Treating Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors: An Integrative Psychodynamic Approach will be published in the Routledge Focus on Mental Health series in 2022-23.

It is true that if I had known that the book I imagined writing in 2011 would take me A DECADE to finish, I might never have started the project. It is also true that if I could have imagined that my writing could one day lead me to publish this book with Routledge I would have told my younger self that it would all be worth it!

I remember the first time I thought about writing the book. My husband convinced me to go to a bed and breakfast for a weekend to get started. I spent most of the time reading articles and books. I was so irritable, I couldn’t find anything in the literature that came even close to capturing the complexities of body-focused behaviors, but I also couldn’t get more than a sentence or two down on paper. How do you start from nothing? How do you write when you have no idea if your words will ever come together or see the light of day?

For me, it was just that the sense that I needed to say some things that weren’t being said kept bugging me, in the back of my mind. I decided I needed a writing coach, and through Write By Night I found a great fit with Cecily Sailer. Throughout the years she challenged me to stick with the project, take the steps toward the larger goal one by one. She also let me grumble at her about what a terrible taskmaster she was and how she could be a joy-killer whenever I would think I was done with a chapter only to be met by, “Well, you’re getting there, but…”

I spent 2013 and 2014 working on and publishing my first peer-reviewed article, A healing herd: Benefits of a psychodynamic group approach in treating body-focused repetitive behaviors, in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. I was thrilled that editor Dominick Grundy helped me to meet that goal. Through the process, I connected with my favorite author, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, co-author of Zoobiquity and Wildhood. Her understanding of the social/emotional component of grooming among animals and humans inspired the name of the article.

In turn, that publication led me to connect with another of my mentors, Dr. Mohammad Jafferany. In his 2020 article, Non-Pharmacological Approach to the Treatment of Trichotillomania in Dermatologic Therapy, he cited my article as evidence for the psychodynamic approach.

We collaborated on my next article, Psychodynamic Treatment of Trichotillomania, along with Erica Aukerman, which was published online in Dermatologic Therapy, in 2021.

Four years ago, my BFF Gabi Snyder and I met for a writing retreat at the Writing Barn here in Austin TX. She is a children’s book author, notably of Listen, published this year. When we wrote together, I learned from her about the discipline it takes to see a project through. I learned that I needed to write for 3 or 4 hours at a time, not get up when I was frustrated, not just jot down the thoughts in my mind. I looked at what I had written over the 6 previous years and realized that I had virtually NOTHING as far as a real book was concerned. I cried and vented and freaked out and then I started from page 1 and wrote a full draft of the book, 140 pp. over the next 3 years.

Through my connection to the American Group Psychotherapy Association, where I have served as faculty for 5 of the past 8 years and the local branch, the Austin Group Psychotherapy Society, where I have served on the board and committees for many years, I met the third of my significant mentors, Dr. Molyn Leszcz. As the co-author of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, he had very helpful recommendations for my draft manuscript, including his suggestion that I include some parts of my own history of recovering from skin-picking in the book and that I prominently feature the most up-to-date research.

Two years ago, no longer as my coach but now as friend and peer, Cecily nudged me out of shyness to start an Instagram account. Little did I know that I would enjoy the connections I could make with other professionals and groups linked to BFRB treatment as well as with those struggling with BFRBs.

In around May, Cecily told me it was time to finish the book, all the way to line-edit and proof—before I sent in any queries about publication. She talked me into taking a week off of work to spend writing, at a little airbnb in Port Aransas. I can hardly remember that week in June, it was hellish and satisfying, and after 20 hours of work I frolicked in the waves. I spent another 20 hours the following month and finished the draft, then sent it to Write By Night for the finishing touches.

Finally, on September 28, I submitted a query to Routledge, where Anna Moore took an immediate interest in my project and asked me to submit a full proposal along with my manuscript.

The hardest part of the proposal was asking my mentors to serve as peer-reviewers, and then waiting on pins and needles while they reviewed the material. Soon after Thanksgiving I heard back, the reviews had been positive toward publication!

After 2 more weeks of anxiety and excitement, I signed the contract!

I am thrilled that I will have the chance to add to the literature on treatment for BFRBs, opening up an attachment-based, depth-oriented treatment option to add to the largely cognitive/behavioral treatment landscape. Stay tuned for more info and publication date!