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The Adult Chair: Get Unstuck, Claim Your Power, and Transform Your Life
Take a seat and let this be your guide to living an emotionally healthy life, with real-world examples and easy-to-understand tools to help you create lasting change—from the therapist behind the popular podcast The Adult Chair.
Through decades of working with countless clients, Michelle Chalfant found that most forms of therapy, while well-meaning, help with the symptoms but rarely address the root cause. That's why she developed a new model called The Adult Chair.
The Adult Chair model works by first helping you gain awareness of how you developed into who you are today by walking through the stages of your early life. Take, for example, a client named Sara, who had trouble staying in relationships. As Chalfant guided her through the model, it looked
• The Child Chair, from age 0-6. Sitting here, Sara recalled her father's strong temper, and realized this was when she learned to suppress her negative emotions.
• The Adolescent Chair, from age 7-24. At this stage, Sara turned to survival mechanisms of numbing her first with food, then later with substances.
• The Adult Chair, after age 25. Sara realizes that even though she’s an adult, she’s still acting from her Adolescent by numbing herself, and as she works to activate her emotions, she can more often live out of her Adult Chair and enter relationships more open hearted.
The Adult Chair walks you through each of the chairs in your life, giving a foundation to understand who you are today and how you got this way. Chalfant then provides the “five pillars of healthy adults” that serve as fundamental building blocks of living in your healthiest adult self. Along the way, she offers processes, tools, exercises, and journal prompts that you can plug into your life to get unstuck and transform your life each day.
Revolutionizing the way you understand yourself and others, The Adult Chair will help you break unhealthy patterns and live with greater balance and peace.
Through decades of working with countless clients, Michelle Chalfant found that most forms of therapy, while well-meaning, help with the symptoms but rarely address the root cause. That's why she developed a new model called The Adult Chair.
The Adult Chair model works by first helping you gain awareness of how you developed into who you are today by walking through the stages of your early life. Take, for example, a client named Sara, who had trouble staying in relationships. As Chalfant guided her through the model, it looked
• The Child Chair, from age 0-6. Sitting here, Sara recalled her father's strong temper, and realized this was when she learned to suppress her negative emotions.
• The Adolescent Chair, from age 7-24. At this stage, Sara turned to survival mechanisms of numbing her first with food, then later with substances.
• The Adult Chair, after age 25. Sara realizes that even though she’s an adult, she’s still acting from her Adolescent by numbing herself, and as she works to activate her emotions, she can more often live out of her Adult Chair and enter relationships more open hearted.
The Adult Chair walks you through each of the chairs in your life, giving a foundation to understand who you are today and how you got this way. Chalfant then provides the “five pillars of healthy adults” that serve as fundamental building blocks of living in your healthiest adult self. Along the way, she offers processes, tools, exercises, and journal prompts that you can plug into your life to get unstuck and transform your life each day.
Revolutionizing the way you understand yourself and others, The Adult Chair will help you break unhealthy patterns and live with greater balance and peace.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 6, 2025
67 people are currently reading
3116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 9, 2025
This is a great thought provoking tool to guide you through the work. Great prompts and exercises to take your time with
October 6, 2025
I found Michelle through a friend and then went down a rabbit hole with her podcast The Michelle Chalfant Show. The show dives into the topic of this book, which is Michelle‘s Adult Chair model that she uses with her clients. I immediately knew I wanted to read this book, especially since the book promises to provide tools to release negative beliefs and patterns of behaviors that hold us back from becoming our highest self. The book held true to its promise. I found the structure and writing easy to follow, and the tools invaluable. I highly recommend this book.
August 20, 2025
I recently discovered Michelle Chalfant’s podcast, also called The Adult Chair. The book gives a more general overview of her philosophy including specific advice on living an authentic life while she often has guests on her podcast. Both are good.
April 29, 2025
Won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the organisers!
Will update once I receive the book.
Will update once I receive the book.
August 2, 2025
one of the best books personally and professionally to help lead myself and others to healing
August 11, 2025
4.25/5 get out of your adolescent chair… damn. Well done.
August 27, 2025
Generally very good with very good advice. Chalfant loses me a little bit with her broad strokes claims, but there’s no doubt this is a valuable book that can help countless readers
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews