Drawing from her fascinating life experience and therapy practice, Farzaneh Guillebeaux offers an amazing blending of psychotherapy tools and spiritual teachings to help readers find joy and self-fulfillment, regardless of race, gender, or background. As a young Iranian student in the United States, Fafar was swept off her feet by an African-American in the 1960s, thrown into the belly of racism, and changed forever through the combined power of psychotherapy and spiritual transformation. She shares her journey here; throughout this book, Fafar expresses her love for the reader through her openness and authenticity, humor, and a personal narrative of her own struggles, pain, and inner process.
Here, Fafar weaves the forces of spirituality together with a wealth of invocations from Bahá'i writings, professional expertise grounded in years of experience as a therapist, and profound lived experience on her own journey to knowing and loving herself-and applies this knowledge to the personal issues that challenge us all. This book offers wise and tested practical strategies and deep insights, bathed in her love of humanity and belief in its inherent goodness.
The resulting tapestry is one which compels-and empowers-readers to embark on their journey to know and nurture their own self. The truths contained in this book are the truths that can set us all free.
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about the author
Farzaneh (Fafar) Guillebeaux (M.A., M.S.) is a semi-retired psychotherapist with a specialty in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has conducted national and international training since 1988 in the areas of overcoming racism and sexism, the empowerment of women, inter-racial/intercultural marriage, communication skills, and conflict resolution. She has also presented at the Parliament of World Religions and at the first Sino-American Conference on Women's Issues in Beijing, China. Born in Iran, Fafar—a fifth-generation Bahá'í—has lived in the United States for more than 50 years. This book is a result of her deep compassion and commitment to the ideas of spiritual transformation, birthed from her lifetime of personal and professional experience and guided by the principles of the Bahá'í Faith.
endorsements
You hold in your hands a precious gift, a treasure whose value cannot be overstated. This book offers you a road map to the journey of your soul that will help you find the core of what it means to live an abundant and free life.
— John Woodall, MD/Psychiatrist
Sandy Hook, CT
A young Iranian student, an ardent follower of the Baha’i Faith, is swept off her feet, falls in love with an African American in the 60s, and is thrown into the belly of racism in the American South. It’s a fantastic story of her life’s journey to self-discovery. Drawing from her life experiences and therapy practice, she offers an amazing blend of psychotherapy tools and spiritual teachings, offering enlightenment for anyone regardless of race, gender or background, to find joy and self-fulfillment.
— Sophia Bracy Harris, Retired Executive Director of Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama
A beautifully, well-written, easily understandable and compelling book that can be used as a powerful and practical guide for spiritual and personal growth in the journey of life. Using her own life events and experiences, she offers a guided road map in finding our own individual self within, a self that is more loved, empowered, spiritual and more accepted that is ready to emerge and burst out with contentment, joy and abundance of love for self and others.
— Arefeh Langkilde
Fafar’s book offers a unique pathway to a new world order. Fafar weaves together the forces of spirituality, religion, professional expertise and profound lived experience, and applies these to issues of personal relationships that challenge us all. Her book offers wise and tested practical strategies and deep insights bathed in her love of humanity and belief in its inherent goodness.
This work offers the gift to reclaim civil society through the transformation of our personal relationships.
— Di James. Founding Director of the Family Action Centre of the University of Newcastle, Australia
Fafar’s work helps me keep understanding the role of spirit on earth. The way she brings life to the conception of us as spiritual beings in a physical form, took my breath away over and over as I read! This book has applications for all who seek both emotional health and spiritual truth; it also shows us how to live with and challenge the physical and structural realities of disease and oppression. What a gift to the world!
— Valerie Batts, VP, Training and Development (and Founding Director) of VISIONS, Inc.
Farzaneh Guillebeaux has written a book that is not only grounded in practical, useful information but also inspires you at your core. She allows us to journey through some of the most private and painful areas of her life. Through her transparency, we as clinicians, professionals and the common everyday person, are given a front seat as she traverses through the experiential development of self and others. As a Christian, this book encourages me but also presents challenges in my way of thinking, living and being.
— Pastor Leon Corder, Masters in Psychology Counseling
Fafar speaks the unspoken and confronts the hidden that many of us have experienced. By sharing her own life struggles, she models how vulnerability can lead to an authentic and empowered self. She makes clear that the work is gradual and is the total responsibility of the individual. It isn’t easy.
I once heard that the therapist could only take their clients as far as she has gone in her own abilities and self-growth. Fafar Guillebeaux has had many opportunities in life to become consecrated and claim her birthright.
— Lisa Puzon, D.T. Psy.
The awakening of the soul is the most important journey each of us will ever take. It is not for the faint of heart. Yet, for those courageous enough to enter the transforming fires of suffering and let God cook us into who we came here to be, the rewards are great. I found this journey profoundly shared in Farzaneh Guillebeaux moving memoir Spiritual Transformation: Reclaiming our Birthright. By her willingness to share her own dark times; from her father’s suicide, the threat of loss of her marriage, to her battle with CFS and cancer – and her deep faith in God , her thirst for understanding took her on an unexpected journey of awakening a deep spiritual transformation within herself, her family and beloved friends. Her love of life, people and God sees her through over and over as she grows and allows her soul to be polished by life. I found it a particularly valuable gift for those of the Bahai faith or curious about it, since it offers a unique inward window into the power of its teachings, although people from all walks of life will be touched by her journey and the gems of insights she shares along the way.
— Michael Brant DeMaria, Ph.D., Integrative Psychologist, Bestselling Author and 4-time Grammy Nominated Musician
