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Carry My Strength

Book Carry My Strength is an urgent response to the 2024 U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory “Parents Under Pressure,” in the context of rising knowledge of adverse childhood experiences on health outcomes. Carry My Strength helps parents and children refine roles and cycles in the family system as we slowly change the narrative in the larger system to help validate parents.

Based on a journal kept during the first two years of my older son’s life that ran parallel to my rigorous Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship, Carry My Strength shares my accumulated skills and knowledge in a radically accessible way. Its focus on optimizing relational health––where parent and child development meet––sets it apart in navigating the journey, leading to exceptional parent-child experiences that protect mental health.

Excerpts:

“I’m hopeful that carrying it with you will grant you a similar type of strength—as a transitional object during a relentlessly transformational time in life.”

“I was not perfect.  I made changes where needed.  I listened to him.  And I was good enough.”

Advance Praise:

“Carry My Strength is a beautiful and greatly needed addition to the field of parental mental health. In this deeply honest and illuminating book, Dr. Raphael helps to dispel myths of motherhood which often compound and even create postpartum depression and anxiety. With the very rare lens of both clinician and new parent, she explores the profound transformation of her baby’s development while simultaneously unfolding into her new role. Intimate, validating, insightful, as well as grounded in research, this book brings a uniquely layered perspective on healthfully growing a family, and embraces all the vulnerability, joy, doubt, frustration and wonder that comes with it. Carry My Strength is an absolute gem.”

—SHOSHANA S. BENNETT, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist, Perinatal Mental Health Certified Consultant, Past President, Postpartum Support International, Author, Postpartum Depression for Dummies, Children of the Depressed, and Co-author, Beyond the Blues: Understanding and Treating Prenatal and Postpartum Depression & Anxiety

“In Carry My Strength, Dr. Debbie Raphael offers a touching and deeply personal, insightful, and professionally informed guide to parenthood. This book aims to bridge the gap between academic understanding and lived reality, making psychological concepts accessible to all parents. It also offers reassurance and empowers parents to embrace their imperfections, find strength in community, and foster loving connections with their children.”

—FELICIA TORNABENE, M.D., F.A.C.H.E., Physician Executive

“Like a warm, supportive hug, Dr. Raphael’s book offers new parents an invaluable guide not only to succeed in their new role but also to enjoy it.”

—MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, Ph.D., New York Times best selling author of Hunt, Gather, Parent

“Carry My Strength is a gift for all new parents whose lives are forever changed by the profound experience of parenthood. Dr. Raphael has done a masterful job of blending her training as a board certified child psychiatrist with her own experience of motherhood in an accessible, personal, and easily digestible way. Packed with scholarly and personal wisdom, this book is a compassionate and expert guide about being human while raising one.”

—DAN PETERS, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist/ Executive Director, Summit Center, Co-author, Bright, Complex Kids: Supporting Their Social and Emotional Development, Podcast Host - Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan