KOMAN, Aleta 1954(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1954; married (divorced); children: one son. Education: M.Ed.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Wheelock College, 200 the Riverway, Boston, MA 02215.

CAREER:

Author, therapist, and educator. Families First, parent educator; Workplace Connections, parent educator; Wheelock College Center for Parenting Studies and Graduate School of Education, Boston, MA, adjunct professor in department of psychology and professional studies; child and family therapist in private practice, Boston; CBS-TV, Boston, on-air expert for family and parenting issues.

WRITINGS:

How to Mend a Broken Heart: Letting Go and Moving On, Contemporary Books (Lincolnwood, IL), 1997.

(With Edward Myers) The Parenting Survival Kit: How to Make It through the Parenting Years with Your Family, Sanity, and Wallet Intact, Perigee Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Edward Myers) Who's the Boss: How to Regain and Maintain Your Parental Authority When Kids Rule the Roost, Perigee Books (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Aleta Koman is a child and family therapist who grew up in the Baltimore Jewish community. Although she dated her high-school sweetheart for five years before marrying him, that long period of dating did not insure the success of their marriage. After eleven years, during which time they had a son, her husband ended their marriage. The devastated Koman used this experience as the starting point for her book How to Mend a Broken Heart: Letting Go and Moving On. In it she discusses various personal crises people experience, and through fictional case studies shows how to move on from them. She offers a six-step grieving process the sufferer can use to cope with personal crises. These steps are, as Lauren Kanter described them in the Baltimore Jewish Times: "understanding the nature of the loss; focusing on the self; dealing with the 'shadow side' (self-destructive behavior); stabilizing your life; becoming aware of your recovery; and accepting progress, not perfection." Koman told Kanter that after her marriage ended, "I found out who I was and what kind of life I wanted to have. I became more of a person."

In The Parenting Survival Kit: How to Make It through the Parenting Years with Your Family, Sanity, and Wallet Intact Koman and co-author Edward Myers give parents strategies for surviving the stress that comes with being parents. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the volume full of "theoretical and practical help with child-rearing, all filtered through a therapist's eye." Koman and Myers teamed up again to pen Who's the Boss: How to Regain and Maintain Your Parental Authority When Kids Rule the Roost, which focuses on parenting in America's child-centered society.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Baltimore Jewish Times, July 11, 1997, Lauren Kanter, "Broken Hearts," p. 86.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2000, review of The Parenting Survival Kit: How to Make it through the Parenting Years with Your Family, Sanity, and Wallet Intact, p. 235.

Library Journal, May 15, 1997, Lisa S. Wise, review of How to Mend a Broken Heart: Letting Go and Moving On, p. 89.

ONLINE

WritersWrite.com,http://www.writerswrite.com/ (October 23, 2001), review of The Parenting Survival Kit.*