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Embrace Your Imperfections and Embark Upon a Healing Journey with God as Your Guide

Embrace Your Imperfections and Embark Upon a Healing Journey with God as Your Guide

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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Crippling fear permeated every aspect of Christine Soule’s life from an early age and followed her into adulthood. Her past of brokenness — abuse, dysfunction, addiction and other trauma — could have very well defined her future. But once she turned to God and let Him lead the way, she found a path toward a brighter future.

“The key is discovering who you are in Christ — your true identify. And that’s especially significant if you, like me, have a past of brokenness,” Soule writes in her inspirational story, Broken and Beautiful. “So much of how we see ourselves revolves around the demands our society places on us, insisting we live up to its expectations. Don’t listen to the world. Listen to God.”

Soule’s life was a jumbled pile of broken pieces. Her father was married seven times; her mother four times. Between her parents’ divorce when she was 5 years old and the day she allowed the power and presence of God into her heart, she watched her sister have an affair with her adoptive father; met 15 siblings she never knew at her biological father’s funeral; turned to drugs and alcohol; got pregnant at 17; had twins less than two years later; and became a victim of human trafficking. She had to break the cycle for the sake of her children. With nowhere else to turn, she dropped to her knees and prayed. And that’s when everything changed.

Broken and Beautiful is Soule’s remarkable story of how God took the pieces of her broken, astonishingly dysfunctional life and transformed it all into a breathtaking mosaic of joy and purpose.

“The places where you feel hopeless are exactly what He wants to redeem and fill with beauty, dignity and strength. He has a plan for your pain. A wonderful intention for your failures. A purpose for your hardest, darkest stories,” Soule writes.

Told with honesty and surprising touches of humor, Soule shares her journey from drug-
addicted stripper to exuberant Jesus lover with a passion for helping others embrace God’s love. Broken and Beautiful is a raw, authentic story of hope, from a place of experience.

Author Christine Soule lives with the love of her life, Mitch Soule, in Seattle. They have five kids and three wonderful grandchildren. She is the founder and CEO of Providence Heights (www.providenceheights.org), a nonprofit created to house women and children in need and to provide counseling, education and jobs.

For more information, please visit www.christinesoule.com.

Broken and Beautiful: Let God Turn Your Mess into a Masterpiece
ISBN-13: 979-8662957619
Available from Amazon.com (Broken and Beautiful), providenceheights.org and christinesoule.com

Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone

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Should a Person with Autism Be Allowed to Become a Professional Boxer and Put His Life at Risk?

Should a Person with Autism Be Allowed to Become a Professional Boxer and Put His Life at Risk?

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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It’s a struggle that parents of children with special needs face every day and well into that child’s adulthood: how much decision-making latitude is safe?

NOKI is an empowering story from Douglas Farrago, MD, about a young man with autism who wants to become a professional boxer. Life’s circumstances have dictated the reason for him choosing this path. The lawless world of boxing has its reasons for embracing Noki and his abilities. And they are not good ones. So, the debate wages on: Should Noki be allowed to make the life-altering decision to enter the ring and put his life on the line?

Meanwhile, what few know is that Noki is actually a savant and can imitate and transform himself into any legendary boxer he wants — a plot twist that allows NOKI to pay homage to some of the greatest boxers of all time.

Dr. Farrago draws upon his experiences as an All-American collegiate boxer, a sports medicine trainer for professional boxers in Houston and his decades-long career in medicine during which he worked with autism patients to lend authenticity to his characters and narrative.

“Noki becomes somewhat of a hero to those with special needs in this story, which I think is pretty cool,” he said. “I felt it would be nice if a story showed that those with autism don’t need to be anything but themselves, and maybe it is the rest of us who need to change.”

Ultimately, NOKI is a heartwarming story that will spark real conversations about the limits that society places on people with special needs. Knowingly or not.

Author Douglas Farrago, MD, is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. Recently retired, he had a large following of autistic and special needs patients in his career. Dr. Farrago is the inventor of the Knee Saver, which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He also invented the CryoHelmet, used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers.

Dr. Farrago received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Master of Education degree in Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990 and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago has written six books to date, his latest one being NOKI.

For more information about NOKI and the author, please visit http://letnokibox.com/.

NOKI
Publisher: Authentic Medicine
Release Date: April 2021
ISBN-10: 0578873656
ISBN-13: 978-0578873657
Available from Amazon.com

Trish Stevens
Susan Conrad
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone

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Parents and Educators: Both Can Help Children Attain Academic Heights

Parents and Educators: Both Can Help Children Attain Academic Heights

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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Children who arrive at school with an emotional commitment to learn are ideally equipped to excel academically. A second factor in their learning success is the set of values that guides the lessons they’re taught during their most impressionable years (preschool–grade 5). These are among the insights of Dr. Cornelius Grove, who has spent decades exploring the cultural factors that affect children’s performance in classrooms.

Consider Dr. Grove’s 138-page book for parents, The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel. Here he explores the ways in which East Asian parents instill in their children respect for academic knowledge and receptiveness to the formal learning process. After a seven-chapter explanation of cultural values underlying East Asian parents’ mindset, he offers three chapters revealing their specific supportive practices. It’s an outline for action for American parents who deeply value academic learning.

A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel, is the 148-page companion volume to the above book. Dr. Grove examines the school side of the learning equation. East Asian lower-grade lessons gain the advantage because of their tenacious, narrow, yet multifaceted focus on the day’s topic. He addresses, among other things, how East Asians regard teaching and the reasons for pupils’ math superiority. Choice magazine (June issue) “highly recommends” this book for “general readers through faculty.”

“People who’ve had experience in unfamiliar cultures often remark that they now see their own culture with fresh eyes,” Dr. Grove explains. “It’s as though they’ve looked into a mirror and seen alternative possibilities for themselves. They realize that their usual ways of doing things are not etched in stone; instead, they’re choices. Different choices could be made.”

Although each book effortlessly stands alone, The Drive to Learn and A Mirror for Americans combine to encourage complementary reassessments by parents and lower-grade teachers about the more impactful roles they could be playing in upgrading the academic performance and the eventual college readiness of the youngest Americans.

For more detailed overviews, visit TheDriveToLearn.info and AMirrorForAmericans.info.

Author Cornelius N. Grove holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Johns Hopkins and a Doctor of Education from Columbia. He has had a decades-long fascination with the cultural factors that affect children’s ability to learn in school. At a 2005 conference in Singapore, he spoke about the two instructional styles found around the world. In 2013 he wrote The Aptitude Myth: How an Ancient Belief Came to Undermine Children’s Learning Today, a historical study of why most Americans believe that inborn ability determines school performance. For two recently published encyclopedias (2015 and 2017), he wrote entries on “pedagogy across cultures.” And now with A Mirror for Americans and The Drive to Learn, he is revealing the complementary roles home and school play in strengthening children’s academic capabilities.

The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland)
Hardback: 978-1-4758-1509-2
Paperback: 978-1-4758-1510-8
eBook: 978-1-4758-1511-5
Available from Amazon.com, Rowman.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.

A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland)
Hardback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4460-3
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4461-0
eBook: ISBN 978-1-4758-4462-7
Available from Amazon.com, Rowman.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.

Trish Stevens
Teresa Hinojosa
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
832.569.5773 Direct
281.333.3507 Phone
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

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Expert Speaker, Renowned Psychiatrist Provides Healthy Path Forward Amid World Unrest

Expert Speaker, Renowned Psychiatrist Provides Healthy Path Forward Amid World Unrest

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

It seems that every day the news gets worse. Mass killings. Officer-involved shootings. Social upheaval. The pandemic. And everyone just trying their best to adjust to a new normal amid swirling unrest. It’s a lot for the brain to process. Do we react with fear? Anxiety? Anger? Or can we teach our brains to push pause and unpack the facts first, instead of allowing the seemingly endless stream of negative news to impact our mental, emotional and spiritual health?

Timothy R. Jennings, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist, master psychopharmacologist and highly sought-after speaker who regularly addresses the topic of brain health to both non-medical and medical audiences. His subjects include Major Depression in the Primary Care Setting and the Neurobiology of Depression, Alzheimer’s Dementia, Psychotherapy in Clinical Practice, Spirituality in Medicine, Depression and its Spiritual and Physical Connections — among many others.

A common thread among his discussion topics is how anxiety-inducing news and events can activate the brain’s stress pathways — thereby increasing the body’s inflammatory factors, diminishing immune response and increasing vulnerability to viral infections and cancer. The good news is, we can rewire the way our brains react to negative news and stressful events, and Dr. Jennings can explain how.

As a Christian psychiatrist, Dr. Jennings also speaks to design principles that, when embraced and followed, can lead to a better understanding of the world and bring about more peace.

As the world searches for a clear path toward physical and mental recovery, Dr. Jennings is uniquely poised to address the very serious subject of brain health from both scientific and spiritual perspectives — a much needed and welcomed approach during these extremely distressing times.

Dr. Jennings operates a private practice in Chattanooga and has successfully treated thousands of patients. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Life-Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association.

Trish Stevens
Helen Cook
Senior Publicist
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
903.654.0938 Direct
281.333.3507 Office
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

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Why Meditation Matters in Your Connection with God

Why Meditation Matters in Your Connection with God

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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Can meditation help enrich our spiritual experiences and deepen our understanding of God? Yes, it can, says psychiatrist and author of The God-Shaped Brain Timothy R. Jennings, M.D.

“When we practice biblical meditation, we exercise the brain circuits of reason, thoughtful contemplation, and admiration for God,” Dr. Jennings says. “We grapple with concepts beyond our current understanding, stretching our abilities, which develop ever-increasing, more complex brain circuitry. These higher cortical regions grow stronger, as does our wisdom and our capacity for self-governance and manifesting the fruits of the Spirit.”

In his new publication, Meditation: Biblical Method Versus Eastern Method, A Guide to a Bible-based Experience with God, Dr. Jennings documents the differences between biblical and Eastern meditation; describes divergent meditation methods and their impact on brain function and character outcomes; and demonstrates how readers can engage in healthy biblical meditation. Also included is a simple test to help readers determine which form of meditation they’re practicing.

Dr. Jennings describes Eastern meditation as a form of self-anesthesia that relieves transient emotional distress (like pain medication for an injury) without providing an actual cure for the problem.

Alternatively, biblical meditation is like surgery for the soul, he explains. It takes one through the valley of the shadow of death, removes the cause of the emotional distress and cures the problem, resulting in genuine peace for the soul.

The Bible tells us to meditate upon God’s word and God’s wonders in creation, and Meditation can help readers understand the practice of biblical meditation so they can heal their hearts and minds, and return to their oneness with God and with each other.

Author Timothy R. Jennings, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist, international speaker and founder of Come and Reason Ministries. He operates a private practice in Chattanooga and has successfully treated thousands of patients. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Life-Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Jennings is also a prolific author whose books include The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life; Could It Be This Simple? A Biblical Model for Healing the Mind; The Aging Brain: Proven Steps to Prevent Dementia and Sharpen Your Mind; and The God-Shaped Heart: How Correctly Understanding God’s Love Transforms Us.

To download a free copy or to order a printed copy (while supplies last) of Meditation: Biblical Method Versus Eastern Method, or to learn more about Dr. Timothy R. Jennings and his approach to brain and body health, please visit: www.comeandreason.com.

Trish Stevens
Helen Cook
Senior Publicist
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
903.654.0938 Direct
281.333.3507 Office
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

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Serendipity Illuminates Ways to Prosper from Unexpected Events

Serendipity Illuminates Ways to Prosper from Unexpected Events

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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Happy accidents led to the invention of many things that we take for granted, such as the microwave oven, the phonograph and the curiously resilient CorningWare dishes. Maybe you don’t aspire to inventing a life-changing consumer product, but perhaps you’d like to switch career paths, meet new people or learn a new skill.
Serendipity is all around you, and it can help you achieve personal and professional growth.

“In addition to the occasional case of the monumental, unexpected occurrence that may be researched and exploited, situations may arise that also lead to a useful and/or profitable outcome,” says Neil J. Farber, MD. “One can know what one wants to achieve but be unable to get to that outcome. … sometimes by chance, the way to proceed may appear.”

Dr. Farber’s new book, Serendipity: Utilizing Everyday Unexpected Events to Improve Your Life and Career, thoroughly explores the role that serendipity could play in our lives and explains that recognizing serendipitous events is better achieved with a certain set of skills.

“You have to have a mind-set that allows you to think that such events can happen,” he explains, adding that by practicing self-awareness and cultivating keen visual and auditory observational skills, we are more likely to spot even the most subtle of serendipitous happenings.

Serendipity describes how to understand the different types of serendipitous events and how they are common to all of us; how to recognize these events when they do occur; how to acquire the skills necessary to become more aware of serendipity; how to “connect the dots” to bring the serendipitous event to a fortuitous conclusion (that is, what skills, assistance and resources may be necessary); and what to do with the end product or idea if it is profitable, or as sometimes happens, when it is not.

Dr. Farber uses events recorded in literature and the history books, as well as events that have occurred in his own personal and professional life to create a helpful guide for recognizing and turning common events into meaningful moments.

Author Neil J. Farber is a Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine at University of California, San Diego, and a docent at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. He has been an academic internal medicine physician for 40 years, teaching, researching and providing patient care in medical schools initially on the East Coast. For the past 12 years, he was Professor of Clinical Medicine at University of California, San Diego, retiring at the end of April 2019. He has received numerous awards, including Top Doctor of San Diego five times, and is a member of the FDA Non-Prescription Drug Advisory Committee. He has published over 60 research papers and has had a multitude of serendipitous events occur, which have significantly (and positively) influenced his career and his personal life.

Serendipity: Utilizing Everyday Unexpected Events to Improve Your Life and Career Publisher: Boyle & Dalton
ISBN: 978-1-63337-456-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-63337-457-7 (e-book)
LCCN: 2020922389

Available from Amazon.com and BN.com

Trish Stevens
Gwen Baker
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone

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Shock and Denial Consume Parents of Addicts

Shock and Denial Consume Parents of Addicts

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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“About Natalie is groundbreaking. It doesn’t preach or pretend to offer a panacea. Instead, it offers a refreshing, authentic look at one family’s struggle with addiction, easily the most powerful book published on the subject in the 21st century.”
— Dr. Maryel McKinley PhD, Addictions Expert, Former Co-Host, “All Talk Recovery Radio,” Los Angeles, Ar-bitron rated No. 1 in Southern California

Like the band that played on as the Titanic sank, Christine Naman unpacked the groceries and made a meatloaf — the simple act of normalcy distracting her from an unthinkable reality: addiction was pulling her daughter under.

“Even with the picture of the situation coming more clearly into focus, I clung to denial like a kayaker who has been thrown from his boat would cling to a branch lying across the water,” Christine says. “It is amazing how deep into denial a person can go and how strongly they can hang onto it before reality smacks them around enough so that they let go.”

Christine traces her daughter’s years-long battle with addiction in About Natalie, a gripping, cautionary tale of how, in spite of a loving family and a comfortable life, a child can end up on the wrong path, meet the wrong people and get lost in the unthinkable.

About Natalie takes readers deep inside Christine’s emotional and mental turmoil as she grows into her new, unfortunate role as the parent of an addict. She steps on syringes left on the floor and wrestles one from the family dog’s mouth. She lives the nightmare of finding an unresponsive child on the floor and uses Narcan to revive her. She chases away a drug dealer and stays up all night waiting for her missing child to come home. She rejoices during periods of recovery and hope and is devastated during relapses. When her daughter suffers, Christine suffers right along with her.

Interwoven with Christine’s reflections are Natalie’s compelling poems that share her personal pain and the unvarnished truth of her struggle.

At its core, About Natalie is a story of fighting for — and right alongside — the ones we love, no matter how difficult the circumstances. It is a story of keeping the faith, battling hard and never giving up.

Bestselling author Christine Pisera Naman is a wife to a beautiful man named Peter and a mother to three fantastic kids named Jason, Natalie and Trevor. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting, which she does poorly; painting, again poorly; and volunteering at her local hospital, which she hopes she does well. She is the author of the Faces of Hope series of books that are now housed in the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City. Her other works include Caterpillar Kisses, Christmas Lights, The Novena and The Believers. About Natalie is her heart poured onto paper.

She hopes that by sharing her family’s difficult story she can bring understanding and knowledge to those who do not know the problem firsthand as well as provide comfort to those who know the nightmare of addiction all too well.

For the About Natalie Addiction Comfort Community, please visit www.aboutnatalieaddictioncomfort.com.

About Natalie
Publisher: HCI Books
Release Date: May 2021
ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-2385-0 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-2386-7 (ePub)
Available from Amazon.com

Trish Stevens
Lindsey Mach
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone

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