meaning, the reader meets Belle, who is on a search for meaning, after experiencing dissatisfaction with a recent career decision. While staying at a friend’s cottage after resigning from her job, she takes this time away to rest, reflect and catch her breath. While out walking one day in the woods she finds a pathway that leads to her soul world. A world that is strangely familiar where she is able to connect to something larger than herself. It is here that she finally discovers what she is seeking.
While I was inspired to write this book in response to my own personal struggle to listen to what was in my heart rather than simply responding to the obstacles in my path, as a professional, I am drawn to help others discover what desires to live in the world through them. We all have creative gifts or our own powers. We all have a creative way of expressing ourselves. This creative expression is not limited to art. Politicians, athletes, and entrepreneurs, for example, have a creative way of expressing themselves. This creative expression comes across as authentic and instills confidence for those who benefit from the gifts that they have to offer.
Belle’s Search for Meaning: An Adult Fairy Tale is available online through Amazon.
Journalling with Soul
Journalling with Soul is the third publication in Susan’s Finding Blue Beach Glass personal and vocational development series.
She is passionate about helping people discover who they really are and, by extension, finding a way of being and doing in the world that gives meaning and purpose to their lives. Applying a spiritual practice or discipline such as journalling provides that dimension of depth, value, relatedness, and meaning for our lives that we all seek.
The guided meditations contained within this book evolved from Susan’s journalling and are deep and mystical in nature. They are her own personal stories told from the soul’s point of view.
Journalling with Soul would benefit anyone who
- seeks a pathway toward their true calling,
- wishes for a more attentive, deeper personal relationship with soul, and/or
- desires access to a source of wisdom that gives depth and meaning to the small details of life, as well as life’s major decisions and changes.
After experiencing Journalling with Soul, Susan’s hope is that her readers allow the stories to capture and captivate them into forming a deeper appreciation and intimate relationship with soul and its desire to make a difference in the world.
Susan holds a MEd in Counselling and is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.
Journalling with Soul is published through Amazon. It is available online at Amazon.ca. Susan is on Facebook</a > and Twitter at www.twitter.com/SusanDoiron.
Finding Blue Beach Glass: A Personal Development Workbook
“Susan Doiron’s inspirational workbook is a tool to be embraced by counsellors and career practitioners across the Island and beyond! I was delighted to hear that it will soon be made available to the public. This well written and useful tool will be most helpful to individuals in the process of examining their lives with the goal of finding meaning and personal satisfaction in the work that they do, either in a paid profession or in other aspects of their lives. Perfect for individuals in transition, this workbook can be used with the support of a counsellor or on its own. I would certainly recommend this workbook as a self-help tool for anyone interested in exploring their vocational path on a deep and meaningful level,” says Janet Needham Payne, MEd, CCC Site Leader/Counsellor at Career Development Services.
“Susan has been a mentor, a colleague, and most importantly a trusted friend for many years. I would like to congratulate her on the release of her new workbook. While reading her pages, Susan’s voice and unique way of connecting with people becomes evident and remains a cornerstone. This workbook provides the reader with a “trusted companion” while exploring personal work, and offering creative new perspectives and helpful images for contemplation. Engaging to read and full of thought provoking content, Susan’s work speaks to a wide audience,” says Christopher Doiron, MSW, RSW Family Therapist at Catholic Family Services Bureau.
This workbook would be helpful to people who are looking for meaning and purpose in their current work or personal lives; those who are seeking a career or interest pathway that illuminates deeply held interests, and those who are planning a retirement transition and wish to pursue aspects of their lives that may have been pushed aside while they were busy making a living or raising a family.
Susan is passionate about helping people discover who they really are and by extension a way of being and doing in the world that gives meaning and purpose to their lives. She emphasized that we tend to focus on external signals when choosing careers (money, status and approval of others) rather than focusing on the internal ones. Even though people achieve success during the course of their careers, if what they do is not reflective of their core self, they may become unhappy and dissatisfied.
To purchase Finding Blue Beach Glass: A Personal Development Workbook, contact Susan directly at susandoiron@peicounsellor.com or purchase online at: Amazon or Barnes and Noble
Finding Blue Beach Glass: Uncovering the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Finding Blue Beach Glass is an original and inspirational self-help book for people seeking ways to enrich and motivate their daily lives. It is filled with practical exercises that the reader can work through, on their own. Susan has included her own stories and invites her readers to enter them from their own personal frame, finding their own patterns of personal transformation.
One of Susan’s favorite beach activities is scavenging for beach glass. Beach glass is created when broken shards of glass become smooth, frosted, and precious, transformed by the gentle lapping of water and the persistent rubbing of sand. Typically, she finds brown, white, and sometimes green beach glass but rarely blue. Blue glass is a rare find indeed! For her, finding blue beach glass is like discovering the extraordinary in the everyday joys and difficulties of life. Her hope for her readers is that they will find glimpses of the unique person they are within and the story that is unfolding for them; that they will heal the rough edges that long to be smoothed out; and that her readers will discover and rediscover that wisdom from within that is available to all of us.
To purchase Finding Blue Beach Glass go to Amazon: Finding Blue Beach Glass on Amazon
Or if you live on PEI, you can purchase it at the Bookmark.
Click on the link below to view a sample excerpt from Finding Blue Beach Glass:
Finding Blue Beach Glass Book Excerpt
Book Reviews
“What Susan offers is her ability to listen and perceive deeply, her sense of who she is and her desire to accompany others interested in personal transformation. She is passionate about life and work. She is interested in the authentic process of engaging with people, learning to know people and how they perceive the world, what is important for them and how they deal with sorrow, disappointment and future directions. She is adept at helping others in their personal growth and development. Her conversations with others are very special in their depth, breadth and helpfulness. Her book is a unique and welcome addition to those on the path of searching for ways to enhance their lives and live from a place of authenticity and humanness. She understands well the connections between head and heart, being and doing, and the personal, social, spiritual interplay. Finding Blue Beach Glass, as is her approach to counselling, is full of practical suggestions to assist on the journey. She does see the extraordinary in the ordinary.
I highly recommend her and her book.”
Dr. John Sumarah, R. Psych, CCC
Professor and Program Leader
Acadian University Counselling Program
“Susan Doiron has been a valued colleague for several years. She is a bright, enthusiastic, inspiring woman and professional. She is engaged with life in a way that inspires the lives she touches. Her creativity and intelligence is invaluable to her profession and to all those who work with her. She has a real, yet optimistic view of life and a great sense of humour. She takes delight in learning and exploring life. She is skillful and deeply connects with others which make her an effective and valued therapist.
I am so happy to hear Susan has published her book. It is a wonderful way for people to connect with her effective and delightful healing talents.”
Denise M. Perron MSW, RSW
Private Therapist and Consultant