Dr. John Chirban :: True Coming of Age

Publications / True Coming of Age

True Coming of Age Press Release

In TRUE COMING OF AGE (McGraw-Hill, July 12, 2004; 007-1426817; $19.95), Harvard Medical School and Hellenic College Psychologist and Theologian, Dr. John T. Chirban compels readers wrestling with "Who am I?" "What am I meant to do?" and "How do I discover my potential?" to honest self-evaluation. He puts forth a fundamental paradigm for fulfillment and purpose that identifies and draws together the key aspects of our nature in order to understand how we prevent ourselves from fulfilling goals and recognizing our innate power to create a fulfilling life.

With engaging stories from people of all social and economic levels undergoing universal struggles, including intimate interviews that Dr. Chirban conducted with notable American figures such as Tom Hanks, Diane Sawyer, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tom Brokaw, Ron Howard, B.F. Skinner, Maya Angelou, Billy Bean, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis and others, readers can recognize problems that directly and intimately affect their own path for self discovery.

By strengthening the bonds of what Dr. Chirban calls "our critical connections" we can determine the health of our relationships and experience fulfillment. The more synchrony among these connections, the closer we come to our True Coming of Age, which occurs when we take hold of our True Self and connect with our a Critical Connections. Our Critical Connections are:

With Self: How we connect with our True Self. The extent to which our emotions, thoughts, and qualities reflect the innate qualities we possess as defined by Dr. Chirban: spontaneity, reasoning, creativity, free will, spirituality, discernment, and love.

With Others: How we build and understand all our relationships. The extent to which we relate meaningfully is affected by the extent to which we have engaged the influence of the True Self in our life.

With God: How we nurture our faith, spirit, and spirituality through our religious beliefs to the extent to which our faith is affected by our personal life, relationships and well being.

The book is organized emphasizing the interconnections between our body, mind, and soul: In Part I, "Knowing Your True Self," we rediscover your innate gifts. In Part II, "Opening Your Heart," we explore how our connection to the True Self affects the quality of our emotional encounters with the self and another. In Part III, "Embracing Your Soul," we find how our openness to spirituality forms our values and commitments, and in Part IV, "Integrating Your Life," we learn how to connect all the parts and how to direct our actions.

Key Features of True Coming of Age include:

Recognizing and accepting your 7 intrinsic gifts: spontaneity, reasoning, creativity, free will, spirituality, discernment, love.
Knowing your True Self.
Distinguishing what leads to fulfillment.
Establishing relationship to yourself, others, and God.
Integrating the relationship between True Self and our purpose.
Creating meaningful relationships.
Experiencing the importance of your spirituality in daily life.

An encounter with life’s authentic moments provides the groundwork for our connections to ourselves, others, and God, allowing us to assess what is most important in our life and to realize our greatest potential. By looking deep within ourselves and forging connections with our unique gifts and talents we can find genuine direction, purpose, and meaning.

To be self aware we need to know our individual characteristics, including our temperament and personality, our virtues, habits, and hobbies, and all that we have acquired. True Coming of Age will ultimately help us understand the fundamental questions of authentic existence. Yet while this book can guide us to these questions, we must do the asking and answering ourselves and make the necessary changes in our own lives.

True Coming of Age is a book designed to lead the reader along the path of authentic living. It requires you to discover and understand who you are, evaluate your personal commitments in relationships, and recognize your connection to your soul. In addition, it helps you create a paradigm for fulfillment to chart your own authentic path and finally to recognize that you already possess all the tools you need to lead a fulfilling life.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John T. Chirban, Ph.D., Th.D., is clinical instructor of psychology at The Cambridge Health Alliance at Harvard Medical School, where he teaches courses in spirituality and psychiatry, and the integrative treatment of sexuality and sexual dysfunction. He is also a 40th Anniversary Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. Dr. Chirban serves as professor of psychology and Chairman of the Department of Human Development at Hellenic College and Holy Cross School of Theology. He is also Director for The Institute of Medicine, Psychology, and Religion, in Cambridge. Massachusetts. A licensed psychologist in Massachusetts and California, Dr. Chirban serves as Co-Director with his wife at Cambridge Counseling Associates, LLP, a full-service practice in psychology.

Dr. Chirban divides his time between teaching, research, and private practice in psychotherapy. A special area of interest for Dr. Chirban is the integration of medicine, psychology, and religion. The integration of these three fields provides the groundwork for his frequent lectures and professional writings. His current research examines the philosophy and religion of B. F. Skinner, drawing from collaborative interviews with Skinner spanning 25 years. He is also examining epistemologies and methodologies for psychosomatic healing in Byzantium as related to modern holistic healthcare.

Other recent books include: Sickness or Sin? Spiritual Discernment and Differential Diagnosis; Raised in Glory; Interviewing in Depth: The Interactive-Relational Approach; and Personhood. He and his wife Sharon, a clinical psychologist, live in Carlisle, Massachusetts with their three children Alexis Georgia, Anthony Thomas, and Ariana Maria.

TO REQUEST A COPY OF THIS BOOK, PLEASE CONTACT: lizz_aviles@mcgraw-hill.com; P: 212-904-4091; F: 904-4091
TRUE COMING OF AGE / Dr. JOHN T. CHIRBAN / JULY 12, 2004 / 007-1426817 / $19.95
Lizz Aviles
212-904-6006
lizz_aviles@mcgraw-hill.com

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR TRUE COMING OF AGE

"True Coming Of Age is a masterful and compassionate book of essential guidance for our contemporary spiritual culture. Inspired by a passionate search for meaning, author John T. Chirban, Ph.D., Th.D. has drawn from years of clinical research as well as personal experiences to write this text that reads like a porthole into the soul. This book is a must for every person in pursuit of a meaningful life." —Caroline Myss, #1 bestselling author of Sacred Contracts and Anatomy of the Spirit

"One of the most difficult things to accomplish is to explain authenticity to someone who has neither the experience nor the inclination to take control of his or her life. John Chirban has found a way. He has discovered those truly remarkable people in the world who live their authenticities and serve as models of greatness in this regard. Perhaps this is a critical element of profound respect among the people Dr. Chirban interviewed and researched: Ron Howard, Jay Leno, Tom Hanks, Maya Angelou, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Diane Sawyer, and many people for whom I have a great deal of respect. Their pilgrimages through their own internal challenges and ultimate victories over what the external world demands us to be are truly universal. As each story clearly portrays, each of us will ultimately come face-to-face with a decision, to know the truth of who we are. We can deny it, distort, or as exemplified, grow into the creative selves we were destined to become. This book is an inspiration to those who realize they do, indeed have their own authenticity. —Dr. Phil McGraw, #1 bestselling author of The Ultimate Weight Solution, Self Matters, Relationship Rescue and Life Strategies

"Talking about myself is always uncomfortable. As a journalist, I am used to asking the questions and when I find myself on the other side of the process, I am more wary than usual but Dr. Chirban gave me a lot of running room and for that I am grateful." —Tom Brokaw, NBC Primetime Anchorman and #1 bestselling author of The Greatest Generation

"John Chirban’s wise and beautiful book is a window into the human soul. It goes far beyond the engaging interviews with successful people that form its bones, to flesh out the real nature of success. What does it mean to be a fully authentic human being in all our relationships? How can we find fulfillment in our brief and precious lives?" —Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., #1 bestselling author of Inner Peace for Busy People

"This book is about transformations from our natural instinctive human self-absorption to realizing the divinity within each of us. John Chirban shows us these transpersonal qualities in those we know best, our heroes and their personal paths. Their stories convey that important awareness that there really is a greater power than ourselves that can heal and transport each of us to our authentic paths. The price is that we, as they have done, have the courage to find and open the doors. In Dr. Chirban's book, we see each journey as unique, but all embrace the underlying specialness of their destinies in this life and the personal struggle and victory when they found them." —G. Frank Lawlis, Ph.D., Director of the Dr. Phil Foundation and author of Transpersonal Medicine

"This book in your hands entitled True Coming of Age is a unique and most eloquent statement which helps each of us understand the meaning of spiritual maturity and gain a keener sense of our own responsibility. Presenting life’s challenges from the walks of a wide range of individuals of different creeds, talents and histories, Dr. Chirban affirms Universal Truth, Goodness and Love – which we each possess and must live – and which unites us all. I pray that God may continue to inspire him to transplant his own vigorous spiritual quest into the hearts and minds of others." —Archbishop Iakovos, former primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of North and South America

TRUE COMING OF AGE / Dr. JOHN T. CHIRBAN / JULY 12, 2004 / 007-1426817 / $19.95