Thawing Toxic Relationships is number three of a four part series entitled Thawing the Iceberg. The Thawing the Iceberg Series is designed to address various issues outlined in the author's bestselling book, Thaw - Freedom from Frozen feelings. The other two books in the Series are: Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome and Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues.

Thawing Toxic Relationships is a book about healing and co-creating healthy, functional relationships for those who grew up in a dysfunctional family. If you relate to Don Carter's Iceberg Model, would like to have a genuinely happy and functional relationship then this book is for you Building healthy relationships, a skill that eludes most people who have been raised in a less-than-nurturing family, is the ultimate objective for Thawing Toxic Relationships.

Read about the Cycle of Drama, the Chemistry of drama how to save your marriage, improve communication, how to set and maintain healthy boundaries, be assertiveness, identify relationship mind games (Distance and Pursuit games, the Punishment Cycle, the Drama Triangle - and why we play them). Gather the tools and skills necessary to overcome these and many other dysfunctional relationship patterns.

Thawing Toxic Relationships - Sample of content

NOTE: All books in the Thawing the Iceberg Series contain the Iceberg Model in the first five chapters so that they stand-alone as a complete work.

Chapter 1: "What the hell is wrong with you?" (p.4) Motivation, Dependency Needs, Iceberg Model

Chapter 2: Anatomy of an Emotional Wound (p.16) Abandonment, Shame, & Contempt - False Self

Chapter 3: The Art of Survival (p.28) External Focus, Impression Management - Invented Self

Chapter 4: Who am I Really? (p.36) Imperfect World & Spirituality - True Self

Chapter 5: Distractions & Dependencies (p.40) Addictions, Obsessions/Compulsions, and Other Issues

Sample of Exercises & Recovery Activities:

Workbook Introduction: Separateness & Connectedness (p.46) Distance & Pursuit; Ego-State Functioning

From Section 1.1: Core Issues & Relationships Styles (p.49) Externalizers & Internalizers; Codependents & Counter-Dependents

From Section 1.2: Exploring Your Developmental Stages (p.54) Assessing the Development of Psychological Positions & Relationship Styles

From Section 1.3: Infatuation & Identification vs. True Intimacy (p.65) Why we Hurt the Ones we Love: Cycles of Abandonment, Shame, and Contempt

From Section 1.4: Psychological Sweatshirt's (p.72) Examples of Mixed Messages & Relationship Polarities

From Section 2.1: Structuring Time & the Three Hungers of the Inner Child (p.76) Structure Hunger, Stimulus Hunger, & Position Hunger

From Section 2.3: Games We Play (p.86) Complimentary & Crossed Transactions

From Section 2.3: Distorted Perceptions, Payoffs for Playing Games (p.94) Some Classic Mind Games, Moves, and Payoffs

From Section 3.3: Are You Living Life in Reaction? (p.110) Friend or Foe? - Treating Each Other Like an Enemy

From Section 3.7: Key Relationship Skills (p.119) Communication & Ego-State Functioning

From Section 3.7.6: Analyzing Your Transactions (p.127) Analyzing Communication, Feelings & Emotions

Additional Contributors Therm Gibson, Marion Ladewig And Joe Norris.

Additional Contributors Therm Gibson, Marion Ladewig And Joe Norris.

NOTICE This Book Contains Sections that are greatly enhanced by the use of 60+ MP3 Audios that are sold separately: Email the author at [email protected] for more information.
Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues is an "Inner Child" approach for grieving abandonment issues and healing the unfinished business of childhood. Since the wounds of unmet childhood needs are emotional in nature, recovery from these wounds needs a healing process emotional in nature. We humans are also meaning-makers and information processors who need to know why and how we are the way we are. That's why Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues is designed with an insight-oriented (cognitive) component as well as an experiential (emotional) component.
The program integrates an interactive workbook with approximately 60 MP3 Audio programs that are designed to help release blocked emotions and resolve childhood grief & loss issues. While the audios are not absolutely necessary, they will enhance healing process dramatically.
Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues is the second in the four-part Thawing the Iceberg Series by Don Carter, MSW, LCSW.

Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome and other Codependent Patterns is the first in the four-part Thawing the Iceberg Series by Don Carter, MSW, LCSW. All of the books in the series are written to stand on their own as a complete program. The Thawing the Iceberg Series is a set of programs designed to assist in the healing of the emotional wounds outlined in the author's original work, Thaw - Freedom from Frozen Feelings.

Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome is geared toward surfacing the underlying patterns of behavior and limiting beliefs that keep us stuck in unproductive relationships, the original wounds of abandonment, shame, and contempt, and how our subconscious mind adapted to the unique circumstances of our childhood by creating survival skills that now interfere with healthy coping.

Anyone who has ever found themselves repeating dysfunctional patterns that has cause problems in their life and relationships, and then wonder "Why do I do that?" or "Why am I like this?" is likely to experiencing habitual subconscious programming that has been referred to as Adult-Child Syndrome.

Thawing Adult-Child Syndrome and other Codependent Patterns focuses in on the "here-and-now" symptoms of dysfunction in our adult life and relationships. This insight-oriented program helps bring one's "Inner Family of Self" & "Life Script" to the surface so that appropriate changes can be made. The program helps heal the relationship with self, which is based upon the idea that "One cannot have a healthy relationship with others until they first develop a healthy relationship with themselves."

Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome - Sample of Contents

All Books in the Series Include the Iceberg Model (the first 5 Chapters)

Chapter 1: "What the hell is wrong with you?" (p.4) Motivation, Dependency Needs, Iceberg Model

Chapter 2: Anatomy of an Emotional Wound (p.16) Abandonment, Shame, & Contempt - False Self

Chapter 3: The Art of Survival (p.28) External Focus, Impression Management - Invented Self

Chapter 4: Who am I Really? (p.36) Imperfect World & Spirituality - True Self

Chapter 5: Distractions & Dependencies (p.40) Addictions, Obsessions/Compulsions, and Other Issues

Sample of Exercises & Recovery Tasks:

Workbook Introduction An Overview of Program Contents

The Wound of Abandonment - Exploring the original Abandonment & Shame of Childhood

The Scab of Contempt - Characteristics and Functions of Internalizing & Externalizing Contempt

Introducing the Wounded Inner Children - The Wounding of the Child-Created Ego-States

The Five Drivers & the Safety Net - Feeling "Ok" by Obeying Inner Mandates from Childhood

"Scripty Feelings" & The Ok Corral - Exploring the Emotional Cycles of Abandonment, Shame, & Contempt

Compound Decisions & Contamination - Compound Decision Worksheet & Contamination of the Adult Ego-State

Drivers & the Mini-Script Process - Summary of Drivers, Mini-Scripts & "Allowers"; Intro to Script Elements

A Framework for Adult/Child Recovery - Guidelines and requirements of recovery from Adult-Child Syndrome

Hero's Journey & the Figure-8 Journaling Process