Vikki Stark
Vikki Stark has an active international psychotherapy practice in which she works with clients both in her lovely Montreal office with a fireplace and by phone or Skype worldwide. She is the founder and director of the Sedona Counseling Centre of Montreal, where there are thirty therapists offering a full range of wellness services to our community.
Ms. Stark is also an international guest expert on television and radio on issues related to mental health and emotional well being, notably appearing on NBC’s The Today Show and Oprah radio. She was featured in Time Magazine and Maclean’s (Canada), among many other media appearances. She writes a blog called Schlepping Through Heartbreak for Psychology Today magazine that has had over 4 million views.
Vikki has written three books and edited a fourth. Her first book is about sister relationships and the other three are about divorce and divorce recovery. As a result of one of her books, Runaway Husbands, Ms. Stark leads a worldwide community of women supporting each other through recovery from sudden unexpected divorces.
Marina Raydun: You work primarily as a psychotherapist. What inspired you to write your first book-My Sister, My Self?
Vikki Stark: Prior to writing My Sister, My Self, I had never thought of myself as a writer but one thing I have always been is curious. So the germ for me writing my first book came at dinner one night with my two adult daughters when my younger daughter, Lauren, said, "No matter where I go, I always feel like a little sister" and I thought "Me, too!". I'm also a younger sister and always feel like the kid in the room. So I got curious about that and started asking around and realized that all of my best friends are also younger sisters. And then I had to know more!
MR: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?
VS: It really didn't. Because I work full time as a psychotherapist and have to squeeze in time to write, I don't really have a formal writing process. It's always been just grabbing a few hours whenever I can.
MR: Runaway Husbands is based on a worldwide study. Given that your clientele is international, do you find any cultural differences affecting the Wife Abandonment Syndrome?
VS: That is a really interesting aspect of our community. There is very little difference between women in different cultures. The remarkable things rather, is how much women's experience is the same from one side of the world to the other!
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
VS: I enjoy memoirs or books that feel like memoirs.
MR: What is the first book that made you cry?
VS: I don't really remember but I was one of those kids who was always reading. I remember walking down the street reading. And I loved the big, heavy classics - Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky - at one point in my life.
MR: What are you currently reading?
VS: I've just abandoned the book, The Sleeping Car Porter. I just couldn't get into it. Prior to that, I read The Personal Librarian, which I really enjoyed - so much so that I visited the Morgan Library last time I was in New York.
MR: If you could have drinks with any person, living or dead, who would it be?
VS: Hillary Clinton - I think we would have a lot in common. Plus she's led such a fascinating life - I'd love to hear about it from her own perspective.
MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
VS: I'm probably planning and organizing. There's so much going on in my life, I use any spare moment to make patterns.
MR: Some readers say that you changed their lives with Runaway Husbands. Is there a book that changed your life?
VS: I'm privileged to have been able to help people in a meaningful, profound way. That is really an honor for me. I would say that one book that changed my life is Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. We are all looking for ways to manage suffering in life and his book provides richness in that regard.
Find Vikki Stark’s books here:
VIkki Stark