Closeted by shyness for decades, memoirist Helen Rivas-Rose, republished in 2015, her memoir Brave: A Painfully Shy Life which describes her entire life along with a self-help guide for overcoming shyness.
Born in Connecticut, she spent her adolescence in rural Prince Edward Island. Too fraught by social isolation to settle down, she traveled internationally to Madrid, Caracas, Calgary, and Lisbon where she taught in numerous schools, from Berlitz, to elementary school and to adult education courses on bridge, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1978 she took the plunge and moved to a family compound in Kennebunk where she still felt isolated and, still feeling desperate, sought professional help. Her twenty years of learning and finally her emergence to a full person, is an inspirational story.
Her book, Brave: A Painfully Shy Life, is available on Amazon.com both as paperback and Kindle formats. Brave received rave reviews from Foreword and Midwest plus three finalist awards from New England Independent Publishers and two from USA Best Book Awards, including one in narrative non-fiction and one in Self-Help: motivational. Her work is endorsed by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the world’s authority on shyness.
Since fall of 2015, Helen has been involved in founding and directing the 501(c)(3) organization called Center for Social Isolation Relief (CSIR).
Please note: The author’s self-help guide that is included in Brave: A Painfully Shy Life is available here for free under Resources. The Center for Social Isolation Relief will build an independent website as soon as it can.
Acclaim for Brave: A Painfully Shy Life
“In Helen Rivas-Rose’s detailed and poignant memoir, Brave, she details her lifelong struggle with shyness and how she learned to free herself from it. Her message promises to inspire shy people and give them a guideline to gradual, positive change.” — Lynn Everts, ForeWord Clarion Reviews
“Those who want to see change in their lives will find Brave: A Painfully Shy Life a powerful memoir documenting the process not just of one woman’s blossoming, but the impetus involved in personal transformation as a whole. Bravo!” — D. Donovan, Senior Midwest eBook Reviewer