Therapist
Writer
Speaker
Mary Pipher graduated in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 and received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in Clinical Psychology in 1977. She has worked as a therapist and adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University. She was a Rockefeller Scholar in Residence at Bellagio and has received two American Psychological Association Presidential Citations, one of which she returned to protest psychologists’ involvement in enhanced interrogations at Guantanamo.
Mary was born in the Ozarks and grew up in rural Nebraska. As a girl she liked reading, writing, swimming, being outdoors and talking to her friends and family.
Pipher is the author of 8 books including her first, “Reviving Ophelia” and her most recent “Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World.” She is currently writing a book about the psychological and cultural issues that impact our awareness of and response to global climate change. Its tentative title is “The Green Boat: Trauma and Transcendence in our Tumultuous Times.”
Pipher lives in Nebraska with her husband, Jim, and with her children and grandchildren nearby. She enjoys dong the same things she liked as a girl.
After decades as a psychotherapist and best-selling author of such life-changing books as Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other, Mary Pipher turns her attention to herself - collecting insights from her own life to illuminate the importance of the journey, not just the destination. Her new book is called Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World.
Like most lives, Pipher's is filled with glory and tragedy, chaos and clarity, love and abandonment. She spent her childhood in small Nebraska towns, the daughter of a doctor mother and a restless jack-of-all-trades father. Often both of her parents were away and Pipher and her siblings lived as what she calls "feral children." Later, as a therapist, Pipher was able to do what she most enjoyed: learn about the world and help others. After the surprising success of Reviving Ophelia, she found herself overwhelmed by the demands on her time and attention. In 2002, Pipher realized that success and fame were harming her, and she began working to find a quieter, more meditative life that would carry her toward self-acceptance and joy.
In Seeking Peace, Mary Pipher tells her own remarkable story, and in the process reveals truths about our search for happiness and love. While her story is unique, "the basic map and milestones of my story are universal," she writes. "We strive to make sense of our selves and our environments."
