Fresh Start is a step-by-step guide to deliver evidence-based techniques including cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness, exposure therapy, and hypnotherapy in a psychotherapy group for those battling chronic disorganization and hoarding.
This book will be a source of healing for patients, families and communities; Dr. Dennison and Ms. Kruzan help the reader understand the insidious nature of this problem and offer strategies to help clinicians deal with patients affected by hoarding. Hoarding is a biopsychosocial problem which has roots in the neurotransmitters in our brains and then is reinforced by our beliefs, societal structures, and shame in confronting the problem. It is a choice between our "stuff" and our very lives. The authors offer insight and tools to empower patients to choose their lives over the constant subtle messages to have more and more things. People want to "have it all" and sometimes this becomes the choice to "hoard it all" at the expense of their families, health and lives. Thank you for a valuable healing resource
-Sarita Salzberg, MD, MPH Board Certified in Addiction Medicine and Family Medicine MPH Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Being a part of a Fresh Start group has transformed both me and my house! Joey and Karen are a fantastic team who know the solution to overcoming disorganization involves education, guidance, acceptance, encouragement, and support and that's exactly what Fresh Start provides. With their professional help this past year and a half, and the bond of being in a support group, I slowly worked through the inward shame and the outward clutter and reclaimed and transformed 3 entire rooms in my house! Words cannot describe the amount of joy, pride, and peace that has given me. Was I magically cured and now living the 'perfect' life in a 'perfect' home? No, but Fresh Start has given me the tools and support I need to put one foot in front of the other on this journey of progress and I am forever grateful!
- Janice R., Fresh Start Graduate
