Works
Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity
Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued helps women to understand and address blocks in the creative process, including chronic procrastination, managing the pressures of family life, and conflicts about success and competing with men. The author provides useful tools for reclaiming autonomy and creative power.
"With exercises at the end of each chapter, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity probes the forces that may be holding you back -- be they negative messages from parents, society or even your own dark side...O'Doherty's thoughtful chapters on blending creativity with motherhood or aging may resonate with those whose right-brain longings have been stuck on the back burner."
--The Washington Post, September 30, 2007
"This is a sneaky book: it looks like 'self-help,' and it reads so easily, so lightly, so airily, that its complex wisdom creeps up on the reader and takes her entirely by surprise. Sue O'Doherty's book is 'self-help' in that it aims to help the reader figure out how to work on her own problems--but what it really is, deep down, is a work of deceptively simple philosophy, written in a style so approachable and friendly that it never feels hard to read or hard to get. This is not only the best--the smartest and must lucid--book about creative blocks I have ever read, it's also the best book about 'women's work' I've ever read--and the chapters about motherhood and art, and growing older (and growing old) and making art, are all by themselves worth the price of admission. (In fact, the exercises alone--provided by O'Doherty in each chapter--are worth the price of admission.)"
--Michelle Herman, author of Dog and The Middle of Everything
"Imaginative minds may concoct stories, novels and whole other worlds, but unfortunately these same minds can also create crippling self-doubts, unnerving anxiety and the dreaded specter of writers’ block. But psychologist O’Doherty’s brilliantly compassionate, and eminently practical, guiding light of a book helps the creative spark ignite, even as it guides writers away from doubt and offers a roadmap for the rocky path of creativity. Warm, supportive and so smart and helpful, that for me, it’s as essential as a computer!”
--Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble and Coming Back To Me
"If you think creativity is luck and that it takes magic to realize your potential, buy this book. We're all very lucky that someone as brilliant as Dr. Sue O'Doherty has taken time out of her busy practice to help us explore our processes and jump start them. From insight to insight, exercise to exercise, this is a book for every artist, writer -- for every creative soul -- to treasure, and, more important, to use!"
--M.J. Rose, author of The Delilah Complex and Lying in Bed
"In this thorough, and thoroughly engaging, guide, Sue O'Doherty invites us to explore—and break through--the conditioning that keeps us from our deepest, truest expression. Any artist will find this book challenging, invigorating, and ultimately liberating."
Gayle Brandeis, author of Self Storage and The Book of Dead Birds
"Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued is a fantastic resource for any woman interested in getting at the heart of the creative impulse. Through women's stories, unblocking exercises, and even her own personal history with coming to know her artistic self, Dr. Sue examines the ways in which women can prevent themselves from fully pursuing their creative work. Her voice is as comforting as it is articulate, and with her reassuring yet challenging guidance, readers will find themselves able to unstick in ways they might never have imagined."
--Andrea Buchanan, author of Mother Shock
"Page by page, with stunning honesty and moving anecdotes, Susan O'Doherty peels back the layers of the creative process in Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued. I felt inspired by reading how she and her clients turned problems into creative possibilities, and the exercises were wonderful. This is a book that I will return to many times, and it belongs on the shelf of every artist who believes life and art are intertwined."
--Masha Hamilton, author of The Distance Between Us and Staircase of a Thousand Steps
A wonderful, thoughtful critique by one of my favorite writers, Richard Grayson
Check out what John Tesh has to say about the book!
And here is my favorite review ever!
"With exercises at the end of each chapter, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity probes the forces that may be holding you back -- be they negative messages from parents, society or even your own dark side...O'Doherty's thoughtful chapters on blending creativity with motherhood or aging may resonate with those whose right-brain longings have been stuck on the back burner."
--The Washington Post, September 30, 2007
"This is a sneaky book: it looks like 'self-help,' and it reads so easily, so lightly, so airily, that its complex wisdom creeps up on the reader and takes her entirely by surprise. Sue O'Doherty's book is 'self-help' in that it aims to help the reader figure out how to work on her own problems--but what it really is, deep down, is a work of deceptively simple philosophy, written in a style so approachable and friendly that it never feels hard to read or hard to get. This is not only the best--the smartest and must lucid--book about creative blocks I have ever read, it's also the best book about 'women's work' I've ever read--and the chapters about motherhood and art, and growing older (and growing old) and making art, are all by themselves worth the price of admission. (In fact, the exercises alone--provided by O'Doherty in each chapter--are worth the price of admission.)"
--Michelle Herman, author of Dog and The Middle of Everything
"Imaginative minds may concoct stories, novels and whole other worlds, but unfortunately these same minds can also create crippling self-doubts, unnerving anxiety and the dreaded specter of writers’ block. But psychologist O’Doherty’s brilliantly compassionate, and eminently practical, guiding light of a book helps the creative spark ignite, even as it guides writers away from doubt and offers a roadmap for the rocky path of creativity. Warm, supportive and so smart and helpful, that for me, it’s as essential as a computer!”
--Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble and Coming Back To Me
"If you think creativity is luck and that it takes magic to realize your potential, buy this book. We're all very lucky that someone as brilliant as Dr. Sue O'Doherty has taken time out of her busy practice to help us explore our processes and jump start them. From insight to insight, exercise to exercise, this is a book for every artist, writer -- for every creative soul -- to treasure, and, more important, to use!"
--M.J. Rose, author of The Delilah Complex and Lying in Bed
"In this thorough, and thoroughly engaging, guide, Sue O'Doherty invites us to explore—and break through--the conditioning that keeps us from our deepest, truest expression. Any artist will find this book challenging, invigorating, and ultimately liberating."
Gayle Brandeis, author of Self Storage and The Book of Dead Birds
"Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued is a fantastic resource for any woman interested in getting at the heart of the creative impulse. Through women's stories, unblocking exercises, and even her own personal history with coming to know her artistic self, Dr. Sue examines the ways in which women can prevent themselves from fully pursuing their creative work. Her voice is as comforting as it is articulate, and with her reassuring yet challenging guidance, readers will find themselves able to unstick in ways they might never have imagined."
--Andrea Buchanan, author of Mother Shock
"Page by page, with stunning honesty and moving anecdotes, Susan O'Doherty peels back the layers of the creative process in Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued. I felt inspired by reading how she and her clients turned problems into creative possibilities, and the exercises were wonderful. This is a book that I will return to many times, and it belongs on the shelf of every artist who believes life and art are intertwined."
--Masha Hamilton, author of The Distance Between Us and Staircase of a Thousand Steps
A wonderful, thoughtful critique by one of my favorite writers, Richard Grayson
Check out what John Tesh has to say about the book!
And here is my favorite review ever!
"My Most Memorable Experience" in Sex for America: Politically Inspired Erotica
"According to [editor Stephen] Elliott, erotica should be 'a good literary story with something to say about the world'; this entertaining and thought-provoking collection of sexy, graphic tales embodies that standard. Patrons who appreciate both erotica and political satire will snap it up."
--Library Journal
“The Road Home,” in About What Was Lost: Twenty Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope
"Without exception, the essays collected in About What Was Lost are courageous, gripping and profoundly moving. Jessica Berger Gross has assembled a fine group of writers whose voices rise up-both individually and as a chorus-to give shape to an experience that so often remains buried and silent."
--Dani Shapiro, author of Family History
“The Velvet Underground,” in It’s a Boy! Women Writers on Raising Sons
"Andrea Buchanan has put together a terrific collection of diverse voices... as mother of two sons myself, I read every page with the alternate pleasures of recognition and discovery. These are funny, true, and occasionally heartwrenching essays. They make me wish I could do it all again."
--Joyce Maynard
"What is Susan O'Doherty Reading?"
My contribution to Marshal Zeringue's "Campaign for the American Reader" series of essays, "Writers Read."
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