aharper's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0


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parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

this book made me experience the full spectrum of human emotion. still sad over some things in it!!! it is a really good book that illustrates how we as humans are so much more than the versions of ourselves that we choose to show and that we all have trauma, we all have good and bad sides, and there are things we all would rather keep hidden.

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headinthepages's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0


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kimveach's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I had heard that this book was good, but I didn't realize how good it was.  It's more than a memoir.  In the book, the author explains her issues and how she worked them out during therapy and her patients' therapies.  She also introduces many psychology concepts in a much more interesting way than a Psychology 101 class.  Be warned:  the terminally ill young woman she works with until her death is life-affirming and heartbreaking.

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mmbc's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

What en excellent book. I’m struck by how good the writing is: witty and entertaining but not shying away from hard truths or nerdy topics. She beautifully layers in her experiences with that of her patients, showing me that while each of us have our unique struggles, there are certain universal experiences that bind humanity. I’m glad I read this book after I spent 3 years in therapy, and not before. The background knowledge of how therapy happens would probably have distracted me. Now, however, this knowledge has deepened my appreciation for my therapist, and for myself and the hard work I did in therapy. 

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erikalv97's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a beautifully written book, it’s really interesting, and the writing style is pretty clever. 

It was a marathon-like experience for me to read this because it brought up a lot of doubts and stuff, but it was an amazing read. 

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danipanini's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

Despite me spacing out this book for over two months, I really didn't mind actually. I'm glad I didn't rush this because the book tackles very human and very real circumstances, as much as you'd get from a book written by a therapist about her patients and her own experience as a patient.

As mentioned in the Author's Note, if you see yourself in the pages, it's purely "intentional and coincidental," further underscoring how we all have the same profoundly human experiences no matter who, what, or where we are in life. And it is in this way that I see how important therapy is, how important it really is to have a deeper understanding of ourselves in order to see how we change and grow in relation to others and our environment. Therapy helps achieve this because, my god, that is definitely not an easy thing to do alone. This book highlights that you are not—and you don't have to be—alone.

Where I'm from, therapy can be considered a privilege because the majority still cannot access this service due to its steep price (I can attest to this—I had to stop seeing mine because I couldn't afford it anymore). This makes me all the more grateful that a resource like this is available to read. It definitely can't replace the work of psychotherapy, but it can definitely open more people's eyes to the work that goes behind it and the ripple effect that it creates, starting with the patient and radiating outwards.

I personally enjoyed this book because I've always been intrigued with psychology and the workings of the human mind in this context. Despite its very slight structural issues with chapters that tend to jump from one place to another, by the end it provides the whole story of people just trying their absolute best to be human—to not just survive, but to live.

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tmchopra's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

3.0


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lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

It took me a while to get into but I really loved it when I did. A really beautiful story of a therapist and her experience in that role, as well as being in therapy herself, including some really interesting and emotional case studies of clients. 

I thought there was a perfect balance between some really emotional accounts and funny anecdotes. The whole tone and narration just felt so genuine, and I really loved getting to know the 'characters' and routing for them, as well as the author herself. Loved Wendel, bless him, and Sam the delivery guy warmed my heart.

Big recommend

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jojo_'s review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.0


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