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415 reviews for:
The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
Irvin D. Yalom
4.24 AVERAGE
415 reviews for:
The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
Irvin D. Yalom
4.24 AVERAGE
This book, in it's 260 pages has over 80 chapters (none of which are too long). This helped to move the speed along of reading this book, but also allowed Yalom to have very specific chapters.
This book is full of personal experiences and examples from his many years of therapy, and in general is good for a counselor-to-be to read. It is an open letter to incoming counselors, and was recommended by my professors as a 'Must Read' for counseling students.
I will say, however, that the more I read about counseling, the less mystical it seems to me. Professors who I used to believe were sooo intelligent and profound...I now know think similiarly as many of the 'great' therapists. This was hard for me at first...but gives me the confidence that perhaps some day I too will have that great of understanding in these topics. :)
This book is full of personal experiences and examples from his many years of therapy, and in general is good for a counselor-to-be to read. It is an open letter to incoming counselors, and was recommended by my professors as a 'Must Read' for counseling students.
I will say, however, that the more I read about counseling, the less mystical it seems to me. Professors who I used to believe were sooo intelligent and profound...I now know think similiarly as many of the 'great' therapists. This was hard for me at first...but gives me the confidence that perhaps some day I too will have that great of understanding in these topics. :)
This was a slow read for me and felt more academic and dry than I was anticipating. That may partly be because I am fresh out of my clinical graduate program. This book had some good insight none the less and was interesting to reach about a different approach to therapy than from the viewpoint in which I have been taught as a marriage and family therapist. Chapters are short and it would be helpful to refer back to some of them at various times.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I started this book in fall of 2022 right as I began my grad school practicum. I was starved for information on how to be a therapist and received recommendations to read this book as a new clinician. I read one of Yalom's textbooks in grad school and have loved his writing. I read most of it before I started seeing clients, and once I began seeing clients, the idea of reading about clinical work outside of my clinical hours felt unbearable, so I put the book down for over a year. Now that I have been seeing clients for a year, it was interesting to read the rest of the book with the knowledge I now have, though I still have much knowledge to obtain. I will definitely be going back to this book throughout these formative years. Reading these chapters always opens my mind to things I want to review or finesse in my clinical work. I love that the chapters are brief. Yalom writes about the art of therapy beautifully and really appreciate how he sees the full humanity of his clients.
Handy insight, but what I learned could easily be summarised by a short list of bullet points. I did like his encouragement of a person-centered approach - that your role as a therapist is not to give client's the answers to their problems (which you won't have anyway) but to give them the space and support to figure it out.
Parts I disliked included the, bloody, insane, amount, of, commas, and how much Irvin loves himself - he somehow manages to turn most 'tips' into something that relates to himself, which I understand to a certain degree but it's a bit overboard imo and I would not like to have him as my therapist so i'm taking these tips with a massive heaping of salt.
Parts I disliked included the, bloody, insane, amount, of, commas, and how much Irvin loves himself - he somehow manages to turn most 'tips' into something that relates to himself, which I understand to a certain degree but it's a bit overboard imo and I would not like to have him as my therapist so i'm taking these tips with a massive heaping of salt.