)
Michele Klevens Ritterman, PhD
Books
Dr. Ritterman’s collection of pioneering and timeless works, many translated into multiple languages, serve as an invaluable resource for the study and practice of family therapy.
She has also published poetry and a well-loved children's book, written with a friend when they were both 10 years old.
UNWINDING
The Collected Poems of Michele Klevens Ritterman 1956-2021 (2021)
The collected poems include thirteen of Dr. Ritterman’s previously published works and is currently available through the author. The title derives from a quote by Buckminster Fuller “Fire is the sun unwinding from the tree’s log.”
The book contains five distinct sections, organized by what Dr. Ritterman calls “an energetic logic.” The overriding theme is examining the impact on our humanity - and on our very survival as a species - of going “faster than the speed of love.”
"Thank you so much for sharing this loving poem. Sharing the sensations of raindrops on your granddaughter’s cheek…welcoming this becoming woman within the baby. For me the breezy miracle that spoke in droplets will always have an echo of your voice, whispering we will live, we live long for love and beauty."
--Cecile Henriques, Student, on a "Poem to Amiela at Womanhood"
The Cow with the Ponytail (2016)
Michele Klevens Ritterman, psychologist, theorist, author and lecturer, and Gale Epstein, philanthropist and co-founder, president and creative director of Hanky Panky, wrote The Cow with the Ponytail together when they were ten-year old girls living in Missouri.
The story was published sixty years later to help young people, especially girls, know how talented they are! And to encourage young people to stand up to bullies!
Don't let anyone "cow" you from being who you really are, especially if you are a cow with a ponytail!
“Thank you for the book. I’m going to bring it to school and show my friends and teacher how lucky I am. I really enjoy your book, and Madeline looks so cute with her ponytail.”
--Kimberly, age 8
“Don’t worry what other people think, just be yourself like Madeline.”
--Isla, age 10
“This book really teaches kids about how the little quirks we have make us who we are. I’ve loved it for years. I’m 12 now and still read it from time to time. Love it and highly recommend.”
--Maggie, age 12
An updated format is in the works! (July 2026)
.jpg)
The Tao of a Woman (2009)
Dr. Michele Ritterman's The Tao of a Woman is, in part, based on Post-It Notes she handed clients from their own unconscious revelations during sessions. Each of the 100 verses offers a tool to move from a symptom trance to a healing stance.
This offering represents one of Dr. Ritterman’s teachings in a therapy of shifts. Instead of freezing people as damaged and defined within medical diagnostic categories, these healing movements are a reminder of what unique works-in-progress each of us is. For her, a goal of psychology is to help people create friendly societies that cater to the biorhythms and other natural needs of the human organism.
“When you arrive at life’s turning points, this book will guide you toward happiness.”
--Braulio Montalvo, a father of Structural Family Therapy and co-author of Families of the Slums
“We all need small quiet moments. Michele Ritterman’s gentle phrases allow us a pause between the rivers of coming and going. Then, easy and bright, we step again, ready for anything.”
--Saraswathi Devi, Yoga and Meditation teacher
The book is published in English, Spanish (El Tao de Una Mujer) and Portuguese (O Tao de Uma Mujer, serie mulheres editora leader).
Woman's Wisdom (2007)
This little book contains ten sections, each of which offers memorable, hypnotic twists and spins of mind-awakening verses. Something to carry for moments of transition, pain or indecision.
"Dr. Ritterman has given us a generous gift of spirit in this heart-opening, inspirational book. The elegant simplicity of these wisdom teachings is a powerful RX for the soul for people of all ages!"
--Estelle Frankel, author of Sacred Therapy
Using Hypnosis in Family Therapy (2005)
A book too important to allow to go out of print, Using Hypnosis in Family Therapy is still as relevant today as when it was first written in the 1980’s. Dr. Ritterman's work is innovative, practical, and can be folded into the working perspective of practitioners of every stripe.
Dr. Ritterman is recognized around the world as the mother of the systematic synthesis of the underpinnings and global applications of Ericksonian-related hypnotherapy, focused on structural and strategic family contextual therapies. She teaches that symptoms are often contextually suggested trance states. Therapy can help people subject to unhelpful messages to awaken to their full capacity.
"A classic book filled with seminal ideas that continue to blossom in the is always-fertile field."
--Camilo Loriedo
"This is the most useful integration of ideas in hypnosis with family therapy, an enduring resource."
--Braulio Montalvo
"The New Hypnosis...lends itself very well to developing the skill of using 'family hypnosis' therapeutically. What the family has been doing ineffectively and counter-productively can be turned around for their benefit. The awareness of this aspect of family communication we owe to Ritterman…Ritterman shows the flexibility and marvelous creative potential of hypnosis with families."
--Daniel Araoz
"Ritterman's book is an important contribution to both family therapy and clinical hypnosis. Indeed, this is the first book to be devoted to family hypnotherapy. All students of family therapy will benefit greatly from this book, regardless of the general therapeutic model they use. They will realize, with surprise, perhaps, that the hypnotic techniques proposed by Ritterman can be incorporated into their own family therapy model, enriching it and making it more effective. Family therapists owe it to themselves to read this volume."
--From Contemporary Psychology
The book is available in English, Spanish and Italian.
Hope Under Siege: Terror and Family Support (1991)
This book studies the applications of psycho-therapeutic principles and techniques beyond consulting and into the larger world social reality.The stated purpose is to understand and reveal to the reader the psychological and social dynamics that allow families to exhibit hope and courage beyond the ordinary.The volume is a valuable contribution to the study of family systems under extreme duress.
"Michele Ritterman has immersed herself in a complex reality, to discover its secrets and capture its deepest essence... It is above all a testimony of hope. In this book, Michele Ritterman gives us a formidable lesson in life."
--Isabel Allende (from her forward)
"Michele Ritterman has transcended the boundaries of family therapy. Her experience as a family therapist informed her tracking of the families of these survivors, using their lives as a universal mirror, but the book speaks with the voice of a witness compelled to tell the stories she has seen. It must be read."
--Salvador Minuchin, M.D., the father of Structural Family Therapy
