Overview

"Midlife Emergence is a revelatory memoir and an inviting guidebook; it is a compassionate companion that belongs on the bedside table of every woman who finds herself burning to reclaim powerful parts of herself that social conditioning locked away. Midlife doesn't need to be a crisis or an emergency-rather, it's an emergence, an opportunity to make those beautiful, unexpressed facets shamelessly visible. Psychotherapist and coach Jen Berlingo guides those yearning to peel back acculturated, adaptive layers of identity as they soulfully construct their second act of life. Many women who have followed society's prescribed path to fulfillment seem to land in their forties with a dull emptiness and an inner voice that perpetually asks, ""Is this all there is?"" Underneath the stories of her clients, Jen clearly hears their soul's longings-each one unique, but all harmonized in their aching for so much more. They feel enticed to explore beyond the familial and social prescriptions, obligations, and expectations they've followed, a pioneering act that can be simultaneously terrifying and electrifying. As Jen traversed her own midlife portal in her forties, she began to live more fully into her queer identity, experimented with ethical non-monogamy, and reframed divorce as an expansive form of love for her family and herself. Outside the specifics of her journey, she became a cartographer, marking the waypoints and pinpointing universal signposts so others would not have to walk this path alone. The vulnerability of Jen's story ignites a flame of recognition inside those who yearn to illuminate parts they may have buried in darkness. Throughout the narrative, Jen shares enlightening journaling and art prompts and potent, personal rituals designed to support the woman in midlife in freeing her own inner fire. Midlife Emergence is both an inspiring, tender story and a wise, warmhearted guide for the woman in midlife who feels a gut-flipping longing she may not yet be able to name. It validates the adult in untangling her personal values from those imposed by family or cultural lineages. It embraces the parent ready to break out of habituated martyrdom to show her children how not to abandon themselves. It emboldens the woman who has come of age under the patriarchy to finally claim her sovereignty. It speaks to the person who has been conditioned into compulsive heterosexuality in exploring her intrinsic sexuality later in life. It empowers the recovering ""good girl"" and the drained people-pleaser in taking courageous steps toward unfurling into her full integrity for the second half of life."

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9781954805460

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Reviews

A riveting, poetic, and thunderously courageous book! It's a deep dive into radical honesty. Every woman is offered a sacred invitation in midlife, and Jen's ability to articulate her journey and share the amazing opportunity that this precious time offers acts as a reframe on a view that need not be limiting, but full of magic and transformation. I am ever so grateful for this offering! -Carre Otis, model, mother, activist, and author of Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir Written with depth, color, and candor, Midlife Emergence is one woman's utterly human portrayal of becoming who she really is. Jen's courageous revelations, humor, and accessibility invite us to similarly align with truth, while also providing clever and creative exercises to help us do so-a true gem and an inspiring read. -Eric Meyers, astrologer and author of The Astrology of Awakening For anyone who has found themselves reexamining their sexuality later in life, this book provides deeply satisfying answers to the questions Why me? and Why now? Midlife Emergence is a thoughtful weaving of Jen's own captivating story with the social science behind why we do some of the things we do. It's a lesson in appreciating the challenging process of transformation. -Jillian Abby, author of Perfectly Queer Watching Jen Berlingo take off in her life is sort of like watching one of those fireworks that starts out very sweetly in the twinkle zone, but then, hey look! It executes a surprising explosion, and you follow that up into the night sky and then it shoots beauty to every part of your vision, and you shout with sheer astonishment at the freedom of it. A guidebook for women who suspect they want more and are ready to start claiming it. -Lisa Jones, writing teacher and author of the award-winning memoir Broken: A Love Story

"""A riveting, poetic, and thunderously courageous book! It's a deep dive into radical honesty. Every woman is offered a sacred invitation in midlife, and Jen's ability to articulate her journey and share the amazing opportunity that this precious time offers acts as a reframe on a view that need not be limiting, but full of magic and transformation. I am ever so grateful for this offering!"" -Carré Otis, model, mother, activist, and author of Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir ""Written with depth, color, and candor, Midlife Emergence is one woman's utterly human portrayal of becoming who she really is. Jen's courageous revelations, humor, and accessibility invite us to similarly align with truth, while also providing clever and creative exercises to help us do so-a true gem and an inspiring read."" -Eric Meyers, astrologer and author of The Astrology of Awakening ""For anyone who has found themselves reexamining their sexuality later in life, this book provides deeply satisfying answers to the questions ""Why me?"" and ""Why now?"" Midlife Emergence is a thoughtful weaving of Jen's own captivating story with the social science behind why we do some of the things we do. It's a lesson in appreciating the challenging process of transformation."" -Jillian Abby, author of Perfectly Queer ""Watching Jen Berlingo take off in her life is sort of like watching one of those fireworks that starts out very sweetly in the twinkle zone, but then, hey look! It executes a surprising explosion, and you follow that up into the night sky and then it shoots beauty to every part of your vision, and you shout with sheer astonishment at the freedom of it. A guidebook for women who suspect they want more and are ready to start claiming it."" -Lisa Jones, writing teacher and author of the award-winning memoir Broken: A Love Story"

Author Information

Jen Berlingo, MA, LPC, ATR (she/her) is a midlife coach, a licensed professional counselor in the state of Colorado, a nationally registered art therapist, and a master-level Reiki practitioner. She earned her graduate's degree in transpersonal counseling psychology and art therapy from Naropa University, a Buddhist-oriented school for experiential and contemplative education. For twenty years, she has used coaching, counseling, art psychotherapy, energy work, ritual, and ceremony to support women in becoming their most authentic, sovereign selves. Through her private practice, women's circles, and online programs, Jen has midwifed hundreds of women through life's turning points, as they rebirth and reparent themselves into more fully expressed, whole beings. While guiding clients through cathartic metamorphoses and quests for true alignment, Jen experienced her own profoundly transformative passage in her forties, where she was able to expand more fully into her queer identity and embrace other seemingly subversive aspects of herself. Jen's journey inspired her to write Midlife Emergence to accompany other women in traversing the midlife portal. She invites the often inconvenient, raw truth to come forward in service of alchemizing shame into powerful reclamation. In addition to her longstanding work as a healing practitioner, Jen is a visual artist who offers original paintings, prints, and oracle decks to collectors worldwide. She exhibits her fluid, abstract art locally in her beloved town of Boulder, Colorado. There, among the sunny foothills, Jen can be found making bottomless bowls of popcorn and snuggling on the couch with her unconventional family, her coven of close friends, and her Norwegian forest tabby rescues, Jinx and Juju. Learn more about Jen and her offerings by visiting jenberlingo.com.

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