Break the Cycle!

Introduction
Break the Cycle! is a webpage that was created and maintained by Peter K. Gerlach, M.S.W. (January 27th 1938 - October 22, 2015). The website was an expression of his life purpose in the later life:

"My life purpose is to educate and motivate other people to protect future generations and break the toxic [wounds + unawareness] cycle that is crippling many persons, families, and our society."

Peter lived in an elderly care home and offered pro-bono therapy online based on Internal Family Systems (see, ). His clients would find him through the "seven sequential self-study Lessons for all lay and professional adults and older teens" he posted on his website.

The Seven Self-study Lessons

 * 1) Assess for psychological wounds and reduce any you find using "parts work" to free your wise resident true Self.
 * 2) Learn effective thinking and communicating skills
 * 3) An overview of bonding, losses (broken bonds), and healthy three-level grief
 * 4) Learn how to optimize your human relationships
 * 5) Learn how to evolve a satisfying high-nurturance family
 * 6) Learn how to parent (nurture) kids and teens effectively
 * 7) Learn how to evolve and maintain a high-nurturance stepfamily

Although the lessons were originally created as a self-help tool for families involving step-children, the contents are applicable to anyone.

Plan, Phase 1
This page is the beginning of a community effort to keep evolving the lessons Peter created and help spread the benefits derived from them to the world. A suggestion for a structure of this effort:


 * 1)  Create overview pages of the seven lessons, summarizing key points and resources. These pages will function as navigation portals into each of the seven topics.
 * 2)  Identify core themes of these lessons and create pages for these themes
 * 3)  Create a repository of helpful tools and techniques that can be used within each theme
 * 4)  Review the material and create links between the pages