Square-Peg-People.com

This isn't the "normal" Square-Peg Spotlight interview - we're not answering the regular questions...What we thought we'd do here is tell you a bit about who we are and how we got started.

So many people have become part of Square-Peg-People since it's beginning back in 2005 - through subscribing to The Encourager, writing to us about their Square-Peg experiences, coming to the telecalls, sending in material to share, bringing friends to the site, etc. - and we realize that, since many current readers weren't with us from the beginning, they may not know our "story". We decided to try to remedy that.

Some of this information has been shared in different places and times, but we wanted to try to bring a bit of our story together in one place to share with YOU.

Up until a few years ago I (Karen) was a Master's level psychotherapist working mostly with people who were dealing with grief and/or trauma. I saw something wildly attractive and alive in people who allowed grief or trauma "in" - who did not run from these hard experiences of life - but walked (and, because they ARE hard - even sometimes crawled) through them.

In my therapy practice I found myself doing something I'd done with friends ever since I could remember - recommending books! Books have always been important to me (read more about my connection to books in Square-Peg Stacks - where you'll find all the one's reviewed) so sharing them with others was natural.

After hearing comments like: "That book changed my life!" or "This is just what I needed" over and over - I realized that I had a bit of a gift for matching people and books.

So - I had these two loves: people who lived life deeply and books. they weren't really connected except in my therapy practice.

Until I took the "You University" class lead by Artella's Marney Makridakis. I took the class to get