Book excerpt: With The Medicine Wheel for Stepparents, I hope to give some understanding and relief to blended families. Stepfamilies have common threads of dysfunction. There are many issues that form these common threads. These issues occur between stepparent and stepchild and biological parent, biological child, and extended family in blended families. I have listed the issues and have offered affordable solutions that are within our grasp. These common threads reappear in every aspect of family life, including financial matters such as your childs Social Security checks, child-support checks, medical bills, and the parents will. These issues occur when the power structure changes in a home after a divorce or death in a family. Everyone is left in a gigantic power struggle, which retires parents prematurely. Stepparents and stepchildren feel that they must protect their territory, ego, and family with secrets, isolation, intimidation, manipulation, and stonewalling behavior. When stepfamilies are choking, parents, stepparents, and stepchildren do not have to be severely depressed, take multiple medications for depression and energy, get a divorce, or attempt suicide for relief. Biological parents and stepparents do not have to be retired prematurely. There are better ways to keep everyone functioning in blended families. My book will not take away all the opposition you experience in blended families. We learn by overcoming opposition, not creating opposition. This book helps you analyze and carry the opposition to your efforts for your blended family.