Your One Wild and Precious Life

A profound, important work; simultaneously wise, instructive and a love letter to humanity … I recognised entire sections that seemed to have been written just for me … I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many notes * Irish Times *A book I will keep by my bedside for ever – Deirdre O’Kane * Sunday Times *Warm, wise and immensely readable … peppered with insights and advice about how to become your best self * Irish Mail on Sunday *Solid and practical advice on how to navigate those tricky, hurdle-strewn years that lie between finishing the child-rearing and preparing oneself for dotage * Sunday Independent *A must-read * Irish Daily Mail *Fascinating and engaging * Sunday Times *Your One Wild and Precious Life … will transform your thinking * Irish Farmers Journal *It reframed so much for me – Aoibhín Garrihy

The rotund nature of the work makes it feel like a foundational text, accessible to anyone who seeks to know more about themselves and something any trainee psychologist would enjoy. It astutely examines how attachments to people or patterns can speed up, stunt or spark our growth, and, most importantly, what we can do about it.No matter where you locate yourself in this book there’s an energy to the prose that makes it a fascinating read.But if every love story is a ghost story, as David Foster Wallace says, then Gaffney’s new book resurrects your original love story and the ghost that it conjures. She provides instructions on how to vanquish the past and understand connection, so a new cycle of living is possible.This book is a powerful reminder that history does not have to dictate our future if we can, somehow, amid the chaos of life, listen now and again.

Dr. Maureen Gaffney is a leading clinical psychologist, writer, and broadcaster. She has had a distinguished academic career and has worked as a consultant, specializing in leadership and organizational change. She has worked with companies around the world to build strong, emotionally intelligent leadership and innovative and resilient work cultures. Among her clients have been multinational organizations in financial services and in the voluntary and community sectors.

She has served on numerous state and other boards and is a member of the Women’s Leadership Board of Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Maureen is also a popular columnist and broadcaster and an inspirational and authoritative speaker who has addressed audiences in Ireland, the UK, the US, Sweden, Germany, and Spain. Her previous books, Flourishing (2011) and Your One Wild and Precious Life (2021), were both #1 Irish bestsellers. Flourishing was the basis of a major two-part RTÉ TV documentary, and Your One Wild and Precious Life won the RTÉ Audience Choice Irish Book Award and was shortlisted for overall Irish Book of the Year in 2021.

She lives in Dublin with her husband, John. They have two grown-up children and five grandchildren.

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