About this item
The inspiring story of how one woman's vision helped create a unique healing communityLee Woodruff: "This true story will twist your heart like a sponge and renew your faith in the world."Vicki Myron: "A heartwarming book." Animal lover though she was, Lorin Lindner was definitely not looking for a pet. She was busy training to be a psychologist. Then came Sammy - a mischievous and extremely loud bright pink Moluccan cockatoo who had been abandoned. It was love at first sight. But Sammy needed a companion. Enter Mango, lover of humans ("Hewwo") , inveterate thief of precious objects. Realizing that there were many parrots in need of new homes, Dr. Lindner eventually founded a sanctuary for them.Meanwhile, she began to meet homeless veterans on the streets of Los Angeles. Before long she was a full time advocate for these former service members, who were often suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and finding it hard to navigate the large VA Healthcare System Ultimately, Dr. Lindner created a program for them, too.Eventually the two parts of her life came together when she founded Serenity Park, a unique sanctuary on the grounds of the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration Healthcare Center. She had noticed that the veterans she treated as a clinical psychologist and the parrots she had taken in as a rescuer quickly formed bonds. Men and women who had been silent in therapy would share their stories and their feelings more easily with animals. Now wounded warriors and wounded parrots find a path of healing together. Birds of a Feather is ultimately a love story between veterans and the birds they nurse back to health and between Dr. Lindner and her husband, a veteran with PTSD, who healed at Serenity Park. Full of remarkable people and colorful birds, this book reminds us that we all have the power to make a difference.
About the Author
Lorin Lindner, PhD, MPH was born in Queens, New York and divided her time growing up between the city and the country in upstate New York. It is in the open spaces of nature that she very early learned her place in the world and vowed to protect what remains of the "wild" when she returned to her childhood tree house and found the forest razed for a strip mall.
First it was horses that captured her heart, but soon afterwards, Dr. Lindner fell in love with parrots, their beauty and intelligence, their spirit and their ability to fly - the ultimate in freedom, creativity and independence. Her heart was first broken by a parrot and later in life she made a promise to protect these much misunderstood animals. But her heart was also dedicated to helping veterans suffering from trauma. She put her training in psychology, public health and eco-therapy to work in order to help both - by creating programs where part-wild animals and wounded war veterans together find a path of healing from their mutual traumas. Two of these programs are described in her book, Birds of a Feather: A True Story of Hope and the Healing Power of Animals.
Dr. Lindner was the Clinical Director of a homeless veterans recovery program at the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center and taught psychology at Santa Monica College for many years before moving to the mountains above Los Angeles where she and her husband live with their family of numerous rescued animals. She continues to practice clinical psychology and lectures throughout the country.
