Books by Dr. Katen

Let your garden grow! The concept of "The Ownership Yard" was born out of years of experience and thousands of hours providing therapy, supervision, and consultation. It works every time, in all situations, and without exception. "The Ownership Yard" will guide you in developing the courage to own what is in your yard, the serenity to accept what isn't, and the wisdom to know the difference. Happiness awaits!

Like all meaningful growth, this book began as a seed, nurtured through many seasons before it was ready to bloom. I’d like to share with you how it came to be…

I grew up in a small town in Colorado, the kind of place where the sky feels close enough to touch and everyone knows which truck belongs to whom. I did not grow up dreaming of writing novels. I grew up listening. To people. To stories. To quiet heartbreaks and stubborn hope. Eventually, I became a psychologist, and early in my career I worked in nursing homes, where I met some of the wisest, funniest, strangest, and most quietly heroic people I have ever known. Many of the characters in this story were born there, shaped by those encounters. Some of Lexi’s experiences are borrowed from my own, carried forward with gratitude and care.

The first small seed of this story came to me nearly fifteen years ago. It floated through my mind, half-formed, like a dandelion drifting on the wind. I noticed it. I admired it. And then, like so many things in life, I let it go. It waited patiently. Only this past year did it return, fully grown and insistent, ready at last to be written. I have learned that stories, like people, bloom when they are ready.

Before this book, I wrote a self-help book called The Ownership Yard. Any similarities between the two were entirely accidental. I only noticed them after both were finished, which felt a little like discovering that two old friends had secretly known each other for years. In the same way, much of the symbolism in Return to Mancos was never planned. It simply arrived. The story seemed to pour itself from my mind and heart onto the page, arranging its own meaning as it went.

Somewhere along the way, this story began to resonate with me in ways I did not expect. It looked ordinary on the surface. A woman. A job. A town. A life. But Lexi’s journey felt anything but ordinary to me. It felt brave. It felt tender. It felt true. And in many ways, it surprised me.

While I was writing, I shared each chapter with my husband as soon as it came into existence. This became a ritual, and eventually, a joke. I tried to read them aloud to him at first, but I kept crying. Not dramatic crying. Quiet, inconvenient, can’t-finish-the-sentence crying. So he took over. He read my own words back to me while I listened, laughed, and occasionally wiped my face with a tissue. It remains one of my favorite memories of this process. 

I hope you find something in this story that stays with you, even quietly. Something small and bright you can carry into your own life.

All my best,
 Katrina Katen