Dramatic True Story of “Addiction and Redemption” Challenges Conventional Views of Treatment for Drug Addicts

New book offers a vivid mother-daughter account of addiction and an unusual path to recovery for them both. Their healing came through ayahuasca, a psycho-active Amazonian rainforest tea

Charlottesville, VA (PRWEB) April 29, 2012Love Unbroken: from addiction to redemption is the true story of Pamela, who spends ten years in hell struggling with drug addiction. As told by Pam and her mother Susan Thesenga, the story reveals heroin addicts barely surviving in the slums of Washington D.C. and meth addicts roaming wild in the city parks of San Diego. Pam attends five treatment centers and suffers numerous relapses while her parents consult countless experts who disagree with each other. In Brazil they receive shamanic exorcisms and experience ayahuasca, a psycho-active rainforest tea considered sacred by indigenous Amazonians.Both Pam and her mother emerge profoundly changed from these encounters. Their shared path to recovery is highly unusual, going far beyond conventional addiction treatment. “My hope is that as people come to know my daughter Pamela through this story, they will start seeing addicts as real people with problems and traumas that need to be dealt with compassionately and kindly, not punitively,” the author remarks. “Further, I hope to open the door to new questions about what might help an addict. To read about the positive effects of ayahuasca and ibogaine in Pam’s life may help some people involved in addiction treatment question the rigid assumption that no addict should ever use any kind of mind-altering substance.”Susan Thesenga has been a therapist and spiritual teacher for the past forty years, teaching throughout the United States and Brazil. Her first book The Undefended Self is used as a text in centers which train healers and transformational therapists. She lives with her husband Donovan near Charlottesville, VA at the Sevenoaks Retreat Center, which they founded in 1972. Her daughter Pamela is in full recovery and lives in Charlottesville.Love Unbroken is published by Being & Awakening and is available from the book’s website http://www.loveunbroken.org The book is also available through http://www.amazon.com and is distributed nationwide through Ingram and New Leaf (ISBN 9780615559803; 286 pages, $17.95). The digital edition was produced by Fearless Books in association with Being & Awakening (ISBN 9781452476568, $9.95), and is available from Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, and many other digital platforms.http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9452052.htm