Publish Her, a female-founded and focused publisher dedicated to elevating the words, stories and writing of women, announces the launch of “Freefall: One Mother’s Journey Raising a Child With Special Needs,” a memoir by conscious parenting coach and yoga practitioner, Cindy Kaplan. The book is available now.

About the Book

When Cindy Kaplan’s second child suffered a brain injury during birth, the shock and despair of her new reality hit hard. Her expectations of who her daughter might become and the fantasies she’d had about mothering her felt as if they’d been yanked out from under her. Kaplan’s reaction was to fall back on a role she’d long been familiar with—the responsible one, the one who would fix everything, the one who would somehow make everything “normal.”

In her memoir, “Freefall: One Mother’s Journey Raising a Child With Special Needs,” Kaplan conveys her first days, months and years as a mother to her daughter with humility and honesty. As she struggles to navigate the uncertainty, she finds comfort in yoga, a practice she’d started years earlier during graduate school. Kaplan’s life transforms as she embarks upon a journey to learn how to parent her differently abled daughter and become a yoga practitioner for children with special needs. Kaplan shares how the process precipitated her own awakening and taught her the power of stillness, what acceptance truly means, and how to shift her own definition of parenting.

“Freefall” is for any parent who has a child with a disability, and it is also a book for any parent. It’s about understanding how expectations shape parents’ relationships with their children, and with themselves. It challenges the cultural belief that “typical” is ideal and illustrates the transformational shift that comes from letting go. It’s about finding strength in self-compassion and the beauty of experiencing life in the present moment.

About the Author

A certified Conscious Parenting Coach, trained yoga practitioner for children with special needs, and former family therapist, Cindy Kaplan has dedicated her career to helping individuals and families communicate, connect and grow. Twenty years ago, after her daughter suffered a brain injury at birth and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Cindy realized the cultural constraints parents often blindly follow. Over time, and with the practice of yoga, she discovered that parenting from a centered place enables parents to interact in ways that simultaneously support their own personal growth and the development of their children. Today, she guides parents in finding compassion, confidence and joy through her coaching practice and community.

Cindy lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her daughter, Mira, youngest son, Micah, two dogs, and her husband, Marc Weisskopf, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her adult son, Noah, lives in Boston.

Readers can connect with Cindy on Instagram (@cindy.kaplan.parent.coach). To learn more, go to cindykcoaching.com.

Book Specs

PUBLISHER: Publish Her
PUBLICATION DATE: July 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9850242-8-9
FORMAT: Softcover
GENRE: Non-Fiction / Biography and Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
DISTRIBUTION: Amazon and Ingram
PRICE: $16.99

For more information or to set up an interview or appearance by the author, please contact Chris Olsen at chris@publishherpress.com or 612-501-1724.