PREFACE
A NUMBER OF YEARS ago a young mom came in to my office. She was
a single mother of three and she was thirty-three years old. When she
sat down and I had a good chance to look at her, I could see that Sarah
looked like she had been run over by a truck.
When I asked the young woman what had brought her in to see me,
she said, “Dr. Phelan, I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
It’s horrible. I just lie there, pull the covers over my head, and
cringe.”
“Why don’t you want to get up?” I asked.
“The thought of getting my three kids up and ready for school is
horrible. It’s absolutely horrible!” she said. “They don’t cooperate,
they fight, they treat me like I’m invisible. I scream, I yell, I nag. The
whole thing is so upsetting that it ruins my day. I can’t concentrate at
work and I’m depressed. Then the next morning I have to do it all
over again.”
After asking Sarah more questions and doing a brief history of her
life, I asked if she’d like to learn 1-2-3 Magic. “I’ll do anything!” she
said.
Sarah meant what she said. I taught her 1-2-3 Magic. She went
home and told the kids things were going to be different. The kids
smirked and looked at her like she was nuts.
Over the next few weeks this young mother made believers out of