Loriann Oberlin

Loriann Hoff Oberlin (born June 2, 1961) is an American writer and author as well as a licensed clinical professional counselor. She has co-written Overcoming Passive-Aggression: How To Stop Hidden Anger From Spoiling Your Relationships, Career and Happiness as well as The Angry Child: Regaining Control When Your Child Is Out of Control. She is also the author of Surviving Separation and Divorce, in addition to several other non-fiction books. In addition, she writes fiction using the pen name Lauren Monroe. Her first novel, published in 2014, was titled Letting Go: Book One of The Maryland Shores. She wrote a second novel in the series titled "Second Chances: Book Two of The Maryland Shores" that was released in 2015.

Early writing career

Oberlin was born in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and identified her passion for books and writing during her high school years.[1] She is a graduate of Montour High School and went on to earn a B.A. from Westminster College, in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania in 1983. During her collegiate years, she worked on the college newspaper, at the campus radio and television station as a broadcast major, and interned at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

Oberlin's early career focused upon public relations, freelance writing and teaching writing in various lifelong learning programs at community colleges in Western Pennsylvania. She contributed regularly to regional parenting publications across the country and to national magazines including Elegant Bride, Bridal Guide, The Saturday Evening Post, First for Women, Parenting, Parents, Woman's World, US Air Magazine, and Hemispheres. She wrote a column for the Pittsburgh Business Times on work/life balance and contributed to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Oberlin also taught non-fiction book and magazine article writing classes at college continuing education programs and through Writer's Digest Online Workshops.[2]

Her first book Writing For Money was published by Writer's Digest Books (F&W Media) in 1995, followed by Working At Home While The Kids Are There, Too (Career Press) in 1997. She was an initial contributor to the Insider's Guide to Pittsburgh (2000, first edition) the same year that Surviving Separation and Divorce: A Woman's Guide to Making It Through the First Year was published. During her writing career, she also contributed to the Everything series published by Adams Media and later revised the second edition of the Compass American Guide to Pennsylvania.[3]

Collaborative Work

While working as contributors to a regional parenting publication Tim Murphy, Ph.D., a practicing psychologist in Pittsburgh, sought help for his first book. The two collaborated producing The Angry Child: Regaining Control When Your Child Is Out of Control (Random House), published in 2001. The Angry Child won the National Parenting Publications Award. Murphy went on to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate and was elected in 2002 to the U.S. House of Representatives where he represented the 18th Congressional District from 2003 until 2017.[4]

Following a move to Maryland in 2001, Oberlin continued her writing and teaching at Montgomery College and at the University of Pittsburgh's Informal Program.[5] She also taught online through Writer's Digest Workshops and Barnes & Noble. In 2004, she published Writing For Quick Cash: Turn Your Way With Words Into Real Money. In 2005, she revised Surviving Separation and Divorce (F&W/Adams Media), a book that was seen in the motion picture and DVD The Other Woman, starring Natalie Portman. This book was also published in Spanish.

Also in 2005, Oberlin and Murphy published their second collaboration choosing to write about passive-aggression, which is little understood. In what Publisher's Weekly called a work that provides ample opportunity and exercises for personal growth, Overcoming Passive-Aggression: How To Stop Hidden Anger From Spoiling Your Relationships, Career and Happiness became the only consumer book discussing passive aggression as a type of concealed, indirect anger in both genders and of all ages. The book was initially acquired and published by Marlowe, which became subsumed by Perseus/DaCapo and Perseus Academic Publishing.[6]

In 2016, Ms. Oberlin drafted the book's revision, adding new chapters, updating anecdotes, creating educational graphics, and citing new interviews, research, and sources. Dr. Murphy contributed some material, as his time permitted. This 2016 edition contains information to assist professionals and healthcare providers when they must deal with non-compliant clients or patients. It also encourages self-care among those in helping professions. The revised edition launched in time for the 2016 holiday season where it helped readers deal with difficult people during the holiday season. Hachette, now the parent company for DaCapo Lifelong Books, issued the audio book as well.

Counseling and mental health career

During the writing of Overcoming Passive Aggression (2005), Oberlin was enrolled in a graduate program at Johns Hopkins University, and in 2006, earned her MS in Counseling, followed by a post-master's certificate in clinical counseling later that same year. After meeting the clinical requirements for state licensure, she began work as an LGPC and later as a fully licensed LCPC. In 2008, she began Loriann Oberlin Counseling & Mediation, LLC in North Potomac, Maryland and added another office in Easton, Maryland, in 2012.[7]

Oberlin's counseling career focuses upon helping individuals (elementary age children through seniors), couples, and families. She has also offered group counseling and mediation services after obtaining the 40-hour state divorce mediation training and 20-hour child access training. Her Easton, Maryland office is now her primary practice location though she sees clients in North Potomac weekly as well. Oberlin helps children and teens, men and women through life's stressful moments such as school, bullying, attentional and learning challenges, relationship and health problems, parenting, job stress, death or other anxiety-ridden times. The Star Democrat reported in January 2013 that Oberlin will add a women's support group to her Easton office because "women tend to put their selfcare last," she said. In 2014 through 2016, Loriann Oberlin completed two levels of Gottman Method Couples Counseling training to enhance her work with troubled relationships and families.

Oberlin had contributed to Blogs on Divorce through Divorce Magazine for several years.[8] She is an occasional contributor to parenting and other publications on a freelance basis as her time permits.

Loriann Oberlin resides on Maryland's eastern shore with her husband Robert and her two sons, enjoying Chesapeake living, boating, reading, and travel while also writing and working in the mental health field. She speaks in community settings such as at the Talbot County Public Library and other venues.[9]

Fiction writing & Volunteer Work

In 2014, Oberlin added novelist to her writing credentials, writing under the pen name Lauren Monroe with the women's fiction/contemporary romance Letting Go: The Maryland Shores, Book One in the series she started.[10] She chose the pen name Lauren Monroe for symbolic reasons, as she always liked the first name and used to live and work outside of Pittsburgh in a town called Monroeville. In 2015, "Second Chances: The Maryland Shores," Book Two was released.

The series weaves in facets of her former hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while the rest of the setting takes place in the DC/MD region during a particularly tense time in that region's history. The novels are available as Ebooks and are published in paperback, available online and at several stores on the Maryland Eastern Shore. In 2016, the novels were released in large print editions to help those older readers and the visually impaired. The website for her fiction work is www.laurenmonroenovels.com. Lauren Monroe maintains a social media presence on Facebook, Pinterest, and Goodreads with an author page. A Facebook group for The Maryland Shores women's fiction fans exists as well.

Oberlin is a member of the Eastern Shore Writers Association. She has served on the planning committee for the Bay to Ocean Writer's Conference held at Chesapeake College, and presented at the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference in 2015 and 2017. She will also speak at the 2018 conference for this group and has also participated in individual and group book signings. These include the Baltimore Book Festival in 2014, Kent Island Library Holiday Book Signing in December 2014, and the Gaithersburg Book Festival in 2015 and 2017.

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.