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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 12th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2009> Psychotherapist Salvager ─ Dr. Daniel Gottlieb
Disabled Body with a Sound Mind ‧ With Love Everything Will Be Fine
      Daniel Gottlieb, after graduated from Temple University in 1969, started to work on the fields he found fascinating—personal and family therapies. He had had a perfect family and an excellent job, before the traffic accident in 1979, when he was preparing for a gift for his wife for their 10 th anniversary of marriage. After the accident, Daniel was totally paralyzed except his head. At first, he was full of remorse and unable to accept the fact. He found it meaningless to stay alive. During this period, his wife and he divorced, his parents and sisters passed away one by one. He was lost in his fear of the future; he simply had no reason to stay alive. However, in such crucial moment, an angel appeared before him.
      This angel was not one in mythology who wears a white robe and has a pair of white wings on her back. Rather, she was a woman who just lost her love and felt that life was meaningless and that there was no reason to stay alive. She sat down beside Daniel, with her sadness and frustration. This woman knew that Daniel was a psychotherapist, so she asked him whether she could talk to him. Daniel agreed with pleasure, the woman then started to tell him her pain. Daniel listened to her quietly, and the woman gradually alleviated the pain in her heart. Daniel then understood that, this woman was the angel in his life: she told Daniel through her own pain that although the accident had taken away his mobility, God had left his most precious gift, i.e. the ability to love, intact. As a psychotherapist, he still had the ability to listen to others and alleviate other's pains, so he should put his ability to love to good use. Daniel, as a result, regained the motive to live.
       Daniel said once, “Books taught me only the superficiality of psychology; however, the accident which caused my limbs disabled taught me to sit quietly, so that I can open my heart and listen to the world.” Therefore, he started to take care of his family with his heart, especially his autistic grandson Sam, whom he loves the most. He also tries to take care of the society. Love is the constituent of Daniel's power. He loves and values people around him, and he also generously and happily receives the loves and values from people around him. Through the rumination of his life, Daniel keeps soothing people's hearts with his patient listening and gentle words, besides inspiring people with his wise, touching, and enlightening writings. He is the host of “Voices in the Family”, a program on the WHYY channel of Philadelphia National Broadcasting Station, and a ten-year columnist of Philadelphia Inquirer . He also collected his own professional information and column works on psychotherapy and published them in Voices of Conflict: Voices of Healing , and other books. Letter to Sam is a book he wrote for his autistic grandson Sam. He said, “If this book can make people to give more tolerances and concerns to [those who are special], then it is a successful one.” At the same time, he donated all the incomes of the copyright royalty to organizations that treat autism as well as those provide health concerns to children. This is the way he repays all the selfless loves and helps he received from people.