Saferstein, Dan

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SAFERSTEIN, Dan

PERSONAL: Married; children: three.

ADDRESSES: Home—Ann Arbor, MI. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hyperion Books, 77 West 66th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10023.

CAREER: Author and clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression; consultant for management and athletic teams.

WRITINGS:

Love for the Living: Meditations on the Meaning ofMarriage and Life, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000, published as Sex Tips for the Living, 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Clinical psychologist Dan Saferstein has spent years treating patients for depression and anxiety out of his Ann Arbor, Michigan, office. Tragedy struck his own family when his twenty-eight-year-old sister was killed in a motorcycle accident in Jamaica. This event prompted Saferstein to write his first book, Love for the Living: Meditations on the Meaning of Marriage and Life.

Love for the Living is a collection of essays that relay Saferstein's own life experiences, while also offering lessons he has learned while dealing with hardship and difficulty in his own life. He offers chapters that advise readers to "Mourn Losses Together," "Embrace Conflict," and "Nurture Friendships." While Saferstein's experiences center strongly around his relationships with his wife, children, and family, his lessons are related back to a bigger picture that encompasses all relationships.

Love for the Living has been met with positive reviews. Critics especially liked the way the author incorporates his own experiences to illustrate his ideas. In a Publishers Weekly review, one contributor wrote, "Saferstein's at his best when he's more introspective: a passage in which he describes a visit to his childhood home successfully introduces the reader to the boy inside the author." The reviewer added that Saferstein's description of the struggle within his own marriage "rings deep and true."