cover image The Solution-Oriented Woman: Creating the Life You Want

The Solution-Oriented Woman: Creating the Life You Want

Patricia Hudson O'Hanlon, Pat Hudson, Patricia O'Hanlon Hudson. W. W. Norton & Company, $19.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-393-03825-5

Nebraska-based therapist, teacher, writer (Making Friends with Your Unconscious Mind) and radio personality Hudson comes across as sensible, a solution-oriented woman whom women will heed to their benefit. Observing that they are confronted with more challenges than men--sexual harassment, discriminatory pay, responsibility for family, etc.--she here helps empower women with practical suggestions for improving their lot. She discourages them from brooding over ``why'' when a crisis occurs (divorce, for example), suggesting instead that they take actions that enable them to get on with their lives. Hudson presents four categories of ``solutions'': thinking (changing your patterns of behavior), acting (communicating the actions you want a person to either stop or start), dreaming (imagery, self-hypnosis, meditation) and feeling (finding a concrete way to express grief, such as performing a ritual that signals closure). The book focuses on female-male relationships, careers, motherhood and domestic violence. Hudson's warning that married women should never relinquish the security of paying jobs underpins her sage advice. (Mar.)