A00191 - Debbie Ford, Author of Self-Help Book

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Debbie Ford (October 1, 1955 – February 17, 2013) was an American self-help author, coach, lecturer and teacher, most known for The New York Times best-selling book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers (1998), which aimed to help readers overcome their shadow side with the help of modern psychology and spiritual practices. In following years, she went on to write eight more books including Spiritual Divorce, Why Good People Do Bad Things, and The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse, which have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 32 languages.^[1] She led workshops on "Shadow Process" and hosted TV and radio shows, and also established the "Ford Institute for Transformational Training".^[1][2][3]

After Oprah Winfrey discussed Ford's first book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers (1998), on her show in late 2000,^[4] it spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list in late 2000 and early 2001.^[5] Her other books that made the list were Why Good People Do Bad Things (2008)^[6] and The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self (2010), written in collaboration with Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson.^[7]

Over the years, in a career spanning 20 years, she gave workshops and lectures across the US and trained coaches on the "shadow process".^[8] She appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, and Fox & Friends, and was a regular contributor to Oprah.com^[9] and Huffington Post.^[1] She hosted a weekly talk radio show on Hay House Radio, titled Shadow Talk.^[10] She produced and appeared in the documentary The Shadow Effect (2009), and also in 3 Magic Words (2010).^[11]

She appeared as a life coach helping people with divorce on ABC's short-lived reality series The Ex-Wives Club (2007).^[4] In 2012, she appeared on Super Soul Sunday (Season 2), a talk show hosted by Oprah Winfrey, airing on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in an episode titled "Debbie Ford: Out of the Shadows", in which she talked about her eleven-year-old struggle with cancer.^[12][13]

Ford lived in the seaside community of La Jolla, San Diego County. She died at her home on February 17, 2013, after a prolonged battle with cancer, aged 57.^[14]

Works[edit]

• Embracing Your Shadow. Hay House, 2002. ISBN 1561709433.
• Spiritual Divorce. Hodder Hb, 2002. ISBN 0340820950.
• Dark Side of the Light Chasers. Hodder & Stoughton, (Reprint) 2011. ISBN 1444717456.
• The Best Year Of Your Life Kit. Hay House, 2005. ISBN 1401904793.
• A Letter from Heaven: God's Gifts to a Mother, Through the Death of Her Daughter, with Allen Guyer. Morris Pub., 2003. ISBN 0974088706.
• Why Good People Do Bad Things. HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0061756148.
• The Secret of the Shadow. HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0061847372.
• The Right Questions. HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0061870072.
• The Best Year of Your Life. HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0061738980.
• The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self, with Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson. HarperOne, 2010. ISBN 0-06-196265-1.
• The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse: A Breakthrough Program for Connecting with Your Soul's Deepest Purpose. (reprint) HarperCollins, 2010. ISBN 0061783692.
• Courage: Overcoming Fear and Igniting Self-Confidence. Wayne Dyer (Foreword). HarperCollins, 2012. ISBN 0062068997.

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Debbie Ford, Author of Self-Help Books, Is Dead at 57

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: February 20, 2013

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Debbie Ford, a former drug addict whose popular self-help books, including the best-selling “Dark Side of the Light Chasers,”encouraged people to acknowledge their faults rather than pursue perfection, died on Sunday at her home in San Diego. She was 57.

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Bob D'Amico/ABC

Debbie Ford in 2007.

Her death was announced in a letter posted on her Web site by her sister, Arielle Ford, who said Ms. Ford had received a cancer diagnosis several years ago. The motivational speaker and author Deepak Chopra, who worked with both sisters for many years, said in a posting that Debbie Ford had a rare form of sarcoma.

Ms. Ford often described her struggles with substance abuse as a teenager and young adult in South Florida, dealing with her parents’ divorce and a sense that she had not lived up to their expectations.

“I did Percodans, cocaine, mostly a mix of downers anduppers to keep me awake,” she told USA Today in 2001. “I was a mess. I was taking probably 100 pills a day.”

She checked in and out of drug treatment centers throughout her 20s and into her 30s, spending tens of thousands of dollars on “anything that was out there,” she said.

“My goal was to be able to be alone without food, sugar, phone, men, TV, anything,” she said, “and to feel O.K. about myself.”

Ms. Ford said what truly changed her life was hearing Mr. Chopra speak. (Her sister, who became a self-help author as well, had worked as a publicist for Mr. Chopra.) Ms. Ford was influenced by Mr. Chopra’s assertion that people need to “embrace” their demons rather than try to repress or conquer them.

“Talk about a shift in perception,” she recalled. “It wasn’t about me getting rid of my anger or greed or bitchiness, but understanding those were gifts and integrating them.”

Ms. Ford spent several years working with Mr. Chopra before publishing “The Dark Side of the Light Chasers” in 1998. The book did not reach a wide audience until Ms. Ford discussed it on television with Oprah Winfrey in the fall of 2000. Her appearance quickly put the book on best-seller lists, and she went on to write several more books that sold well, including “The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse,” “The Best Year of Your Life” and “The Shadow Effect,” which she wrote in 2010 with Mr. Chopra and Marianne Williamson.

Ms. Ford, who also wrote “Spiritual Divorce,” appeared as a life coach on the short-lived reality show “The Ex-Wives Club” in 2007, encouraging people to admit to the anger they felt toward their former spouses.

In addition to her sister, Ms. Ford’s survivors include her son, Beau, her mother and a brother.

Like many in the motivational trade, Ms. Ford often reduced the answers to life’s challenges to catchphrases, including “Our brightest light can shine only when we’ve accepted our darkness,” “There is wisdom in every wound” and “Our pain is not personal but belongs to every man and woman alive.”

She was also inclined to bold claims.

“If you take this journey,” she said in a promotional video for “The Shadow Effect,” “I promise you that you’re going to experience more love, more happiness, than you’ve ever had before.”