Healing and Recovering From Co-dependency - and Low Self Esteem.

This book does an outstanding job at helping those who have went through similar life path to relate and realize that they're not alone. Lisa helps such folks by pointing them in the right direction as to where to get help and healing.
The ending *SPOILER ALERT* is quite disappointing: The way Lisa was able to find healing is by reading 2 of Melody Beattie's books, one of which I have "Codependent No More". This was Lisa's solution to healing from codependency. Personally, disappointing for me because you can just go and read that book and start working on your healing.
The book came well packaged and was received as described.

Ms Romano explores her topic expertly and in a way that all can relate to. While she bares her soul, she exposes your own. It is a talent few authors can hope to aspire to. Excellent work, can't wait to read more from her.

Loved the book! Must admit not a book reader, but I felt like I could never put it down wanting to know what was going to happen next and what this child/teenager was going through. I was very proud of the author of how she surpassed the obstacles in her life and was determined to have peace within herself.

I enjoyed this book, easy to read and thought provoking. Different chapters made me think of my own childhood. Felt like I was part of the journey with Lisa. Sad at times, that children are made to feel this way by their own parents!

Recommended to a few friends!

After watching Lisa Romanos videos on you tube, I was finally able to see its not me, this book like so many out there is a mirror to our lives, I am on my own personal journey of healing, and I thank the Universe for finding lisa

This book is pretty much just an auto-biography. She takes the reader through her troubled childhood, so we know what she went through and figure out how she turned into or became what she became...a co-dependent. Unfortunately, by the end of the book, she tells us that she read 2 other books which helped her overcome her co-dependency. I was thinking she was going to give me steps/ways to do that, not tell me to go read another book on how to do it. so, I was disappointed, but, her story was well written, I gave it 3 stars because the title suggests she will talk about how she healed and recovered from being co-dependent, and the steps she took, NOT to read other books.

After watching Lisa Romanos videos on you tube, I was finally able to see its not me, this book like so many out there is a mirror to our lives, I am on my own personal journey of healing, and I thank the Universe for finding lisa

This book is pretty much just an auto-biography. She takes the reader through her troubled childhood, so we know what she went through and figure out how she turned into or became what she became...a co-dependent. Unfortunately, by the end of the book, she tells us that she read 2 other books which helped her overcome her co-dependency. I was thinking she was going to give me steps/ways to do that, not tell me to go read another book on how to do it. so, I was disappointed, but, her story was well written, I gave it 3 stars because the title suggests she will talk about how she healed and recovered from being co-dependent, and the steps she took, NOT to read other books.

Thanks to the author for sharing her experiences in such detail. Reading her book helped me in two important ways. First, her journey and the impacts on her life really helped me to reflect on my own experiences and the impacts on me today. Second, her strength is an inspiration: shows that despite the wind blowing in our faces, with the right focus and help we can each achieve our dreams. Read when you have time to reflect--the book is very intense and you will need time to assess the meanings for you.

Lisa A Romano speaks our language, those of us that have always felt "We are not good enough!" This book is or YOU! OMG, I get goosebumps hearing the words read off the pages (Audible download) from the Road Back to Me!. It is as though Lisa is writing my story! I highly recommend this book to all those who have suffered a life filled with pain and feeling as though the pain is caused by some defect within you. Constantly believing that it must be me, I am the defected one. I have been on this healing journey for years, always trying to figure out what is so wrong with me! Why do I always seem to make a mess of my life? I have read all of Eckhart Tolle's books (great by the way), Wayne Dyer Books, Elaine Aron books (Highly Sensitive Person), Dr. Judith Orloff (Emotional Freedom), and the list goes on. ALL of these books are fabulous and I highly recommend them, BUT, it was NOT until I stumbled across Lisa A Romano's videos on YouTube, that everything began to click for me, in ways that are unexplainable. She (her work) was my missing link! She explains in great detail why I still couldn't get over the feeling of NOT being good enough. This is why although the other books are great they never got to the root cause of why I couldn't heal. They actually made me feel worse because I wasn't getting better, therefore, there must be something deeply wrong with me. Right before finding Lisa on YouTube I was at the point of giving up! The very next day I found her incredible videos! I know I could go on and on about HOW IMPORTANT Lisa's work is to those of us that came from utter dysfunctional childhood homes and then married into a dysfunctional home and the cycle continues...Lisa's work is here to literally change and defeat the dysfunctional cycle. I believe her work is going to change our planet, one person at a time!!!!! I am ordering her other books today! I Highly Recommend all of her books, her videos, her workshops, coaching classes, etc. if you feel like You are not enough! WE ARE ENOUGH!!!! ALWAYS HAVE BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE.

I found the author's über-flowery writing style detracted from her story and dramatic in a way that lessened my sympathy. I have the utmost empathy for codependents and their messed up families, but in this case I sometimes felt the author victim posturing.

I ordered this book thinking that it was about how to recovery from codependency with an addict, but it is not. It is an ok story about a women's childhood and her childhood problems. I think the title is misleading. I also think all of the five-star ratings are suspiciously consistent.

Lisa Romano is a 'plain talking' life coach who has helped me tremendously thru "Road Back to Me' as well as her numerous YouTube videos which I watch every chance I get free time and quiet to reflect on her message(s)...She has great 'insight' to living with a dysfunctional family; which I had the 'misfortune' to also experience thru being invisible and the 'scapegoated' child...She 'resonates' with me in terms of having had similar negative experiences in her family....I know she is sincere; cause you can't make this stuff up - if you haven't 'been there; and go the signed tee-shirt' as the silly saying goes! Her pain is my pain and I feel she is a wise, kindred spirit - as I do NOT take advice lightly - most people don't know what they are speaking about....She is NOT one of them...Lisa is plain-speaking, yet highly evolved in all things spiritual in my (humble) experience; as I can only speak for myself...tho, I am sure she has reached thousands of people - no diff than I.....who have suffered as little children; carried their shame-based fears and lies which were fed to them by parents who had NO clue as to the damage they were doing....I NEED to believe this, or I would hate my narcissistic mother (to no end)....if she intentionally berated me and put me down for no good reasons; made me feel inferior, selfish and slapped me whenever I had a differing opinion than she! Usually, she was 'Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde in 'woman form' - as she presented one face to the public; and at home, she was a raging, mad lunatic in some ways! Her eyes scared me when she turned her 'wrath' on me....which happened more times than I wish to acknowege or admit openly admit to myself...It is such a deep scar, that I am still healing from it ........Thank you, Lisa...You are one in 100,000,000!!!

Thank You yet again, Lisa A. Romano. You really came through for yourself! And in doing so, you really came through for me and so many of us, via sharing your gifts, guidance, learning, and journey.

Grateful you are such a generous Spirit, in Form. I see you as the Beautiful Angel you are, daring this tough mission on the Earth Plane, to come through the hidden challenges with flying colors, sharing such raw open truth.

Now, to my fellow future readers, and allies on the road back to full true selfhood: Lisa has a lot to share. Her book "The Road Back To Me," is delightfully easy reading. In fact it feels like attending a cozy slumber party in your pajamas, with an old friend.

I am Lisa's age peer, and an adopted daughter of 4 lineages +, nature and nurture, of Narcissistic Borderline Personality Disorder, BiPolar Disorder, Depression, Addiction, and I suspect, feel and know: sexually predatory abuse to my Birth Mother, in the home, where I was programmed in the womb, for this life.

While I have written 2 books in two "Write Your Book in a Weekend," accelerated workshops, in recent years, reading Lisa's book helps me see the pitfalls, I have faced, being raised to have no self, no healthy self, and to see, feel, hear, and perceive other people's needs as somehow more valid than, or winning out over my own. In fact, ironically, Lisa's book helped me see more clearly the whole all too human pattern, of being covertly required to lose one's self, to accommodate other maladaptive, wounded, shut down, checked out parents, and behaviors. Lisa's life story helps me shed light on why at 52 years of age, in 2017, I am still learning how to figure out what I need, want, and choose, and how to shift old sick internal patterns to better, step by step, find my "Road Back to Me!" Her book helps me see, and make sense of why I got so shut down, traumatized, and wounded, facing, avoiding, and detangling from my own Narcissistic Mother wounding. Her book helps me see why I have not yet published, or even read the 2 books I wrote, under the tutelage, of a Book Whisperer/Author who's birthday season it now is.

Astonishing!

I had already begun to explore, and gain healing and guidance from Lisa A. Romano's prolific outpouring of outstanding YouTube support videos, for Adult survivors of Narcissistic Abuse. Today after completing her book, I went on-line, and discovered a set of 19 Guided Healing Meditations on YouTube, all with very specifically tailored foci. That's when Lisa jumped from a human who struggled, transformed, awakened, progressed, and on her way, created countless classes, workshops, books, YouTube Videos, a Facebook Support Group, and more for the millions of us, who face our own flavor of these, all too familiar challenges, to Full Blown Angel Incarnate, in my view!

Her book eloquently draws you, the reader in, to experience her life, as if side by side, as she faces torments, ignorance, bullying, scapegoating, blind eyed "love," and worse, at the hands of her, friends, romantic, and life partners, her own self, and her parents, who, while nice, hard working people, likely, seemed to have missed the parenting 101 courses, most of humanity also missed out on, one way or the other.

Lisa guides readers on an epic, "Alice in Wonderland," like journey, from seeming normalcy, down into the underbelly of the beast, that is the American Dysfunctional Family System.

She does an amazing job of expressing all the layers from, oblivious denial of reality, to her own personal flavors, of the bizarre adaptive behaviors we end up making to survive oddly preoccupied, unaware, conditionally loving, judging, fearing, controlling, shut down, closed off parents.

While my experiences were different, in may cases, I saw myself mirrored very precisely, in so many moments and details of her journey.

Knowing this confident, exuberant, expressive, successful, beautiful adult Wayshower, through her on-line presence, it is shocking to travel through her trials and travails in youth, as she experiences betrayal, emotional, and verbal abuse, as she was molded to, from early on.

She does a beautiful job of reminding you of just how oblivious to their abuse, the abusers can be.

She brings hope to many, as she somehow finds truth, help, support, validation, and guidance, on her way to become a Light Beacon of this and more, for so many of us.

Without giving away too many precious details of the reading experience, I simply recommend this book highly, to anyone who is, or has been human, and or raised by fallible, awkward, shutdown humans themselves!

This powerful gem of a guide book, is both a roadmap, a friend, a gift, a treasure, and a key, helping us find our way through so much madness, back to the light left always shining within.

It will fluff your feathers, warm your heart, and open doors on your journey, if you open your attention and simply allow it in. This book comes wired with unconditional love, raw experience, profound wisdom, and a familiar sense of humor and triumph.

It's sort of like reading your own youthful raw journal, only it's published, her own, and offers some sort of resolution, and personal revolutions, that can be hard to find in one's own, unedited, unpublished journals. Many of mine were so raw, I unfortunately judged them, tore them to pieces, and threw them away. Lisa reminds us that we have access to those chronicles, whether saved, destroyed, ripped to shreds, discarded, or salvaged.

Lisa is a living guide, who knows her terrain. Her unquenchable curiosity, empathy, and drive rewards all who are drawn to don some flannel pajamas, and climb into the sleeping bag, by her side. The party is growing bigger and brighter. Jump in, and be sure to invite some of your friends! Misfits are welcome!

If you've ever wished, "if only I could change this parent, boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, boss, government official, or spouse!" this book will cheer you onward, to a most empowering disillusionment, that helps you see, how irrelevant, impossible, and irreconcilable those pipe dreams truly are. Instead you will laugh and cry your way back home, where you are seen, heard, felt, known, possible, probable, and yes, cherished, valued, valid, and lovable!

All that in a life story!

Get the book. You won't be able to put it down, or read anything else till you finish!

That was my experience.

Much Thanks and Love on the road home, Lisa.

Looking forward to exploring my transformation through more of your tools, gifts, contributions, books and guidance, on the way to unleashing and opening my own, and of course to sharing you with friends and clients alike!

Grateful!

Namaste Dear One(s)!

Truly,
Jen Klarfeld
Artist and Soul Artist
&
Lead Trailblazer at Trailblazing Transformation
Santa Fe, New Mexico

P.S. Hugs and praises. What an awesome slumber party shared!

P.P.S. Somewhere I read or heard you joking about how you must be an Alien, because you sure felt like it, in your family! I am trained in Dolores Cannon's Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique. If you ever prioritize listing to Dolores lecture on YouTube, "The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth, or read her book, by the same title, or any of her 19 published books of hypnotherapy transcripts, you may find you feel a special affinity for our Galactic Heritage, as well as the sheer mastery and courage we Volunteers brought into this kooky, crazy, beautiful, terrible, war filled, karma based, quarantined, experimental, ghetto of a free will based planet!

P.P.P.S. I am currently taking a giant leap of faith, involving art and soul, in Santa Fe. I hope to soon carry some of your books side by side with those of my other favored teachers, including Dolores and Julia Cannon, and Vianna Stibal!

Graced and Grateful!

- Jen

I bought this book on audio. Lisa recalls every painful detail it seems from her childhood to show us that you can overcome the programming from such a painful upbringing. Things that most of us don't recall in such detail is brought to mind to help you understand and validate to yourself what you also went through that no one should experience. It makes you realize that those dis-invalidating experiences are the reason why we grow up wondering why we don't have a strong sense of identify, and how that sense of not knowing our value manifasts in behaviors to seek false validation from others. The account is painfully sad in the first few chapters but it is the story that so many of us as adult children of alcoholic households (or households that had mentally ill caregivers, addicted caregivers, etc.) have experienced. Hearing Lisa's story lets you know positively that she came from the depths not knowing her worth or having a sense of self because of the dysfunctional family atmosphere she was in to healing her inner self and creating a wonderful life and helping others to heal and love themselves and create a great life too.

I absolutely loved this book. I related to Lisa and her road to self awareness, from being bullied to giving your life to others and no having a clue to who you are. Learning about my own co dependence and the spider web of confusion I felt myself digging even deeper in awareness. The characters were wonderful. This is a well written treasure. I highly recommend to anyone who is trying to find their own way.

Wow...just wow. Thank you Lisa, a million times over. I am forever indebted to your work for setting me free. My significant other and I both thank you. He struggled too with co-dependency and romance addiction in his younger years which is so common in our celebrity cult society. Together we have found something that is not perfect but how things can be when both partners refuse to keep their heads in the sand. You and Anthony are living proof it can be done. God Bless the Romano family!! Xxoo.

Every so often a book comes along that resonates so deeply with me that I will begin recommending it to my clients. Recently I came across, The Road Back To Me by Lisa A Romano. Although my work is specifically in the field of eating disorder recovery, Lisa's story of growing up in a dysfunctional, co-dependent, addicted home is similar to the one I hear quite often in my work. I believe it will be my go-to recommendation for years to come. Not only does it give the reader a sense of not being alone in their past struggle; it inspires those in recovery with the confidence necessary be able to take responsibility for their own choices and ultimately their own lives.

I couldn't sponge the information in, fast enough! Every word helped me validate my own childhood story. I felt like I was right there with her as she told her story. I knew her pain as she explained what happened. It is a must read for anyone who can't quite pin down what it is that's not right and helps to clarify your own story by reading hers. I am anxious to read her sequel to this and look forward to getting my hands on it! Lisa A. Romano has my friendship and love for eternity through the bonds of our kindred light! Xoxoxox blane

This book is the perfect example of an individual's potential for growth. The author takes you through her travels from childhood through adulthood; identifying key points in her life that contributed to the person she is today. That is nothing new, we all go through that, but what is different is that she put to paper the raw challenges she endured and the learning processes she created from her experiences. This book makes the reader think deeply about their own life travels, and if they are parents, the travels of their children and how they are contributing to their child's journey.
I highly recommend this book for all ages, and congratulations to the author for having the courage to write it!

This book is so amazing. Never have I known anyone that expresses in detail what she has experienced as a child all through until adult. If you are an adult child of alcoholic or from a dysfunctional family this book is for you.

Astonishing, Baffling, Blessed,
Brave, Complex, Daring,
Deep, Descriptive, Dramatic,
Effective, Happy, Heartfelt,
Helpful, Honest, Meaningful,
Moving, Painful, Particular,
Passionate, Real, Reflective,
Sad, Surprising, Telling,
Touching, Tragic, Triumphant

This book was amazing Lisa really opened my eyes! I found this read extremely validating, I didn't realize things that I did in my childhood that I have been doing. I have been counting since 7th grade, and now I know that was a coping mechanism.

Went from feeling sorry and sympathetic for the unyielding suffering the author endured, to being angry (with her family),to being proud of her for recovering from adversity. (It is imposible not to "FALL in LOVE" with Lisa!)This is a true "Rocky" story which is a MUST READ!

"This story is about healing the faulty programming of childhood. It is about recovery from relationship addiction, food addiction, anxiety, and constant fear" This is a very misleading book description.
I very much enjoy Romano in her youtube videos and was hoping this book would be split between her own expereinces, but then offer more in the way of tools towards recovery. This is pretty much just reading her life story. Of course it's touching at times, and I absolutely cried at similarities with my own experiences or at what she had to endure. But don't purchase this book if your looking for anything other than her story.

The book is padded by about 40 blank pages.

As numerous other reviewers have also observed and pointed out here, The Road Back to Me really offers very little actual information on codependency. It is Lisa Romano's personal autobiography, and I'm sure it was very cathartic for her to finally unleash her feelings about her family in this self-published piece of work. (She likes to claim she is a bestselling author, which gives her YouTube viewers the impression that this was on some acclaimed list such as the New York Times' bestseller list, but in actuality was a bestseller on the store for a time in an obscure, niche genre.) I found this book to be longwinded and rambling. There are many other much more informative and helpful books on codependency. It helps when they are written by actual recovered codependents, not those posturing as one.