Home is much more than a physical place or a place we come from; home is a place we aspire to when we first begin to yearn for something more in our lives. This is the home of our heart's desire. In the context of this book, home means leaving behind the safe and familiar to find what is right for each of us. Getting to Oz is a journey of self-discovery that no one can make for us. To get to this new home requires that we leave the nest, a place of safety and security. The promise of this journey is what lies over the rainbow. What we find there is our true home, where we get to claim a life of fulfillment and meaning-the life that we were born to live. Getting to Oz is a culmination of Dr. Deborah Khoshaba's life and her 25-year career helping people to have the courage to face the stresses of living and to forge a deeply meaningful life, no matter what the world throws at them. Inspiring people with her warmth, wisdom, and encouraging ways, Getting to Oz is not just wisdom expressed by an arm-chair philosopher; Deborah lives out what she maintains in this book and has forged a meaningful, rich life despite early hardships. She knows first-hand how to show people the way to Oz, having counseled so many over the years and bringing her own learning to that process. Deborah walks the truth of the wisdom that there is nothing more fulfilling and meaningful than the personal journey we are privileged to have in this life.
About the Author: Dr. Deborah Khoshaba has emerged as one of the leading psychologists in her area of work. Her groundbreaking research on coping and resilience strategies as part of The Hardiness Institute initiative has earned her tremendous accolades within the academic community, and her books continue to enjoy wide critical acclaim. Over the course of a 25-year clinical career, she's treated over 1,000 patients suffering from a wide range of conditions, including marital problems, eating disorders, PTSD, and emergencies. Many have returned to work with her at multiple points in their lives. Deborah Khoshaba grew up in Chicago, born into a family of six children of two working, immigrant parents. Early in life, she found herself drawn to music and followed that passion into her first career as a professional opera singer. It was through the experience of performing live at the Chicago Lyric Opera that she discovered the enormous communicative power of music; its ability to uplift and transform, offering thousands of listeners a brief moment of respite from the varied complexities or irrevocable sorrows of their everyday lives. Relief and comfort, Deborah decided, are the greatest gifts that can be given or received. It was this perspective on the world, developed through a cultural lens, that later shaped Dr. Deborah's philosophy as a psychologist. The breadth of her emotional range developed through the arts, coupled with an ability to recognize parallels and relatable themes in seemingly disparate contexts, has served to greatly magnify Dr. Deborah's value throughout her career and has led to numerous successes, academic and commercial. Her work continues to appeal equally to the specialized academic community and to the greater mainstream public. Through the use of film therapy, music, and literary analysis (as well as other creative metaphors and allegories), Dr. Deborah has brought intuitive depth and dimension to her work as a therapist that continues to resonate profoundly with her patients, students, and readers.