Inspired to Greatness

Is it possible for a woman to be empowered and be happy? Inspired to Greatness: A Feminine Approach to Healing the World explores the question from a research perspective, utilizing the method of narrative analysis to examine women's one-on-one interviews. What makes this book special is the focus on the narrative voice of the women participants, which differentiates it from previous explorations and research.

Our participants are among those Western women who are a part of the vanguards who infiltrated the male dominated workforce and advanced toward significant professional empowerment. The findings suggest that a fear-based survival mode is keeping women, who outwardly seem empowered, from an inner feeling of empowerment and thus from happiness. The participants spoke of being called to greater fulfillment in their lives and recognized that conscious active responsibility would be necessary to satisfy those needs, though in many cases it remained unclear whether they would decide to act upon the realization or not. It is of great importance that we pay attention to such women's interpretation of their experiences.

Society needs to attend to the findings we will explore within this book. These results are critical to psychological health and reflect deeply on how to help women find the courage to move forward. Because a healthy society relies on women rising, owning their experience, balancing their priorities, and having access to steps for health, it is clear that women's emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health would be improved through access to specific programs that will promote unconditional love, integration, and conscious awareness designed to access the individual's inner sage and as yet unrealized potentialities.

Tracy Cooper is a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, specializing in integrative therapy and personal empowerment. At the University of California, Berkeley she was a psychotherapist within the Psychological Services department. Presently, she is a psychotherapist offering comprehensive care to patients with chronic medical conditions and serious mental illness.

As a community activist, she is involved with several nonprofit organizations. She is the founder of The Uloma Foundation, she serves as a board member for Arts for All, and manages a mental health program at Interfaith Community Services.

Tracy Cooper is an academic and literary author. She contributed to the book What Women Want: A Book for Men and she is the author of the children's book series Sophie Starchild.



"Tracy Cooper has given us an insightful exploration of what it means to be an empowered woman and a happy woman--at the same time. Are women supposed to fit into a masculine model in order to be successful, and is 'having it all' (relationship, motherhood, and work) equivalent to happiness? Here, in this well-thought-out book, we look at how authenticity for women leads to happiness, and to our own unique kind of internal and external fulfillment."

--Penney Peirce, author of Leap of Perception, Frequency, and The Intuitive Way

"Inspired to Greatness puts forward a compelling call to us women to find an authentic balance between living in the world in a powerful way and finding happiness in our personal lives. It makes clear not only that we need to do this for ourselves but that it's equally important that we do so for the world we live in."

-Christine Downing, author of The Goddess