I was born in New York where I learned about determination and tenaciousness. New Yorkers are some of the strongest people I know. As a young girl my mother bought me a Girl Scout Diary and in the confines of those blank pages I fell in love with writing. In 1972 I left my good job on Wall Street and moved to Santa Cruz, Ca. At the newly built university there, UCSC, I took my first philosophy class and fell in love with studying the process of thinking and the development of ideas. Through that process, I became enamored by the honest and powerful writing of Anais Nin. I picked up my pen again and began to write about my own ideas and thoughts. I have yet to abandon my pen. In 1976 I earned my bachelor degree at the University of California/Santa Cruz and a few years later I received my master degree in social work from San Jose State University. I tell you this because those philosophy classes gave me a strong and needed foundation for the development of my work in psychotherapy and the challenges I faced as life moved on. Check out: www.JanMarquartLCSW.wordpress.com Each of my dozens of books reveal trials, errors, struggles and triumphs I have experienced. Some are relayed in self-help, some fiction, poetry, and memoir. I rely on my personal philosophy, spirituality, and daily writing for healing and strengthening myself to become the best woman I can be. As a psychotherapist and therapeutic writing specialist, I help people understand the power of their words, the purpose of story and the empowerment of writing their own narrative. Writing about our lives taps us into the sacred place within. You know that voice, the quiet one that speaks inside your head that only you can hear while your speaking voice is talking out loud about something else to someone. It is that inner voice that writing accesses and it is that inner voice that is the place that speaks when we write. That is where healing begin and honesty resides. Also, check out my blogs: janmarquartauthor.home.blog freethepen.wordpress.com awarelivingnow.blogspot.com