Bastion Gallery venue for Saturday launch of US author’s book

David Flynn

An American mental health therapist and author is launching his latest book in the Bastion Gallery through next Saturday afternoon, November 9th, 12 noon to 5pm.

Peter Bedard's book, ‘Billy and the Anxiety Monster’ is a colouring and activity book, which is an interactive version of a book of the same name that he brought out last year. The two books were published by Irish publishers, BookHub. His first book ‘Convergence Healing – Healing Pain With Energetic Love’ was published by Simon and Schuster.

Peter is close friends with Athlone resident and metaphysical healing author, Mary Helen Hensley.

“I’ve visited Athlone about seven times and have travelled across Ireland with Mary Helen, and here I’ve seen the River Shannon on the Viking boat, and Sean’s Bar is amazing,” said Peter, to the Westmeath Independent this week. “Walking through downtown Athlone, it’s really nice to see the plants in baskets. I like Clonmacnois, and I really loved Birr in Co. Offaly. Mary Helen has been my connection to this beautiful land.”

Peter will be in the Bastion Gallery on Saturday between 12-5, as he calls it: “hanging out and connecting with people.”

“If they need a little help, I’ll do a mini-session with them for about ten minutes,” he said. “It’s not like the usual book signing.”

Peter and Mary Helen have been friends for twelve or thirteen years and met on the Queen Mary ship, which is docked at Long Beach, California.

“It was at a conference on the ship and we were both invited to speak there,” he said.

Peter was born and raised in Silicon Valley, California, “in the time of orchards”, and has been a mental health therapist for twenty years.

“The orchards came down and Silicon Valley grew,” he said.

Peter said he doesn’t consider himself a writer, but feels he has a passion to tell a story to help people heal.

Peter will be a doing a workshop with Athlone’s Attitude Dance Group while he is in Ireland and on Saturday, November 17 he is attending the screening of a documentary at the Dean Crowe Theatre.

The film is called ‘What Every Soul Knows – The Joy of Remembering Who We Are’, and it features contributions from Peter Bedard and Mary Helen Hensley.