| Biography: |
Eleutheria Kardoulias (translated to Liberty Kardules in elementary school) was born the first child of Greek immigrant parents. Her life was influenced by the cultural, ethnic and patriarchal history of her parents as well as the times and events in the industrial river town of Martins Ferry, Ohio, during the Great Depression and World War II. By the age of seven, she recognized that her destiny would be an arranged marriage at the age of sixteen.
Her intention was to go to high school and graduate. The dilemma that confronted her at that young age was how to convince her father that she was responsible enough to graduate from high school without dishonoring the family name. As she grew and developed, she became aware of three goals that she wanted to achieve for herself—freedom, education and her own identity. These became the guiding forces of her life:
As she approached mid-adolescence, she perceived a direction that might make her dream a reality. The nursing profession was available as the first step out of her family and the fate that awaited her. When she realized that her father could not be persuaded to give up his plans for her marriage, she took two years after graduation from high school before deciding to take the ultimate step of leaving home without marriage. This meant being disowned; and there was no returning to the family.
She graduated from nursing school and married her high-school friend, James Wright, a highly intellectual young man who was determined to become a poet. Liberty postponed her own desires for college to work and help Jim get his graduate degrees. The marriage was filled with challenges that neither of them knew how to discuss. They had two sons, Franz and Marshall. Jim’s dreams started to come true. He published his first book as a graduate student and he became famous overnight. Neither of them was prepared for the turn of events that happened at that point. Jim was awarded his Ph.D. and Liberty was confronted with a divorce. She was devastated and she used the time to start fulfilling her own dreams. She attended the University of Minnesota and achieved a Bachelor’s degree with Honors.
With determination and perseverance, and as a single parent, she went as far as she could as a nurse, a Master’s Degree in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing and a prestigious position as an Educator and Clinical Specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She married again, had another son, Andre, and went on to face another challenging marriage. This time she returned to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy. In over forty years of experience, she developed a model of marriage that she shared very successfully with thousands of couples.
She has published two books, Building a Reality-Based Relationship (2007) and Liberty’s Quest (2008).
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