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Arts & Entertainment

Wilmette Social Worker, Psychologist Write Spirituality Book

"A Woman's Search for Inner Peace" offers a guide to self-exploration.

After spending 25 years working with children and families as a clinical psychologist, Wilmette resident Antoinette Saunders felt she no longer had all the answers.

“In my midlife, I became very interested in my own spirituality, and then I began studying it,” Saunders said.

In 1988, Saunders enrolled in the Institute for Spiritual Companionship. She began working to share her experiences exploring feelings of forgiveness, compassion and gratitude with her patients at her home practice, and in 1998 she founded the Northbrook-based Transformations: the Institute for Psychological and Spiritual Development to help others discover ways to be spiritual outside of traditional religions.

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Saunders believes that the world is filled with synchronicity, things and people that just showed up when they were needed. One of those people was Carol Moss, a fellow Wilmette resident that Saunders met at Transformation’s annual Women’s Spirituality Conference in Northfield. Moss had been integrating spirituality into her work for 17 years, both in her private practice and at the King Home retirement community in Evanston.

“We realized that both of us had a similar practice, and that we needed a tool to help people understand what is it we do,” Moss said.

Plenty of books have been written on spirituality and therapy, but they found most of them were too religious.

“There's nothing wrong with a book that's Christ-based, but it didn't quite feel organic to us,” Moss said.

The two decided to team up to pen and publish A Woman’s Search for Inner Peace. Using the example of a 40-something mother of two who begins seeing a spiritual psychotherapist, the book guides readers through the process of reexamining the way they look at the world, complete with end of chapter exercises.

“It was amazing how difficult this was to write,” Moss said. “We boiled a lot of concepts down as much as we could distil them.”

Duo Pens Book to Share Experience, Roadmap

The book was published in February, and Saunders said she’s received good feedback from readers who have been exploring their spirituality for a while, and those who are just starting out.

“I give it to clients that I'm starting to see in spiritual psychotherapy,” she said. “It gives them a roadmap for what it is that we're trying to do. I think people really appreciate that. I think it's very overwhelming when you start on this journey and see all the books that are available.”

Saunders and Moss also want to bring their teachings to more people through offering workshops and lectures. Moss said it’s a good time for the topic, as many Baby Boomers are reaching middle age and are looking for more meaning in their lives when the external pressures of working and raising kids have waned.

“A lot of us are looking for answers at the same time,” she said.

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