"Absolutely a necessary book for all non-traditional or alternative medicine practitioners out there.....too many think their way is the highway and some take a weekend course and declare themselves masters of a specific modality. This book brings it home and down to earth - which by the way, is where we are living right now. The author makes some excellent, non-judgmental points about the how to achieve a sustainable and ethical practice."
"Walking a Fine Line is aimed primarily at healing arts practitioners (“Wisdom Keepers,” as the book’s title says), but seekers will also benefit tremendously from this book. Rosy Aronson has given us her insights about taking the bits and pieces of knowledge we acquire in our pursuits of wisdom and finding a balanced and coherent whole. It is written from the perspective of a compassionate self-awareness that is inspirational, really; this book is going to find its way back under my reading lamp for years to come."
Personal sharings from two of the first readers and contributors to this book
"This is a very powerful and important book for healers, counselors, teachers, and coaches in the healing arts who walk a path of integrity, encounter 'the shadow' in their practices, spiritual communities, and alternative learning environments, and are interested in insightful and cutting edge knowledge and wisdom on how to keep honing those edges. Rosy Aronson achieves this with great compassion, humor, and rich case studies.
As a psychotherapeutically oriented bodyworker with a full-time practice for 25 years and a client/seeker for over 40, I find this book to have invaluable content on how to continually increase our capabilities as practitioners and find the right professionals to guide us as clients.
As healing arts practitioners, it is so essential in today's challenged and growing world that we continue to raise the quality of our collective service and grow as a planetary family of creative, caring individuals, and this book supports this in a wonderfully unique way." ~ Pam DeLeo
"I read a draft of Walking a Fine Line at a particularly difficult time for me, while in a situation where wisdom keepers who had previously inspired a lot of healing in my life were in a period of shadow that they were inflicting outward.
Rosy's book was incredibly helpful for clarifying and reframing what I was experiencing, so that I could understand that this was something they were going through, rather than something I had done wrong or had to fix.
I could easily have been set back by their betrayal and misuse of power, but instead it ended up being a remarkably transformative experience, because for the first time I was able to see I was being treated wrongly and respond accordingly, instead of blaming myself, going into repressive shadow, and losing trust in the world.
It was a major turning point in my life, and that would not have happened without this book, and without Rosy herself, in all of her wisdom, gentleness, and piercing intuition.
I am so grateful I was able to give a little bit back to Rosy and help with the editing of Walking a Fine Line. I feel it it is incredibly valuable for wisdom keepers and seekers alike (and most everyone plays each part at different stages in their lives...) and should be read by EVERYONE in a helping profession or role.
I can see over the years some of the abuses I have witnessed, experienced, and colluded in with wisdom keepers who were not in integrity, and some of the ways that I have fallen into many of the traps Rosy has described, which I could not perceive at the time.
I feel this is much less likely to happen again, because I am so much more aware and mindful now of the pitfalls and the human realities of being a wisdom keeper. Interestingly, it has also made me feel more confident about stepping into a wisdom keeper role myself, through the guidance and clarity it provides, and from the well illustrated reality that no one is perfect, we're all doing our best, and we can all make mistakes. The critical piece is continually ensuring we learn and grow and develop, and that we monitor our impact on others, particularly those who put their faith and trust in us.
Please read this book, and more importantly, heed its messages, even when they are painful. As a wisdom seeker it is empowering and provides valuable insight into when a difficult time in our seeking is a helpful challenge, or something potentially destructive and part of another's shadow.
As a wisdom keeper, it is all of our intentions to improve the lives of the wisdom seekers we meet, and this book can help us to do that even better - to bring more love, healing, and grace into the world, and to provide community and support and loving accountability to each other while we do it."
~ Shandi Petersen, MSSc, friend, contributing editor and Wisdom Keeper
Disclaimer: Rosy is an ordained minister of Designed to Blossom of AIWP and provide something more akin to spiritual counseling than psychotherapy. The work I do is with highly functional people, for whom ‘spirit’ plays a central role in their life. I do not give diagnoses, work with pathology, or claim to be an expert offering a treatment or cure.