In Pursuit of Radio Mom

In Pursuit of Radio Mom brings the reader tight to Terry Crylen’s side as it traces her path from frequent and debilitating anxiety, loneliness, and shame—and a dysfunctional marriage that mirrors the dynamics of her relationship with her mother—to the discovery of her authentic self and the happiness and fulfillment such a transformation brings. Radio Mom also illuminates the ways in which one generation impacts the next—both wittingly and unwittingly—when later, while pressing along the difficult route of raising her own daughter, the author is challenged to confront, yet again, the legacy of her past.

A book that also makes transparent the process of psychotherapy, In Pursuit of Radio Mom’s message is this: the excavation of pain clears space within the mind and heart—affording the growth of new insight, overturning fear, and making acceptance and forgiveness possible.

Author: Terry Crylen

Pub Date: October 24, 2023

Categories: Fall 2023, Memoir

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About the Author

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“Limned by a deft storyteller with a fresh voice, In Pursuit of Radio Mom pulls off a tremendous challenge: it makes empathetic Crylen’s sojourn away from and back to her remote and bitter mother, as well as revealing her subsequent brave battle to loosen her grasp on her anorexic and suicidal daughter. Her background as a clinical psychologist, here unmasked, inspires both her candor and her tenderness. Bravo!”
—Linda Gray Sexton, best-selling author of Searching For Mercy Street: My Journey Back To My Mother, Anne Sexton

“As Terry’s colleague of twenty-five years, I have witnessed her dedication to a career investigating the lives of others. Her ability to interweave clinical expertise with personal experience is a rare gift. This is a riveting story of the transformative power of truth and love, shared with astounding empathy.”
—Roxanne I. Levin, PhD

“Crylen provides a reasoned, thought-provoking series of changing viewpoints about her mother from childhood to adulthood, cementing the early influences and absences that formulated her life and psyche . . . Libraries and readers seeking memoirs that capture the process of growth and understanding between mothers and daughters will find In Pursuit of Radio Mom an especially astute, potent consideration of family ideals and realities that is recommended for a much wider audience than the usual memoir or psychological inspection.”
—Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Terry Crylen’s thirty-five years in the mental health field, thirty of them in private practice as a PhD Licensed Clinical Psychologist, served to enrich her understanding and appreciation for the emotional power of the mother-daughter relationship. A graduate of Northwestern University, her career in mental health focused largely on working with adolescent girls and adult women presenting with clinical depression, anxiety, and complex mood disorders. A lifelong Chicagoan, she is committed to supporting community efforts aimed at creating opportunities for the city’s economically disadvantaged youth and is an ardent supporter of the arts. Along with her husband, Phil, Terry is also a “frequent flyer,” devoted to maintaining strong ties with family—most of whom are scattered across the US. When not on the road or writing, she can be found hanging out with four-legged friends or with her nose in a good book.