[1] She was raised in the traditional Cherokee way by her mother and her great-grandmother, and carried the principles they taught her into her life and her work.
For years she also ran her own private practice for individuals, couples and groups; major corporations; government; and profit and non-profit organizations.
[2] Schaef then developed her own practice called Living in Process,[2] and wrote 18 books including the New York Times bestseller When Society Becomes an Addict, where she compared western culture to an active alcoholic.
[4] This book, subtitled An Emerging Female System in a White Male Society was part of her lifelong work championing women's issues.
[6] Schaef left the field of psychotherapy because she saw it as supporting "addictive processes that promote codependency and interfere with the people's need—and right—to heal themselves".