Shared Heart: Relationship Initiations and Celebrations

by Barry Vissell, Joyce Vissell

This book is intended as a guide for those who desire personal relationships. But more than this, it is a guide for those of us who want our relationships to serve as vehicles for our spiritual awakening. This book is for those of us with the sincerity and courage to look at our desires, fears, anger-our full human condition. For as we accept our humanity with love and compassion, so will we also open our hearts to that which is more than human in us. As we embrace, rather than hate, our limitations, we find ourselves embracing our perfection as well. This book is for those of us who are learning the beauty and power of the monogamous or committed relationship. For the deeper we go with one other person, the more we learn about ourselves. In addition, the less we hide in ourselves, the more our heart is available to others, and the deeper our capacity for joy. Through this book we offer you the fruits of nineteen years of loving each other and ten years of guiding couples through their own initiations. We hope these thoughts, feelings and stories awaken your hearts to your own inner knowledge, and the ideal of the love relationship. As we all strive to be pure love, to become all we are intended to be, we are helping to spread the light of consciousness and serve humanity. May your heart be opened to the truth within you.

186 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1984

About the author

Joyce Vissell, RN, MS & Barry Vissell, MD have been a couple since 1964. A nurse and medical doctor, their main interest since 1972 has been counseling, healing and teaching. As a result of the worldwide interest in their books, they travel internationally teaching about personal growth, relationship, parenting and healing. They are the founders and directors of the Shared Heart Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the world one heart at a time. Their six deeply-moving books on relationship, family and healing are:

THE SHARED HEART: Relationship Initiations and Celebrations

MODELS OF LOVE: The Parent-Child Journey

RISK TO BE HEALED: The Heart of Personal and Relationship Growth

THE HEART'S WISDOM: A Practical Guide to Growing Through Love (also available as LIGHT IN THE MIRROR: A New Way to Understand Relationships)

MEANT TO BE: Miraculous True Stories to Inspire a Lifetime of Love

A MOTHER'S FINAL GIFT: How One Woman’s Courageous Dying Transformed Her Family

As a result of the wide popularity and unique perspective of these books, Barry & Joyce have been sought after to present talks and workshops internationally. They have been featured presenters for The Association of Unity Churches (including the Adults of Unity National Conference), The International Conference on Sacred Sexuality, Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, the Living Enrichment Center, The Bob Barcley Foundation, The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), Science of Thought Foundation in England, Unity in Yoga Annual Retreat, and Adult Children Of Alcoholics (ACOA). They have been invited to offer programs at Omega Institute, New York Open Center, Interface Foundation, Whole Life Expos, and hundreds of “new thought” churches internationally. The Vissells are regular guests on radio and TV nationally. Their books have been translated into six different languages.

They are contributors to the New York Times bestselling series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

They write a monthly column, “New Dimensions of Relationship,” which appears in 80 publications internationally.

The Vissells are the 1991 recipients of The Aquarian Award, a national honor given to those who have made an “outstanding contribution to the transformation of human consciousness.”

In 1992, they built a center for their work on 16 hilltop acres in the Santa Cruz mountains, where they live, counsel individuals and couples, and facilitate workshops and trainings.

Guideposts Magazine (approx. 15 million readers) featured Joyce and Barry, telling the story of their spiritual transformation and interdenominational marriage in their November, 2001 issue.

In 2004, a story from their book, Meant To Be, was made into a CBS Movie of the Week, “It Must Be Love,” starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen (real-life husband and wife actors), and directed by emmy-winning Steven Schacter.

The Vissells have two daughters born in 1976 and 1981, and a son born in 1989. They are committed to “walking their talk,” so they spend as much quality time as they can cultivating their relationship with each other and with their children.