Veronica A. Shaffer
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(781) 857-2353
www.veronicashaffer.com
I Hear Your Cry: Women in Prison
explores author’s quest to release inmates from emotional lock-up
The growing number of women in prison has alarmed taxpayers, child welfare advocates, human rights activists, and policy makers. Veronica A. Shaffer, the author of the new book, I Hear Your Cry: Women in Prison, takes readers into the heart of a women's prison, where Shaffer went to teach prisoners skills designed to release them from their emotional and physical jails. Her belief that the benefits of yoga and meditation could empower women who had experienced powerlessness and trauma, kept her pushing to establish a fitness and wellness program at a prison, despite bureaucratic obstacles, a less than ideal teaching environment, and an initially skeptical group of security officers and students.
Using her skills as a certified yoga and meditation instructor and the coping strategies she learned during a challenging life, Shaffer plunged into the sometimes mysterious and often arbitrary penal system. In a straightforward and often humorous way, she shares with readers what she learned about the inner workings of a modern prison and the tumultuous lives of the women she wanted to help.
Shaffer has always listened to her inner voice as it guided her toward making good decisions. As a mother of three young children, she relied on that voice for the insight and courage to leave a troubled marriage, even though she could scarcely manage on her own financially. And it was that inner sense that eventually led her to the most unlikely of places — a women’s prison — where she was able to help those suffering inside their own physical and emotional lockups. I Hear Your Cry shares the extraordinary process of how one woman took a dream, nurtured it into reality, and shared her inspirational message — Don’t give up — with women prisoners. It is a rousing and compassionate book to which many readers, struggling with their own issues and challenges, will relate.
A retired health care professional, Shaffer speaks on women in prison before a variety of civic and educational organizations. She is a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator who has a private healing practice. She teaches Reiki at Massasoit Community College, leads “Your Intuitive Self” workshops throughout Massachusetts, and currently teaches creative writing classes to male inmates. She lives in Abington, Massachusetts. This is her first book.
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I Hear Your Cry: Women in Prison • iUniverse • April 2007 • 191 pgs. • Non-fiction • Price:$16.95 • ISBN: 0-595-40563-
I Hear Your Cry: Women in Prison
Author: Veronica A. Shaffer
