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Keys to Harmony: Memoir of Depression, Daring, and Creativity
A pianist/therapist loses access to a crucial memory. Neither able to play, nor to relinquish her dream, she finds herself in an agonizing limbo. Filled with piercing insights, this is a thrilling book about overcoming depression and reclaiming one's creativity. Jakob inspires her clients to see their dreams as an indication of unrealized potential.
- GenresNonfiction
364 pages, Paperback
Published December 26, 2021
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8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
July 5, 2022
Margalit Jakob was a young pianist when she moved to Jerusalem in the 1970’s in pursuit of her dreams.
The descendant of a Jewish Polish Holocaust survivor and British mother, she aspired to reach beyond her family’s expectations of her- to continue as a piano teacher and become a wife and mother.
Jakob’s desire to attain an artist’s diploma from the prestigious Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem leads her into a valiant struggle to rediscover her passion for musical performance and for life itself.
We follow Jakob as she strives to alleviate the depression which keeps her from moving forward, seeking help from one mental health professional after another.
Jakob is fearlessly vulnerable in sharing her experiences. I remained involved and captivated by her story, written as it is with honesty, humour and wisdom. Her persistence and courage are inspiring indeed.
I read with deep respect of her progress, marveling0 at her ability to acknowledge her challenges but not succumb to a limited view of herself and her potential.
As a fellow Expressive Arts therapist, I found interest in the technique that Jakob developed to help herself and ultimately, the clients in her own practice. This memoir tells of a woman’s refusal to give up on herself as she confronts the difficulties inherent in immigrating to a new country, discovers her life’s work as she uncovers her talents and finds the strength to live a full life.
Hers is a story of transformation and growth which is certain to appeal to many readers.
March 12, 2022
A Valuable Contribution for Mental-health Professionals and Clients Alike
A most compelling, gripping and first-hand account of a psychological and spiritual journey from the depths of depression to unbounded creativity. Jakob allows us to accompany her as she courageously unravels the numerous years of travail through the pit of darkness that could not be relieved by the many mental-health professionals she consulted. Only by listening profoundly to her own inner voice did she find the key to the memory that held her forgotten disappointment, pain and despair.
As a psychologist, this book resonated deeply with me, emphasizing the importance of respect and inner attunement with our clients rather than reliance on theory or technique. Such was the psychiatrist Jakob eventually found, who guided her to embark on her unique path of discovery and fulfillment. Through the modalities of art, music and writing, Jakob herself develops as a performer and a therapist, who leads her clients through the maze of confusion to the expression of their own creative resources.
This book is a valuable contribution to mental-health professionals and clients alike. It provides an intuitive, honest experience of the therapeutic process, weaving the elements of psychology and art. Jakob succeeds in painting the music of healing in a free-flowing style that elicits empathy without a residue of burden or duress.
Perle Rine
A most compelling, gripping and first-hand account of a psychological and spiritual journey from the depths of depression to unbounded creativity. Jakob allows us to accompany her as she courageously unravels the numerous years of travail through the pit of darkness that could not be relieved by the many mental-health professionals she consulted. Only by listening profoundly to her own inner voice did she find the key to the memory that held her forgotten disappointment, pain and despair.
As a psychologist, this book resonated deeply with me, emphasizing the importance of respect and inner attunement with our clients rather than reliance on theory or technique. Such was the psychiatrist Jakob eventually found, who guided her to embark on her unique path of discovery and fulfillment. Through the modalities of art, music and writing, Jakob herself develops as a performer and a therapist, who leads her clients through the maze of confusion to the expression of their own creative resources.
This book is a valuable contribution to mental-health professionals and clients alike. It provides an intuitive, honest experience of the therapeutic process, weaving the elements of psychology and art. Jakob succeeds in painting the music of healing in a free-flowing style that elicits empathy without a residue of burden or duress.
Perle Rine
July 24, 2022
Keys To Harmony is a must book for anyone, including professional therapists wanting to understand depression, its challenges, and the ability to overcome this illness. The author is an expert eye witness to her own experiences. She has a sprite-like, athletic quality to her writing, that propels the reader to keep pace with the protagonist through hurdles, "eureka" moments, regressions, and ultimately, recovery.
The writer offers clues to recognize potential risks, and ideas and techniques to foster recovery, and prevent recurrence. In her case, the author is a creative artist. She offers glimpses as to the meaning of the expression "suffering for one's art". This adds another interesting element to her story. She teaches self-advocacy, self reliance and self esteem, all so necessary to maintain balanced mental and emotional health. I highly recommend this fascinating, beautifully written, important book.
The writer offers clues to recognize potential risks, and ideas and techniques to foster recovery, and prevent recurrence. In her case, the author is a creative artist. She offers glimpses as to the meaning of the expression "suffering for one's art". This adds another interesting element to her story. She teaches self-advocacy, self reliance and self esteem, all so necessary to maintain balanced mental and emotional health. I highly recommend this fascinating, beautifully written, important book.
July 24, 2022
As one who has suffered from creative blocks myself as a writer I found this book helpful but challenging to read because of it's painful honesty in describing a long struggle with deep depression. It was worth the effort as it is profoundly inspiring. Her courageous journey continues into recovery, personal renewal and musical creativity. The author shares in clear and very readable prose her insights into various kinds of therapy, narrating her path through them until she was able to find the right method for her to overcome her blocks to creativity. She went on to help others as a creative therapist herself. I recommend it to anyone concerned with creativity, therapy and personal life stories as a source of inspiration.
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July 12, 2022I found this book to be a beautifully written memoir that was both intensely personal and very practical. I would like to add to all the things already said that the book brings to light an all too common trauma that is perhaps not enough recognized. How many young, talented, aspiring artists (in all fields), have been trampled upon by insensitive teachers and "experts" who have put them down and cast them aside just because they could? How have such traumatic incidents impacted their lives? This book documents one such incident - a piano recital entrance exam to a music school - and shows just how much harm can be done. The author documents her own journey to uncovering these effects, and to turning her own insights into tools for others who have undergone similar experiences. I imagine that there will be many who will resonate with this form of trauma, and who with the help of the book will be able to take steps toward healing, as the author has.
May 11, 2022
This book is a very compelling read. Ms. Jakob manages to inspire even while describing the most difficult periods of her life. The writing is so personal and engaging, it's as if the reader and author are having a face to face conversation. What I found most disturbing was how some of the teachers and therapists she describes, who are supposed to be in a helping profession can instead cause such damage to a person's psyche. Even someone who has not suffered from depression or has creative blocks will be inspired by this book, but it is also a must read for therapists and teachers who will be confronted with the ramifications of ill- chosen words and insensitivity to their clients and students.
August 18, 2022
Keys to Harmony is about a talented young woman who spent her days lying in bed unable to function or perform the music she loves. It is the story of a loving wife and mother who could not be fully present for her family because of her depression. The author's journey, especially her negative experiences with the mental health care system, drew me in. Eventually, however, it was her victories, as she reclaimed her gifts and found new ones, that kept me reading till the last page. I found this book so helpful I have recommended it to therapists and plan to give it to friends, especially ones who are struggling. However, the truth is, ANYONE, could find Keys to Harmony a joy to read and very helpful.
October 18, 2022
I think that this is a very special book, a special journey that we are invited to take with the author.
By taking us on this personal journey, we come so close to the author - like finding a friend!
I felt her to be astute, unsparing in self-awareness, describing a process, processes actually, which expand and expand. The story is told quietly and modestly , without drama or flamboyance.
It's written with simplicity and clarity, straightforward honesty - like water, I felt, going on and on arriving in unexpected places. It was a real gift - one wants to adopt both the style and the wisdoms that continue to flow. Thank you so much!
By taking us on this personal journey, we come so close to the author - like finding a friend!
I felt her to be astute, unsparing in self-awareness, describing a process, processes actually, which expand and expand. The story is told quietly and modestly , without drama or flamboyance.
It's written with simplicity and clarity, straightforward honesty - like water, I felt, going on and on arriving in unexpected places. It was a real gift - one wants to adopt both the style and the wisdoms that continue to flow. Thank you so much!
July 5, 2022
Margalit Jakob’s book dives into the world of depression and overcoming depression. It’s a personal story but can be applied to anyone who has dealt with their own depression or the depression of a loved one. It is an exceptional, well-written, inspiring book that everyone can relate to on so many levels. It is a moving, uplifting, and poignant. The journey of the author is sad at times but ultimately full of hope and resolution. This book is highly recommended. A must-read!
July 23, 2022
A rare and poignant glimpse into the interiors of a beautiful—and at times, tormented—soul. Jakob takes us up close to witness her journey towards recovery... and ultimately back into joyful creativity. A gripping, compelling, and frankly touching saga of one woman's courageous battle against a persistent and paralyzing depression, this story is made ever more powerful by the fact that it really happened.
October 14, 2022
Keys to Harmony is a thrilling, beautifully and clearly written memoir. It is an inspiration not only to mental health therapists and mental patients but also to anyone who struggles with the challenging hardships of everyday life. It may give stregnth and hope to sufferers knowing that they are not alone and let us pray it will contribute to fix the grieving current healthcare public system
April 24, 2022
I was curious to read Keys to Harmony because I knew through the Anglo-Saxon grapevine in Jerusalem that its author had been working on the book for years, like many of us women with children who cross the ten-year mark and are still counting after the twentieth. But here it was, finally. Jakob had crossed the finishing line and was enthusiastically, yet modestly promoting her book. Of course I would buy it and was delighted she could send me a copy.
I had not known she suffered from depression, but the cover told me. Depression can make any creative journey exhausting and seemingly hopeless. Holding the book in my hand was proof that the author had overcome it or beat it or tricked it or whatever one has to do to fight an awful disease and keep on writing, painting or playing the piano. In Jakob’s case it was the piano playing that started and stopped for several months over a period of decades.
Jakob describes the painful process from inside and the reader’s empathy grows as the disease renders its victim incapable of functioning. Therapists come and go, some worse than others, and only after many years does Jakob find a wonderful psychiatrist who agrees to give her medication, something all the former therapists had refused, since they designated her illness as “mild depression.” Within six weeks of starting medication Jakob could function in the home with her four children, practice every day without stopping, set a goal of giving a concert in her home in front of friends, and accomplish that goal.
Nonetheless, the trajectory was not straightforward like a shot into space. There were setbacks and disappointments. But with each disappointment, the author never gave up completely and always learned something new from her experience. Over the years she earned an MA from Lesley College in Creative Arts Therapy. She read widely about her disease, but due to her depression, she was unable to practice as a therapist. As her recovery intensified, she dared to see clients, just as she had dared to host a recital, write original songs, sing and play the piano in public, each small step a giant step for womankind.
The narrator who tells this story is a mature woman who has fully absorbed her experience both emotionally and intellectually and has the writing skills to describe it with clarity and detail to the curious reader. When she describes her therapeutic voice, any reader would want to be in this woman’s care, because she understands in her bones the pain of the stuck and blocked creative artist and she understands that person’s needs. Her main tool as a therapist for troubled artists is visualization. She creates visualizations specific for each client. From her experience as patient and therapist, she believes that this therapeutic technique is much more helpful than endlessly seeking answers and reasons in the past. Her visualization assignments help her clients project themselves into an imagined future. She then helps them own their desire to arrive at that future and analyze the blocks preventing them from reaching their “dream.”
Keys to Harmony reminded me of another book I read over the past six months written by a therapist – Baffled by Love: Stories of the Lasting Impact of Childhood Trauma Inflicted by Loved Ones (She Writes Press, 2017) by Laurie Kahn. Kahn’s memoir weaves her own story with those of her clients in Chicago, where she practices. Jakob’s book has more of a traditional linear arc. I found myself held in suspense and curious enough to find out what would happen in the recital that I stayed up reading way beyond my bedtime.
With every memoir, the writer must choose what to leave in and what to take out. Jakob never loses her focus, so we learn nothing about her four children and husband, other than where he works and what a mensch he is. Even if there is a down side, which there must be, the reader is not privy to this, because that’s not what the memoir is about. It’s about Jakob’s commitment to life and her daring to step out of her depressed envelope, with the help of medication and therapy, in order to enjoy and celebrate her innate and prodigious creativity.
If you are stuck finishing a painting of Niagara Falls, sewing the last patches of a quilt, writing a poem about toothpicks, a song about unrequited love, or creating any item that the world could not care less about, but you do, read this book. Keys to Harmony will put you back on track and that’s exactly why Jakob wrote it.
I had not known she suffered from depression, but the cover told me. Depression can make any creative journey exhausting and seemingly hopeless. Holding the book in my hand was proof that the author had overcome it or beat it or tricked it or whatever one has to do to fight an awful disease and keep on writing, painting or playing the piano. In Jakob’s case it was the piano playing that started and stopped for several months over a period of decades.
Jakob describes the painful process from inside and the reader’s empathy grows as the disease renders its victim incapable of functioning. Therapists come and go, some worse than others, and only after many years does Jakob find a wonderful psychiatrist who agrees to give her medication, something all the former therapists had refused, since they designated her illness as “mild depression.” Within six weeks of starting medication Jakob could function in the home with her four children, practice every day without stopping, set a goal of giving a concert in her home in front of friends, and accomplish that goal.
Nonetheless, the trajectory was not straightforward like a shot into space. There were setbacks and disappointments. But with each disappointment, the author never gave up completely and always learned something new from her experience. Over the years she earned an MA from Lesley College in Creative Arts Therapy. She read widely about her disease, but due to her depression, she was unable to practice as a therapist. As her recovery intensified, she dared to see clients, just as she had dared to host a recital, write original songs, sing and play the piano in public, each small step a giant step for womankind.
The narrator who tells this story is a mature woman who has fully absorbed her experience both emotionally and intellectually and has the writing skills to describe it with clarity and detail to the curious reader. When she describes her therapeutic voice, any reader would want to be in this woman’s care, because she understands in her bones the pain of the stuck and blocked creative artist and she understands that person’s needs. Her main tool as a therapist for troubled artists is visualization. She creates visualizations specific for each client. From her experience as patient and therapist, she believes that this therapeutic technique is much more helpful than endlessly seeking answers and reasons in the past. Her visualization assignments help her clients project themselves into an imagined future. She then helps them own their desire to arrive at that future and analyze the blocks preventing them from reaching their “dream.”
Keys to Harmony reminded me of another book I read over the past six months written by a therapist – Baffled by Love: Stories of the Lasting Impact of Childhood Trauma Inflicted by Loved Ones (She Writes Press, 2017) by Laurie Kahn. Kahn’s memoir weaves her own story with those of her clients in Chicago, where she practices. Jakob’s book has more of a traditional linear arc. I found myself held in suspense and curious enough to find out what would happen in the recital that I stayed up reading way beyond my bedtime.
With every memoir, the writer must choose what to leave in and what to take out. Jakob never loses her focus, so we learn nothing about her four children and husband, other than where he works and what a mensch he is. Even if there is a down side, which there must be, the reader is not privy to this, because that’s not what the memoir is about. It’s about Jakob’s commitment to life and her daring to step out of her depressed envelope, with the help of medication and therapy, in order to enjoy and celebrate her innate and prodigious creativity.
If you are stuck finishing a painting of Niagara Falls, sewing the last patches of a quilt, writing a poem about toothpicks, a song about unrequited love, or creating any item that the world could not care less about, but you do, read this book. Keys to Harmony will put you back on track and that’s exactly why Jakob wrote it.
October 25, 2022
Keys to Harmony is a harrowing but ultimately hopeful story of depression and recovery. Margalit Jakob captures the details and darkness of depression, writing with courage about her despair and suicidal thoughts. Even as she ventured into life as a young adult -- academic and musical studies, work as a piano teacher, marriage, motherhood -- she was wrestling with periodic debilitating depression.
Her book takes the reader with her as she comes to understand the roots of her depression, and as she makes her way towards health. I'll leave the details to her -- you're better off discovering them along with her as you read the book. The story of how she arrived at her insights and healing is a fascinating read. I'll just say that her insight into the role of blocked creativity in depression benefits herself and later others: her clients, when she herself becomes a therapist.
With this book, Jakob offers her readers, too, the benefit of her understanding of the role of creativity in our lives, of the ways we block ourselves, and how we can free ourselves from those blocks to enjoy the full, creative life that we all need and deserve.
Her book takes the reader with her as she comes to understand the roots of her depression, and as she makes her way towards health. I'll leave the details to her -- you're better off discovering them along with her as you read the book. The story of how she arrived at her insights and healing is a fascinating read. I'll just say that her insight into the role of blocked creativity in depression benefits herself and later others: her clients, when she herself becomes a therapist.
With this book, Jakob offers her readers, too, the benefit of her understanding of the role of creativity in our lives, of the ways we block ourselves, and how we can free ourselves from those blocks to enjoy the full, creative life that we all need and deserve.
March 11, 2022
The author of the book describes her journey from depression to health with honesty and openness. She tells of a crushing event that she repressed for years and how remembering this event led to self compassion and healing. She shares her process of prayer, writing, and Visualization. I was really glued to the book, the writing is gorgeous and the story is compelling. I could relate to much of how she felt. I love that she shared her inner thoughts so expressively that I felt I was there with her. She has wisdom, compassion, and depth. She reminds us that obstacles can become challenges, and that daring to do scary things stretches our courage muscles. At the end she includes several case studies about her work as an expressive therapist. They are fascinating and show her talent as an expressive therapist. I enjoyed this book very much and can’t wait to pass it on to interested friends.
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April 18, 2022Rarely is there a description of the struggle and despair of depression that reflects the real internal and external struggle to keep ones head above water while fighting to overcome it. Jakob’s clearly shares this from the inside in a way that I would recommend anyone in the mental health profession to learn from. She reveals her overwhelming effort and intimate internal dialogue over decades of living with the ups and downs of depression and her battle to change. Jakob’s difficulty in finding the right therapy, a good therapists and her decisions around medication is deeply revealing of the imperfection of therapy, therapists, and the importance to persevere.
Some will see this book as a ‘journey of becoming’, with the backdrop of family, music, talent and exploration. Others will identify with the inner world and dialogue that we all experience, for good and for bad, as we go through life.
Some times long, but a worthwhile read with spurts of wisdom throughout.
Some will see this book as a ‘journey of becoming’, with the backdrop of family, music, talent and exploration. Others will identify with the inner world and dialogue that we all experience, for good and for bad, as we go through life.
Some times long, but a worthwhile read with spurts of wisdom throughout.
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August 1, 2022Keys to Harmony is a deep and courageous book of challenge, healing and perseverance. In this captivating and insightful story of a life still ongoing, the writer shares with us her most painful and most ecstatic moments, her lowest lows and her highest highs -- and in so doing, offers a lifeline to others who may be experiencing similar challenges. The book is at times heart-wrenching, and at other times uplifting. Like life itself. Seeing how certain events -- even if not meant to be as hurtful as they turn out to be -- can shape a person's life in such extreme ways, feels especially true, even if it is painful to witness. The author's ability to pinpoint these events in her own life and then not only heal and move past them, but then help others to do the same, through tools she includes at the end of the book, is worthy of praise, and is what this inspiring book is all about.
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January 10, 2023I was so impressed with the strength it took the author Margalit Jakob to share this very
personal story with the reader.
We all struggle to realize our dreams and get past the challenges life throws at us.
In Ms. Jakob's case, her challenges were multiplied by ever present depression haunting
her every step to fulfilling her dreams.
I was deeply inspired by her slow but steady progress in overcoming her recurrent nightmares
and finally reaching her life's mission to dare to create, and sharing her recovery as a creativity
therapist.
Keys to Harmony concludes on a much more optimistic note, for all people to draw hope
and inspiration from.
personal story with the reader.
We all struggle to realize our dreams and get past the challenges life throws at us.
In Ms. Jakob's case, her challenges were multiplied by ever present depression haunting
her every step to fulfilling her dreams.
I was deeply inspired by her slow but steady progress in overcoming her recurrent nightmares
and finally reaching her life's mission to dare to create, and sharing her recovery as a creativity
therapist.
Keys to Harmony concludes on a much more optimistic note, for all people to draw hope
and inspiration from.
Read
August 6, 2022This is a wonderful book. Captivating and moving, it reads a bit like a thriller, pulling us along to try to decipher the emotional causes of the writer's depression and hardships. As the symphony moves on, the roots of the pain become clearer and she finds ways to understand and heal herself. Jacob develops her theraputic insights about moving forward from stuckness to creativity and shares her clinical technique through some short and varied yet touching therapeutic vignettes. I heartily recommend this book
August 13, 2022
Margalit’s compelling description of her journey through an ongoing severe depression, her unwavering dedication to music, and her creativity fills her book with personal drive and honesty. This is a powerful book about sometimes crippling depression, music, and her struggles to find her own path. She persisted through the years of pain and even ineffective therapists, and believed in the creative therapeutic process. She has care and compassion for herself, and that she is now a creative arts therapist is her inspired gift to other artists.
August 14, 2022
I loved the book, it drew me in, there were parts I read over and over again. It resonated in me in so many different ways. Even though I have worked with many depressed women, reading Margalit's book changed my perspective considerably, and broadened my understanding not only of depression but of the intricacies of the healing journey.
Tziporah Wells,
Licensed Marriage counselor, Family and Sex Therapist
Tziporah Wells,
Licensed Marriage counselor, Family and Sex Therapist
Want to read
April 19, 2022Keys to Harmony was insightful and inspiring. I feel that I learned some valuable life lessons through reading this book. Seeing mental illness and the process of healing though the author's eyes was powerful. I feel as though I went through the journey with her and because of it I have grown as a person and as a creative artist. I highly recommend this book to others.
July 26, 2022
From the first page until the last I was gripped. How lucky that Margalit is a creative arts therapist, her empathy and belief that people can build their future beyond the limitations they so clearly see before them is inspiring and becomes true.
July 31, 2022
This book is a wonderful and gripping narrative about struggle, depression, music, and therapy. It presents a journey, and tools for life. It is a book one can return to and find inspiration and hope.
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August 1, 2022What an Amazing Journey:
This is one of the books that I will be thinking about for a long time. Jakob is very courageous to write so sincerely about her personal life, depression and struggles to overcome it. Her story gripped me, I felt so connected!
Wonderful, wonderful book!
This is one of the books that I will be thinking about for a long time. Jakob is very courageous to write so sincerely about her personal life, depression and struggles to overcome it. Her story gripped me, I felt so connected!
Wonderful, wonderful book!
September 20, 2022
3.5/5 stars. It isn't easy to review a book written by a family friend, especially when it is a memoir! But this one is very nicely written. To find out more, please take a look at my review on my blog here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2022/09/2...
November 1, 2022
Keys to Harmony has a lot of practical advice and information for healing and growing. The author's personal story reinforces my belief in the power and impact of words on our lives and journey!!!
November 2, 2022
I was very moved by Margalit's openness about her depression, her bravery throughout her struggles and her ability use them to heal herself and others. A great inspiration for us all.
August 3, 2022
Margalit Jakob, a pianist and professional therapist, takes us on an amazing journey. We go right along with her through how it happened that she developed depression so crippling that at times she was not able to do anything at all and even felt suicidal, how she suffered through therapies that did not help, and how at last she found a therapy that helped her to transcend the depression. We go with her as she is able to overcome her fears - which certainly isn't easy, but she does! Ultimately, she shapes a successful career as a therapist, developing through hard-won experience her own very caring and effective methods of helping others to achieve their creative dreams.
I am neither a therapist nor a person with depression, yet I found this memoir riveting, and the inspiration it gave me has stuck with me. The parts that have lingered with me the most in my own life are the hope that it offers, and a simple yet profound question the author asks herself when facing an opportunity to do something she wants to do, but is afraid to try. "If I don't live while I am alive, when will I live?" The author's grandmother, Devorah, did not survive the Holocaust. The author picked up the baton and carried it forward into Life. She lived in England and America for many years, and lives in Jerusalem now. I admire her so much, and I learned so much from this book.
In the appendix, the author includes case studies demonstrating the methods she used to help three creative people overcome their blocks and blossom in their creativity - a musician, a dancer, and a writer. I found these very interesting. I tried some of the exercises she mentions. I wonder if it is a coincidence that I am writing more now, and enjoying it more, since I have read this book!
I would recommend that this book be used in psychology programs and in universities where therapists are trained. I hope that practicing therapists will read it and learn from it. I hope that people dealing with depression will read it, too, whether they are living with it themselves or know someone who is. The book gives such a vivid window into what depression feels like to the person experiencing it, and such amazing hope as it shows how a person with even a totally crippling depression was able to climb out of it, and then use her experience and insight to help others do the same. This book will help so many people, in so many ways.
I am neither a therapist nor a person with depression, yet I found this memoir riveting, and the inspiration it gave me has stuck with me. The parts that have lingered with me the most in my own life are the hope that it offers, and a simple yet profound question the author asks herself when facing an opportunity to do something she wants to do, but is afraid to try. "If I don't live while I am alive, when will I live?" The author's grandmother, Devorah, did not survive the Holocaust. The author picked up the baton and carried it forward into Life. She lived in England and America for many years, and lives in Jerusalem now. I admire her so much, and I learned so much from this book.
In the appendix, the author includes case studies demonstrating the methods she used to help three creative people overcome their blocks and blossom in their creativity - a musician, a dancer, and a writer. I found these very interesting. I tried some of the exercises she mentions. I wonder if it is a coincidence that I am writing more now, and enjoying it more, since I have read this book!
I would recommend that this book be used in psychology programs and in universities where therapists are trained. I hope that practicing therapists will read it and learn from it. I hope that people dealing with depression will read it, too, whether they are living with it themselves or know someone who is. The book gives such a vivid window into what depression feels like to the person experiencing it, and such amazing hope as it shows how a person with even a totally crippling depression was able to climb out of it, and then use her experience and insight to help others do the same. This book will help so many people, in so many ways.
August 21, 2022
I very honest, revealing and lively description of a depression and the struggle to overcome it. Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what it's like to be depressed. I guess the book might also give hope to those who suffers, and be a great help for therapists.
Written with a rich but precise and easy-read language.
Written with a rich but precise and easy-read language.
August 16, 2022
Jakob wrote a compelling, insightful, and inspiring memoir of her battle with long-term depression and how she overcame it. Using her own methods and professional care, she was able to flourish and become an exceedingly accomplished musician, singer, songwriter, author, and Creativity Therapist. An excellent read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews