We have a choice in how we look at the events that happen in our lives. We can choose to view the events in our life as a series of failure, employing blame and guilt. This is the Failure Road.

Or we can look at life as a journey of experiences, and no matter the outcome, there will always be a lesson to learn. And if we learn even one thing from the experience, we have succeeded! This is the Experience Road. It is a path that embraces success and optimism.

In The Two Roads of Life: Navigating Yourself and Family to Health and Contentment, Dr. Michael Simon draws upon his 43-year Experience Road journey as a clinical psychologist to help everyone from children to adults avoid taking the Failure Road by overcoming emotional and behavioral issues to reach their potentials and have happier lives on the Experience Road.

Dr. Simon uses a Teaching Model approach to treatment. His goal is to teach people how their minds and bodies work with an understanding that encourages and enables problem solving. His strategies are user friendly, specific, creative, and designed to be easily applied.

In the first part of this book, Dr. Simon focuses on childhood and family issues. His novel approach, “The Family as a Country,” is a model that provides guidance and structure for developing a healthy and stable family. It examines the needs of both parents and children, while further assessing discipline, love, and attention. His methods are particularly well suited for families with special needs children.

The second part of the book focuses on the needs of adults, individually and as couples. Dr. Simon poses the question, “How Do You Make a Feeling?” He teaches an understanding of how to take control over our exposed nerves and stay tuned into adult thinking, an Experience Road quality. He addresses anxiety, depression, trauma, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, communication skills, and hoarding.

Following a long and successful career in suburban Long Island, New York, Dr. Simon and his wife have retired to urban life in Washington, D.C. As he embarks on new journeys, he wrote this book to share all the knowledge he has gained on his Experience Road. The material will be helpful for those seeking understanding and skills for managing emotional/behavioral needs. It will also prove helpful for clinicians in developing and organizing their own practices.

Simon Michaël