A review by abigail_lo
The Art of Holding Space: A Practice of Love, Liberation, and Leadership by Heather Plett

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

2.75

i dunno ... it was fine? it felt like a very basic book on how to hold space, which is fine in and of itself. i definitely would have liked it more if plett didn't go into such weirdly intrusive details about her husband's mental illness. it felt super icky to read, and it was also in some of the first few chapters. these types of self-help / advice books really rely on the reader thinking that the author is admirable (or at least someone to look up to), and that just didn't happen here because of how much detail she went into. super weird vibes when she would talk about how you shouldn't hijack the space, but then she talked for pages and pages about how hard her husband's mental illness was on her? like yes, i'm sure it absolutely was hard -- caring for those who are struggling is never easy. but the balance just felt off in terms of how much she was talking about his struggles vs. herself. and most of all, it truly just felt way too invasive. i sincerely hope she got his permission to share those details before publishing. i did manage to achieve my goal though, which was to pull some good excerpts for a training i'm coordinating -- so i will be noting down her bibliography and then promptly donating this book <3
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