

I always say, I come from a long line of independent women. I also say, no good comes from a family full of women – it makes you think you can take over the world and do it better than anyone else. I can talk about my sisters and they can talk about me, but Lord help the fool who talks about one of us to another!
Sisters Project Participant
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I, too, come from a long line of independent women. My mother was one of six sisters (she was in the middle - number three), I’m one of two (I was called “little Vikki”), and I managed to produce two terrific daughters. In our own way, each one of us is a force to be reckoned with!
Maybe that’s why I became a family therapist! Originally from New York City, I graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and from New York University with a Masters of Social Work. After having worked for two years as a social worker in Harlem, I moved to Montreal, where I now reside.
During the past twenty years in my practice as a family therapist, I have worked with scores of women on issues related to their sisters. In 2000, I co-founded The Montreal Family Centre, a counselling center that provides services to individuals, couples and families. I also teach and supervise students at Montreal’s Argyle Institute, as well as appear regularly as the resident
family therapist on the morning television news.
Three years ago, my youngest daughter made an off-hand comment one day. She said, “No matter who I’m with, I always feel like a little sister”. A 100 watt lightbulb went off in my head, because it’s the same with me. I can be in a room full of women who are younger than me and I’ll still feel like the ingenue. I started asking some friends about their identities in relation to this sibling bond, and their interest and enthusiasm just talking about it was electric! And so, the Sisters Project was born.
I have had the privilege of hearing from hundreds of women, teens and girls. Some participants were interviewed face-to-face, usually in their homes or offices. Others went to all the trouble of filling out an email questionnaire and sending it to me - a complete stranger in cyberspace. All the interviews and questionnaires had one thing in common - a passion for understanding and explaining this childhood relationship that means so much.
Runaway Husbands: The Abandoned Wife's Guide to Recovery and
Renewal, based on a study of 400 women worldwide, demystifies Wife Abandonment Syndrome, which refers to a pattern of behavior in which a husband suddenly leaves out-of-the-blue what his wife believed to be a happy marriage.
To learn more about Vikki Stark’s practice as an individual, couple and family therapist, please visit www.vikkistark.com

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