New Book "Learning to Play Again" Shares How We Can Build Strong, Healthy Relationships by Reconnecting with Our Younger Selves

Family Therapist and Early Childhood Education Specialist Dr. Kathryn Smerling Offers a Blueprint for Establishing Meaningful Connections Amidst a Time When Loneliness, Division, and Anxiety Are Rampant

NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, family-oriented psychotherapist Dr. Kathryn Smerling (Ph.D., LCSW) is excited to announce the release of her first book, Learning to Play Again: Rediscovering Our Early Selves to Become Better Adults, available now and published by Rowman & Littlefield, a part of Bloomsbury. This book arrives at a time when widespread loneliness and isolation have been declared a public health threat, and people are struggling to find connection amidst a time of division and uncertainty. Learning to Play Again serves as a guide for how we can grow our resilience and establish meaningful relationships by utilizing lessons learned as children.

Drawing on her decades of work and experience, Dr. Smerling shares in this book tangible and action-oriented strategies for how we can rediscover the spontaneity and joyful curiosity of childhood in order to live more fulfilling lives as adults. Our society is flooded with high rates of anxiety and daily personal and career stressors, all exacerbated by nonstop news and the isolating effects of technology. Happy and healthy relationships are the key way to combat these challenges, forming the pillars of our emotional lives and needed now more than ever.

"As grown-ups, we often forget how to play – how to be spontaneous and laugh. We have the ability to recapture what we've lost in the process of becoming adults and build vital, positive connections with others – a proven necessity to happiness and longevity, and in short supply for many right now. I have written this book to remind readers that our ties to curiosity, vulnerability, and joy are just as important in our adult lives as they were in childhood. We have only to engage in the practice of accessing them in order to have more nourishing and fulfilling relationships – and lives," Dr. Smerling explains.

Each chapter in Learning to Play Again is devoted to a different skill that can improve the relationships in our lives once implemented. From assessing our CARE (Curiosity, Awareness, Resilience and Empathy), to embracing failure, choosing to repair rather than repeat, redrawing our comfort zones, managing stress during conflict, and more – this book centers on relearning key basic skills to forming and nurturing relationships that most children intuitively pick up. People from all walks of life are searching for ways to become happier and more connected – not only with others but with themselves. As readers will learn in Learning to Play Again, this begins first with connecting to our inner-self and using new intentions to lead to a more joyous and healthier life.

Learning to Play Again: Rediscovering Our Early Selves to Become Better Adults is available through Amazon, Rowman & Littlefield, and online and in store at select major book retailers. For more information about the book, please click here.

ABOUT DR. KATHRYN SMERLING (PH.D., LCSW)

Kathryn Smerling, PhD, is a family therapist with advanced degrees in early childhood education, social work and family therapy, specializing in creating healthy and meaningful relationships for children, adolescents, and adults in all stages of life. She is currently a clinical instructor at Mount Sinai Hospital in the department of OBGYN and serves on the Dean's Council at the New York University School of Social Work. Previously, she was on staff at Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry and was an instructor at Fordham University in the department of Early Literacy. At the Northside Center for Childhood Development in New York City, she worked as a family therapist, where she utilized play therapy with children and their families, while coordinating access to community resources. At the Institute for the Development of Human Resources Dr. Smerling wrote 25 parenting booklets in English and Spanish. She is a sought-after voice in the media on mental health and relationships, and has appeared on CBS, CNN, HLN, and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Women's Health, and more.

ABOUT ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Rowman & Littlefield publishes an award-winning list of timely, informative, and entertaining general interest titles, authoritative but student-friendly higher education textbooks, cutting-edge scholarly research, practical and inspiring professional resources, and indispensable reference works. Our publishing program is global in content, authorship, and reach, with Rowman & Littlefield titles available for sale and found in libraries and classrooms worldwide.

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SOURCE Dr. Kathryn Smerling (Ph.D., LCSW)