About “THRIVE! Don’t Just Survive”


“THRIVE! Don’t Just Survive” is the 12th book published by Ali Bierman, also known as the THRIVE! Expert who leaves you with a song in your heart. The book is of interest to people who are struggling to retain hope and direction after a life-changing injury as well as those who have think they are not good enough or worthy enough to be happy.

In 1996, Ali worked as a psychotherapist at a residential crisis care facility in Virginia. She was married with two adult children at the time.

Since childhood, she had written music and performed occasionally. A client experiencing a psychotic episode attacked her during her night shift, inflicting severe closed head injuries.

The attack left her with post traumatic stress disorder, severe headaches, vision disturbances, dizziness and exhaustion that forced her from the profession. Conventional medicine was unable to help her and told her she would never get better.

Refusing to listen, she turned to the world of alternative healing, specifically Neural Organization Technique and Kinergetics. She sought help from Carl Ferrari (the founder of Neural Organization Technique) and Philip Rafferty (the founder of Kinergetics) and they were able to help recover some 95 percent of her function.

Ali decided to resume her calling of helping others – but this time, with specialized kinesiology. She began helping friends and then clients in Northern Virginia recovering from various ailments, using both her training as a psychotherapist and as a specialized kinesiologist.

She published her first book, “Parents, You Gotta Ask Questions” in 2005.  

After divorcing in 2003, /the THRIVE Expert decided to change her life significantly but lacked direction. She had lived her whole life on the East Coast but as she came to know herself better, she wanted to leave the frenetic energy of the East Coast.

She had visited Idaho once, for a few days, to see a friend and the visit intensified the longing in her heart to live in some place different. She recalled her visit to Idaho – the nature, the mountains, the rivers, the people, the sky and the clean air – and decided that was the best place to focus on her recovery and moving her life onto a better, happier path.

She moved to Boise in 2006 and turned her attention to studying metaphysics and the underpinnings of recovery – specifically, how one reinvents their life and sense of purpose after a traumatic injury. The shift was prescient; in 2011, Ali found she had a brain tumor and underwent surgery to remove it.

The surgery saved her life but left her with terrifying nerve damage: She lost the ability to speak, swallow, walk, play music and it weakened the right side of her body. However, the lifetime of study and dedication to healing served Bierman once again. With two months of physical therapy as well as speech and swallow therapy, Bierman had learned how to speak, swallow and walk.

She also drew upon her background in kinesiology and on her friendships to regain her life. Singing and playing the guitar also helped her heal psychologically and physically.

She turned to a mainstay of her life to help her recovery and help others: she wrote a book, “THRIVE! Don’t Just Survive.” 

With her twelfth book, Ali Bierman hopes to inspire people fighting disability and injury that there are ways to heal and regain productivity – that even though medical authorities have written someone off, they can find strengths and talents within themselves and their friends to regain their lives.

Her work also speaks to women and men suffering debilitating emotional pain ike depression and low self esteem.Today, even those who already lead happy and successful lives find they can “up their game” using the advice tht Ali shares in her book.