Norma Eckroate’s passions have fueled her career, encompassing the entertainment world, writing, spirituality, and holistic health. She has pursued the majority of her career in New York City, Virginia Beach, and Los Angeles. Early in her adult life, Norma was inspired by an interview with acclaimed actress Gena Rowlands. When asked how she balances her career as an actress with other interests and commitments, including painting, marriage, and motherhood, she responded, “My life is my career.”
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Norma’s newest book, The Medical Marijuana Handbook: A Patient’s Guide to Holistic Healing With Cannabis (BookLocker, 2016), is the first she has written on her own. This book was fueled by her own lifelong health challenge and her in-depth studies of holistic health. She also coauthored 12 books with experts on topics ranging from holistic animal care, stress management, and brain optimization to dog training and Santa Claus. Her first book, The Natural Cat (Penguin/Plume), written with feline expert Anitra Frazier, remains as her bestselling book, with over 500,000 copies sold to date. Also with Frazier, Norma wrote It’s a Cat’s Life (Berkley/Putnam).
Writing
Norma coauthored three books with Paul Owens, who is referred to as the “original” Dog Whisperer, including the bestselling The Dog Whisperer and The Puppy Whisperer, and their most recent book, The Dog Whisperer Presents: Good Habits for Great Dogs (all published by Adams Media). In addition, Norma coauthored two books with holistic veterinarian Dr. Mary Brennan, The Natural Dog (Plume) and Complete Holistic Care and Healing for Horses (Trafalgar Square). She also coauthored Switched-On Living: Easy Ways to Use the Mind/Body Connection to Energize Your Life with stress management expert, Jerry Teplitz, Ph.D., Switched-On Selling: Balance Your Brain for Sales Success with Dr. Teplitz and Tony Alessandra, and Switched-On Networking: Balance Your Brain for Networking Success with Dr. Teplitz and Donna Fisher (all published by Happiness Unlimited Publishing).
Norma also coauthored The Santa Story Revisited: How to Give Your Children a Santa They Will Never Outgrow with Arita Trahan and, along with Trahan, published a children’s picture book, The Santa Story and Tina (Downstream Publishing).
Norma coauthored three books with Paul Owens, who is referred to as the “original” Dog Whisperer, including the bestselling The Dog Whisperer and The Puppy Whisperer, and their most recent book, The Dog Whisperer Presents: Good Habits for Great Dogs (all published by Adams Media). In addition, Norma coauthored two books with holistic veterinarian Dr. Mary Brennan, The Natural Dog (Plume) and Complete Holistic Care and Healing for Horses (Trafalgar Square). She also coauthored Switched-On Living: Easy Ways to Use the Mind/Body Connection to Energize Your Life with stress management expert, Jerry Teplitz, Ph.D., Switched-On Selling: Balance Your Brain for Sales Success with Dr. Teplitz and Tony Alessandra, and Switched-On Networking: Balance Your Brain for Networking Success with Dr. Teplitz and Donna Fisher (all published by Happiness Unlimited Publishing).
Norma also coauthored The Santa Story Revisited: How to Give Your Children a Santa They Will Never Outgrow with Arita Trahan and, along with Trahan, published a children’s picture book, The Santa Story and Tina (Downstream Publishing).
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Norma’s love of story-telling began at the age of 5, when the farm across the street from her home in Massillon, Ohio was transformed into a professional summer stock theatre, starring television and film stars of the day. Even at that young age, Norma’s parents took her and her sister to at least one play or musical each summer, initiating her fascination with the magic of live theatre. She started working at the theatre at 15. Norma eventually elected to major in dramatic arts and received her B.A. from Kent State University, with a minor in public relations.
Norma’s theatre career focused on public relations, audience development, and general management at theatres across the country, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, and the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. On Broadway, she assisted producer Elliot Martin during his productions of A Touch of the Poet starring Jason Robards, Tom Stoppard’s Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land, and Caesar and Cleopatra starring Rex Harrison. Off-Off Broadway she produced Viveca Lindfors’ one-woman show, Anna.
Eventually seguing to television and film, Norma developed two projects that were picked up by major producers but not greenlighted. She then worked as Assistant to producer Marian Rees on the Hallmark film, Miss Rose White, which won the Emmy for best television movie of the year. She returned to NYC to work with Paraview, assisting on a number of projects in development, as well as production on the Discovery Channel 3-part series, The Power of Dreams.
Norma also produced and wrote a 52-part series of 90-second video news inserts, The Natural Cat, and a direct response TV commercial for How to Save $5,000 Every Time You Buy Or Lease A New Car. She helped to create a product line of videos, audiotapes, and workbooks based on the book Switched-On Living and was a producer of an infomercial for that venture, as well as coordinating media buyers, telemarketing, and fulfillment companies.
She has also worked as a legal secretary, including jobs at Disney and Lifetime Television.
Norma’s company, Sand Castle Enterprises, LLC, produced the DVDs, The Dog Whisperer: Beginning and Intermediate Dog Training for Puppies and Dogs and The Dog Whisperer, Vol. 2: Solving Common Behavior Problems for Puppies and Dogs. She was also a producer for a delightful music video featuring the Agape International Youth Choir, I’m Being Santa, which can be seen on YouTube.
In addition to her on-the-job training, Norma has taken numerous seminars, including Bordiga’s “Nuts & Bolts” Production Seminar; McKee’s Story Structure for Screenplays; Jim Kelly Durgin’s Script Supervising (introductory classes), and Guy Magar’s Action/Cut Seminar (Directing Film and TV).
Norma had an early exposure to the realm of spirituality and metaphysics because of her mother’s interest in the work of Edgar Cayce and leading-edge authors of the day. Her lifelong involvement in this topic includes studies of many of today’s metaphysical masters as well as New Thought teachers of the 19th and 20th Centuries, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Troward, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Ernest Holmes, and Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.
Norma has masters and doctorate degrees in holistic life counseling from the University of Sedona. She became a licensed spiritual practitioner at the Agape International Spiritual Center in 2001 and was also ordained as a minister by the Fellowship of the Inner Light and by the International Metaphysical Ministry.
She is an avid student of the teachings of Esther Hicks, often referred to as Abraham-Hicks, and runs a weekly study group on their work. Also a spiritual counselor, Norma teaches law of attraction, metaphysics, and spirituality and was a regular guest on 30 hour-long episodes of Andrea Sholer’s “Real Life LoA (Law of Attraction)” on Blog Talk Radio.
Norma has produced seminars on firewalking, law of attraction, and meditation and has served on the boards of The Fellowship of the Inner Light and Raise With Praise, Inc.
Holistic Health
Norma’s interest in holistic health also began at a young age, as she modeled her mother’s passion for organic gardening, yoga, and nutrition. As a writer, she has done extensive research on topics covered in her books, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine, homeopathy, Bach Flower remedies, and nutrition, as well as mind-body concepts such as stress management, the placebo effect, psychoneuroimmunology (a/k/a biocognition), and epigenetics.
Her studies include seminars with leading-edge scientists, researchers and doctors including Dr. Mario Martinez, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Gary Craig (EFT), Dr. Richard Bartlett (Matrix Energetics), Gregg Braden, Jean Houston, and many others. Norma also studied Brain Gym (a/k/a Educational Kinesiology), Conflict Resolution: Conciliation and Mediation with Richard M. Millen, and Accelerated Learning with Paul Scheele.