Interview with Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Author of Second Chance at Your Dream

Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed.D. RN, CNS, DCEP has been a psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years and combines her career as a psychologist with a background as a clinical nurse specialist. She co-founded the international Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP), served as its past president and was instrumental in designing and implementing its certification program. She is a designated diplomate in comprehensive energy psychology (DCEP).

Dr. Dorothea is also the author of six books about energy therapies including her most recent, Second Chance at Your Dream (2009), and Healing Touch: a guidebook for practitioners (2002), Creative Energies: integrative energy psychotherapy for self-expression and healing (2002), and Creating Right Relationships: a practical guide to ethics in energy therapies (2007).

Dorothea is especially committed to bringing insights from the field of Energy Psychology to those facing the challenges and opportunities of the second half of life. She wants to help unleash the creative potential in every person and to encourage learning from pain’s lessons to overcome human suffering. Her new book, Second Chance at Your Dream (2009) is filled with over fifty energy-related exercises for accessing creativity and well-being. You can visit her website at www.secondchancedream.com.




Welcome to The Writer's Life, Dorothea. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been writing

I started journaling when I was 19, wrote my doctoral dissertation in 1978 and swore I’d never write again. Then I became interested in holistic health and started writing articles from 1981 on. I’ve written 6 books since then and am working on #7.

Can you please tell us about your book and why you wrote it?

Second Chance at Your Dream is a practical book about ways to enhance life while engaging in healthy and stress-free aging. The principles and research of the new science of energy psychology are the foundation for the over fifty self-care exercises designed to relieve tension, center oneself and cope with various challenges of later life. It’s a fun book and I basically wrote it to help myself adjust to the seventh decade of my life.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced writing it?

The first challenge was finding a publisher who was intrigued with the topic and energy psychology. The next challenge was to pare down the many ideas and techniques I had learned into a user-friendly format for the reader’s self-care. The last and hardest hurdle is getting enough publicity so the book will reach the people who really need and want to help themselves with these new methods.

Do you have a press kit and what do you include in it? Does this press kit appear online and, if so, can you provide a link to where we can see it?

The press kit is online and includes sample questions, author bio, picture of front and back covers of the book, table of contents, selected articles, information about media coverage, etc.
My website is www.secondchancedream.com.

Have you either spoken to groups of people about your book or appeared on radio or TV? What are your upcoming plans for doing so?

I’ve done about 30 radio shows, taught over 20 public seminars, appeared in feature sections of local newspapers and did one TV show so far. I will be featured at 3 large international conferences this summer and be a keynote speaker at another.

Do you have an agent and, if so, would you mind sharing who he/is is? If not, have you ever had an agent or do you even feel it’s necessary to have one?

No, but I wished I had a fairy godmother who would do all the internet marketing for me.I’m good in live interviews but don’t like the superficial quality of most social networking.

Did you, your agent or publisher prepare a media blitz before the book came out and would you like to tell us about it?

No, it would have helped me greatly.

Do you plan subsequent books?

Of course!

Thank you for your interview, Dorothea. Would you like to tell my readers where they can find you on the web and how everyone can buy your book?

My website www.secondchancedream.com has a button on each page that links to amazon.com. the book can alos be purchased through Barnes & Noble, Borders and Ingram distributors.