Missing Father: A Daughter's Search for Love Self-Acceptance and a Parent Lost in the World of Mental Illness

At once a powerful story of a daughters literal and figurative search for her father and an indictment of the mental health system with legacies to this day Missing Father will touch readers searching to make sense of the complexities of love family and self-understanding. Filled with searing memories and beautiful poetic writing it captures the extraordinary character of a bipolar parent as seen through the eyes of a bewildered little girl who grows up to become a family therapist with children of her own. While it is memoir it reads like first-rate literature in a vein with classics such as A Beautiful Mind and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Missing Father cuts through the layers of shame alienation and ups and downs of life in a family navigating through mental illness and will resonate with those who have tried to reach an inaccessible loved one.Missing Father...is beautifully rendered and filled with tenderness and compassion and clarity.... It reads like a dream. -- Laura Davis co-author of The Courage to HealIt is brilliant writer plus hard experience heartbreak plus love a beautiful shared sculpture of human life. --Gina Bliss MD pediatricianMissing Father is a deeply moving and insightful personal narrative that draws the reader into the unnerving world of mental health system realities. --Lisa Bertaccini LCSW former chief of Child and Family Mental Health Sacramento CountyBrilliant scenes abound throughout as do moving poetic images. --Erica Miles author of Dazzled by DarknessA heartbreaking journey from confused child to confident professional.... Missing Father will resonate with anyone who has tried to alleviate the suffering of an unreachable loved one. -- Laurie Heller adjunct faculty Woodland Community CollegeSmiths emotional honesty gives us permission to share our own dark secrets. --Janet Greenwood PhD RN LMFT Through compelling emotionally revealing vignettes Shauna Smith teaches us about the power of love and empathy. Lessons for all levels of mental health workers are found in the disturbing descriptions of how an uncaring system can contribute to wrecking a life. Also our clients those who are caretakers and those struggling with mental illness may find validation and learn resilience. -- Jean Rosenfeld LCSWParents cast a shifting shadow over us and draw on our deepest wells of compassion. Smith in Missing Father uses memory writing and reflection to put the shattered pieces of a loved ones life into perspective. -- Kathryn Gronke MAI started Missing Father Monday night and couldnt put it down! I love the short bold chapters. And the mixing of narrative conversation and shared communication (letters) which of course would only be noteworthy with a well-written and compelling story. -- Pauli Hakensen addiction counselor grief specialist