Today, the blog is about women and the support we provide each other.  This morning I received a great message from a R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Woman about how lasting and important our female bonds are.  And last night we started a new support group in Kansas City.  I see up-close and personal the transformation that occurs when women get together for any worthy cause.  I received the message below a while back from a woman who has presented at my Divorce Recovery boot camps. From the beginning, she has been on the board with the vision of  Midlife Divorce Recovery, and her message is worth sharing. So here it is:

"I love the magic of women! 

Although I had worked for 20+ years with women in various types of transition, I never saw Radical Recovery coming my way. I never imagined that this new path was in the stars for me. 

I know oh-so-well the power that emerges from bringing together a small group of women to – on the surface – provide support and information at a time of challenge. I know that even a positive life-change – like becoming a mother – can make a woman feel isolated and ill-equipped to cope. Over and over again, though, I’ve seen the magic of women’s groups change even a daunting life-event into a rewarding new chapter of “living out loud.” Providing a safe setting and appropriate resources allows the natural connecting and nurturing qualities of women to flourish – even in the face of unimaginable change. That process benefits each individual, and each individual benefits the group. Suddenly – voila! – we are creating positive and durable change. 

The formula is breath-taking and it’s dependable. I’ve seen this elegant, uniquely feminine dance hundreds of times, and it was just as miraculous and compelling when I saw it in my first Radical Recovery Midlife Divorce Support Group. These women, all of us strangers to each other as we gathered that first night, were vulnerable, gutsy, wise, and generous. Before long, they began to marvel at how far they’d come and about the many unexpected gifts that had come their way: new skills, self-confidence, and a new “cultural identity,” with a sense of personal strength, significance, and belonging.

  Members would ultimately laugh and reminisce with each other about the power of going through this terrible rite of passage with a community of women, finding themselves in a culture where they could begin again to feel safe, empowered, resilient, inquisitive, happy, energized, and valued – each one ready to embrace her future and the possibilities it holds.  

Magic, I say again. Simply magic!" Susan Bettis Smith, MS
Licensed Clinical Psychotherapist
/Presenter at Suzy Brown's Midlife Divorce Recovery Boot Camps. 

To contact Susan her e-mail is:

To contact Susan, her e-mail is:  susanbsmith@yahoo.com.

Thank you to all the R.A.D.I.C.A.L Women who post to the Radical Women Network Forum.  (Click on the Radical Women button to find out more).  Thank you for brave women who come to support groups and 2nd Saturday Seminars and get great information and in the process support and encourage each other, too.  That is a big part of the healing process.  Don't ever underestimate the power of  women to change the world for good.