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News & Views - Feb,
1996 Issue #38
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BRINGING LOVE HOME
by Larry Wells founder Wilderness Conquest
Blue Mountain Family Center
Monticello, UT
Review by Garth W. Skouson, M.ED.,LPC,NCC
(Ret. Mental Health Therapist, School Counselor & Psychologist)
Bringing Love Home,
by Larry Wells, is an exceptional book. Larry has used his experiences with his own family and his experiences with his Wilderness
Conquest program to make many of the theories we read about in other books, more easily understood. The format of the Book, along
with the audio tapes and video tape that accompany the book, make it easy to follow. The activities that are included in the book
provide some planned experiences that you can try just as they are written, or adapt to your own family situation.
The book is also a workbook with many exercises to complete to help you discover
the things you may be doing that chases some of the love from your home that you want in the home and family. The exercises in the
workbook also help you to write out how and what you can and will do to bring the love back. They are simple, yet powerfully effective,
if you want to improve the quality of your home life.
The ideas presented in the book are based on sound theoretical principles.
The difference is in Larry's approach that makes the theories easy to practice in the family setting. He acknowledges the need for
professional help in those cases where professional help is needed; he does not offer his program as a substitute for competent professional
therapy, or counseling, but as a method of helping family members have a place to practice new ideas that will make the home a more
pleasant place in which the whole family can live together more harmoniously.
Larry emphasizes the individual worth of each person in the family, parent,
spouse, child and sibling. The activities help each family member see his own value as well as the value of the other members of the
family. Without minimizing the effort and time that it may take to make each family member feel loved and important, he gives some
activities that work to bring about love and harmony in the home.
Because of his own experiences with the 12 Step Programs, Larry has
shown how the 12 steps can be used in a family setting, by teaching each individual, to improve himself. He also emphasizes the importance
of individual responsibility in making changes in family life. Although it is a family that is changing, it is the individual changes
of each family member that brings about the increased amount of love experienced in the home.
The video tape of a family circle meeting shows how to hold one, for those
who may not understand how to conduct a family circle. Hold meetings regularly, at a time when there would be a minimum chance for
interference with outside influences. He recommends that it be held at least weekly and that each person have a chance to bring up
whatever he wants to bring up. He emphasizes that violence and threats are not permitted, or condoned in family circle meetings.
If you are finding that you are having difficulty in your family, and miss
the love you feel you need in your family, you may want to get Bringing Love Home, and use it. It may be the answer you have been
looking for.
Copyright © 1996, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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