Erica Manfred

Erica Manfred is a freelance journalist in her early sixties who separated from her husband in 2001 and got divorced in 2006. Her personal essays and self-help articles about relationships, parenting, consumer issues, health, legal issues and other subjects have appeared in Cosmopolitan, New York Times Magazine, Ms., New Age Journal, New York Newsday, Parenting, Village Voice, Woman's Day, SELF, Consumers Digest, Ladies Home Journal, Bottom Line/Personal, and many others. Two of her essays have been anthologized in college textbooks. As a contributing editor to Bottom Line/Personal consumer newsletter for ten years, she interviewed hundreds of experts in the popular psychology, health and many other fields and translated their ideas into useful articles that emphasized self-help. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Freelance Success; the Mystery Writers of America and the Professional Association of Resume Writers. Her most recent project was as co-author and self-publisher of a consumer medical book: The Doctor's Guide to Weight Loss Surgery, with Louis Flancbaum M.D., which was sold to Random House in 2003. She is currently running a women's divorce support group in Woodstock, New York under the auspices of the Mental Health Association of Ulster County. She has a background in social work as a caseworker for the New York State Division for Youth where she counseled families and children for eight years.