Break the Cycle!

Break the Cycle! is a webpage that was created and maintained by Peter K. Gerlach, M.S.W. (January 27th 1938 - October 22, 2015). The website was an expression of his life purpose in the later life:

"My life purpose is to educate and motivate other people to protect future generations and break the toxic [wounds + unawareness] cycle that is crippling many persons, families, and our society."^[1]

Peter lived in an elderly care home and offered pro-bono therapy online based on Internal Family Systems (see [1], [2]). His clients would find him through the "seven sequential self-study Lessons for all lay and professional adults and older teens" he posted on his website.^[2]

1. Assess for psychological wounds and reduce any you find using "parts work" to free your wise resident true Self.
2. Learn effective thinking and communicating skills
3. An overview of bonding, losses (broken bonds), and healthy three-level grief
4. Learn how to optimize your human relationships
5. Learn how to evolve a satisfying high-nurturance family
6. Learn how to parent (nurture) kids and teens effectively
7. Learn how to evolve and maintain a high-nurturance stepfamily

Although the lessons were originally created as a self-help tool for families involving step-children, the contents are applicable to anyone.

This page is the beginning of a community effort to keep evolving the lessons Peter created and help spread the benefits derived from them to the world. A suggestion for a structure of this effort:

1.  Create overview pages of the seven lessons, summarizing key points and resources. These pages will function as navigation portals into each of the seven topics.
2.  Identify core themes of these lessons and create pages for these themes
3.  Create a repository of helpful tools and techniques that can be used within each theme
4.  Review the material and create links between the pages