John Bradshaw (author)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Elliot Bradshaw (born June 29, 1933 in Houston, Texas) is an American educator, counselor, motivational speaker and author best known for his PBS television programs on topics such as addiction, recovery, codependency and spirituality. Bradshaw is active in the self-help movement, and is credited with popularizing such ideas as the "wounded inner child" and the dysfunctional family. His books are mainly works of popular psychology. In his promotional materials and in interviews and reviews of his work he is often referred to as a theologian.[1]
According to Bradshaw he was born into a troubled family and abandoned by an alcoholic father. Bradshaw won scholarships to study for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He earned a B.A. degree, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree and an M.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto in Canada. Six years after his 1963 graduation, Bradshaw returned to academia at Rice University in Houston, Texas, doing three years of graduate work in psychology and religion. Bradshaw says alcohol addiction and other problems led to his decision to end his plans for the priesthood.
Bradshaw is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, his book Homecoming reaching No. 1. During the 1980s and 90s he hosted a number of PBS television broadcasts based on his books, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program and as the National Director of the John Bradshaw Center at Ingleside Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Currently Bradshaw remains active in the self-help movement and is also a Senior Fellow of The Meadows, an Arizona psychiatric hospital whose holistic approach to addiction recovery includes a wide variety of therapeutic approaches, including the Twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. From 1960 to present, Bradshaw lectured at more than one thousand churches and synagogues. [2]
Bibliography:
- Bradshaw On: The Family - 1986
- Bradshaw On: Healing the Shame that Binds You - 1988
- Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child - 1990
- Creating Love - 1992
- Family Secrets - 1995
- Bradshaw On: The Family (Revised) - 1996
PBS television (partial):
- The Eight Stages of Man : eight part series
- Bradshaw On Homecoming : ten-part series
- Creating Love : ten-part series
- Eating Disorders : three-part series
- Bradshaw On: Family Secrets : six-part series
- Where Are You Father : one-hour program
- Healing the Shame that Binds You : one-hour program
- Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families : two-hour program
- Surviving Divorce : ninety-minute program
