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A Shining Affliction: A Story of Harm and Healing in Psychotherapy
A moving account of a true-life double healing through psychotherapy.
In this brave, iconoclastic, and utterly unique book, psychotherapist Annie Rogers chronicles her remarkable bond with Ben, a severely disturbed 5-year-old. Orphaned, fostered, neglected, and "forgotten" in a household fire, Ben finally begins to respond to Annie in their intricate and revealing place therapy.
But as Ben begins to explore the trauma of his past, Annie finds herself being drawn downward into her own mental anguish. Catastrophically failed by her own therapist, she is hospitalised with a breakdown that renders her unable to even speak.
Then she and her gifted new analyst must uncover where her story of childhood terror overlaps with Ben's, and learn how she can complete her work with the child by creating a new story from the old - one that ultimately heals them both.
In this brave, iconoclastic, and utterly unique book, psychotherapist Annie Rogers chronicles her remarkable bond with Ben, a severely disturbed 5-year-old. Orphaned, fostered, neglected, and "forgotten" in a household fire, Ben finally begins to respond to Annie in their intricate and revealing place therapy.
But as Ben begins to explore the trauma of his past, Annie finds herself being drawn downward into her own mental anguish. Catastrophically failed by her own therapist, she is hospitalised with a breakdown that renders her unable to even speak.
Then she and her gifted new analyst must uncover where her story of childhood terror overlaps with Ben's, and learn how she can complete her work with the child by creating a new story from the old - one that ultimately heals them both.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
105 people are currently reading
6064 people want to read
About the author
Annie G. Rogers
6 books79 followersAnnie G. Rogers is a writer and Professor of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychology at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Ireland, and a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University, she is the author of A Shining Affliction (Penguin Viking, 1995), Charlie's Chasing the Sheep (Lismore Books, 2003), and The Unsayable: The Hidden Language of Trauma (Random House, 2006). She has published poetry and short fiction, and currently is writing a novel. She lives a bi-located life in Lismore and in Amherst, in the US.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
December 4, 2008
i've read this book twice now, something i basically never do, and i can't get over what a rewarding read this is. it's simply a beautiful, beautiful book. annie rogers writes about her year of internship as a young psychology ph.d. candidate in a school for disturbed children. the story centers around her therapeutic work with ben, a five year old boy with a horrendously traumatic past. as annie does therapy with ben (who's utterly charming and adorable), her own traumatic past is dramatically triggered by her own therapist's abandonment. at the same time, immersing herself in ben's story brings her own painful and buried story to the surface in a way that is so distressing to her that she needs to be hospitalized again and therefore interrupt her treatment of ben. before she resumes seeing ben, she starts seeing a new psychoanalyst whose compassion, openness, love, and skill enable her to face her pain and find the courage to finish her work with the little boy.
there is much that moves in this book. rogers presents the therapeutic relationship -- hers with ben, blumenfeld's with her -- as a profound experience of tender love and genuine, compassionate sharing. she describes it as a process in which, by necessity, both the therapist and the patient heal, ideally in cooperation with each other. the way in which she allows ben to enter and affect her life -- and blumenfeld does the same with her -- seems to me so exemplary of how psychological healing should be conducted that it would be impossible for me now to to have therapy with anyone who wouldn't hold the same profound commitment to his or her patients. we have professionalized the mental health field way too much. we have forgotten that no one can heal except in true relationships between flesh-and-blood people who put everything at stake to achieve authentic intimacy.
intimacy, it seems, is much frowned upon in our culture. i know this because the love and tenderness that pass between annie and ben (though surprisingly not the love and tenderness that pass between blumenfeld and annie) were received by my students with much skepticism if not outright disapproval. how dare annie get so close to ben! how dare she think about him in her off hours, "bring her work home!" i found this painful. how did we become a people that finds closeness so inappropriate? has genuine and unguarded closeness always been perceived as so terribly threatening, or is this a recent development? i don't know! it is certainly not threatening to my italian mind and heart, and it was not threatening to most of the students in the class who were brought up on other cultures. is then fear of intimacy something that belongs deep at the heart of american culture? and if so, when did this start, how did this happen?
these are not new issues. i feel that everything i read gets commented on in this light. yet, gee, therapy is something meant to get people better. we have invented therapy precisely to heal the wounds caused by cruelty and coldness. why have we allowed therapy to become a quickie between a quivering patient and a "professionally" detached professional?
i recommend this to everyone except people who are in dissatisfying therapeutic relationships, because it will make you feel awful, and, let's face it, therapists like annie rogers and sam blumenfeld are not easy to find and, once you find them, almost impossible to afford. :-(
there is much that moves in this book. rogers presents the therapeutic relationship -- hers with ben, blumenfeld's with her -- as a profound experience of tender love and genuine, compassionate sharing. she describes it as a process in which, by necessity, both the therapist and the patient heal, ideally in cooperation with each other. the way in which she allows ben to enter and affect her life -- and blumenfeld does the same with her -- seems to me so exemplary of how psychological healing should be conducted that it would be impossible for me now to to have therapy with anyone who wouldn't hold the same profound commitment to his or her patients. we have professionalized the mental health field way too much. we have forgotten that no one can heal except in true relationships between flesh-and-blood people who put everything at stake to achieve authentic intimacy.
intimacy, it seems, is much frowned upon in our culture. i know this because the love and tenderness that pass between annie and ben (though surprisingly not the love and tenderness that pass between blumenfeld and annie) were received by my students with much skepticism if not outright disapproval. how dare annie get so close to ben! how dare she think about him in her off hours, "bring her work home!" i found this painful. how did we become a people that finds closeness so inappropriate? has genuine and unguarded closeness always been perceived as so terribly threatening, or is this a recent development? i don't know! it is certainly not threatening to my italian mind and heart, and it was not threatening to most of the students in the class who were brought up on other cultures. is then fear of intimacy something that belongs deep at the heart of american culture? and if so, when did this start, how did this happen?
these are not new issues. i feel that everything i read gets commented on in this light. yet, gee, therapy is something meant to get people better. we have invented therapy precisely to heal the wounds caused by cruelty and coldness. why have we allowed therapy to become a quickie between a quivering patient and a "professionally" detached professional?
i recommend this to everyone except people who are in dissatisfying therapeutic relationships, because it will make you feel awful, and, let's face it, therapists like annie rogers and sam blumenfeld are not easy to find and, once you find them, almost impossible to afford. :-(
January 17, 2012
This book, so heartrendingly honest, so devastatingly brave, helped me understand. Annie Rogers has written her own story, first as therapist to a 5 year old boy so troubled that he is finally institutionalized. He comes under her care as she finishes her Ph.d in psychotherapy. She gently helps him unravel through play, his rage at the dreadful miasma of his past. But then, slowly we also find that she herself is unraveling. It seems her young client catastrophically opens the wounds in her own past, and she finally suffers a breakdown so severe that she is unable to speak. Compounded by the damage done by an incompetent therapist, Annie is finally helped by a truly gifted doctor, who helps her make sense of her terrifying past. So what did this book help me understand? It helped me know how right I have been to stay away from trying to "fix" the dear ones I know who are damaged. It reminded me once again of the incredibly inventive power of the mind to make sense of the world, and to protect itself from the unimaginable. And it made me grateful for the truly gifted doctors and psychologists who dare dive into that deep dark place, and bring the survivors to the surface.
January 7, 2024
When I first started the book, I was a little bit afraid it would be like one of these Tory Hayden books, you know, a disturbed, tortured little child without any hope for its furure starts seeing a therapist(the shining hero) and she manages to do the impossible, changes the childs life from hopeless to perfect. Buy no, it was not at all like that!
The relationship between client and therapist is beautifully described and this was one of the most interesting subjects for me. Being a therapist myself, I always thought a lot about the client-therapist relationship and I always considered it the most important and the most challenging aspect in therapy. I would even go that far and say, the relationship, which is strongly connected to the therapists personality is more important than her education.
LOve seems to be a very central thing in therapy and contrarily to the classical psychoanalysis, I absolutely believe a therapist has to love her clients in a certain way, I also believe it is important to show your own feelings, limmited, of course.
For these reasons I enjoyed very much Annie Rogers' affectionate describtion of her work.
But the point which really blew me away, was when it turned out, she had severe problems herself, but she still was able to work and keep the relationship to Ben.
Something similar happened to me, while working with (probably far too many) female clients who almost all have been victims of severe sexual abuse in their childhood. At one point I couldn't cope anymore and got panic attacks. I stopped working and lost every confidence in myself,it was like my whole life had come to an end and I had lost my identity.
It was such an affirmation to read about Annie, how she carried on with her work, how determined she was not to give up.
The relationship between client and therapist is beautifully described and this was one of the most interesting subjects for me. Being a therapist myself, I always thought a lot about the client-therapist relationship and I always considered it the most important and the most challenging aspect in therapy. I would even go that far and say, the relationship, which is strongly connected to the therapists personality is more important than her education.
LOve seems to be a very central thing in therapy and contrarily to the classical psychoanalysis, I absolutely believe a therapist has to love her clients in a certain way, I also believe it is important to show your own feelings, limmited, of course.
For these reasons I enjoyed very much Annie Rogers' affectionate describtion of her work.
But the point which really blew me away, was when it turned out, she had severe problems herself, but she still was able to work and keep the relationship to Ben.
Something similar happened to me, while working with (probably far too many) female clients who almost all have been victims of severe sexual abuse in their childhood. At one point I couldn't cope anymore and got panic attacks. I stopped working and lost every confidence in myself,it was like my whole life had come to an end and I had lost my identity.
It was such an affirmation to read about Annie, how she carried on with her work, how determined she was not to give up.
September 28, 2007
Honestly and beautifully written. A painful story but rich and hopeful at the same time. I couldn't put it down and found it interesting to learn more about her process and experience in therapy and as a therapist.
March 4, 2012
By and large I enjoyed Roger's book; however, I did not fully grasp her description of her own spiral into maddness. That may have been the point, though. I do think she brings to light a very serious issue in therapy: the authenticity of the theraputic relationship and rightly recommends therapists be highly self-aware and offer their true selves in the relationship. Otherwise, harm ensues.
May 25, 2015
I wish I had known of, read, this book 20 years ago. It might have buffed the arrogance off the edges being honed by conventional academic instruction in psychology.
February 28, 2023
wow wow wow
July 3, 2025
read this in one sitting because the way she writes is just unbelievable, my fucking heart is absolutely broken. i actually havent stopped crying since maybe part two. i feel so much for annie, and for little ben fucking hell. the last line is so beautiful.
“i feel their steady presence in my life and i am grateful to them for all that is alive in me.”
“i feel their steady presence in my life and i am grateful to them for all that is alive in me.”
December 5, 2015
If you liked I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, a bitter memoir by Richard Nixon about having to leave the White House (just kidding); it's actually about a schizophrenic woman who reveals the colorful horrors of her illness and her gradual return to sanity. Anyway, if you liked that, you will probably love this book about a brilliant professor who suffers and eventually conquers multiple personality disorder in her late twenties. At the same time she's doing this, she promotes healing in a young boy who is considered incorrigible and too labile and crazy to be in society.
It's a fascinating book, marred only slightly by the author's abruptly switching in mid-text into third-person descriptions and stories by characters that turn out to be manifestations of herself as a child sexually abused by both her parents individually.
The sexual abuse is slowly revealed in therapy, where she is able to put together the pieces of herself that she had divided into distinct characters.
As she gives intensive therapy to the young boy, bits of her unconscious represented by the multiple childhood personalities pop up into her consciousness until she is forced to spend 10 weeks in a hospital dealing with that.
She also has to deal with a therapist who ends up rejecting her and refusing to see her after she brings a knife and toy gun into one session (that would give me a little start, too).The author starts eventual successful therapy with a second therapist whom she depicts as much more stable and intuitive and kindly than her first.
It's a great and insightful book. I would have given it five stars except for the confusion among the voices in her head that initially make it hard to piece together an entire narrative of what happened to her from her childhood to her successful adult resolution of her disorder.
It's a fascinating book, marred only slightly by the author's abruptly switching in mid-text into third-person descriptions and stories by characters that turn out to be manifestations of herself as a child sexually abused by both her parents individually.
The sexual abuse is slowly revealed in therapy, where she is able to put together the pieces of herself that she had divided into distinct characters.
As she gives intensive therapy to the young boy, bits of her unconscious represented by the multiple childhood personalities pop up into her consciousness until she is forced to spend 10 weeks in a hospital dealing with that.
She also has to deal with a therapist who ends up rejecting her and refusing to see her after she brings a knife and toy gun into one session (that would give me a little start, too).The author starts eventual successful therapy with a second therapist whom she depicts as much more stable and intuitive and kindly than her first.
It's a great and insightful book. I would have given it five stars except for the confusion among the voices in her head that initially make it hard to piece together an entire narrative of what happened to her from her childhood to her successful adult resolution of her disorder.
December 4, 2023
Words from my second time reading Annie Rogers' memoir:
"What you fear most has already happened."
“Are you wondering, Annie, how someone who doesn’t see you, really doesn’t recognize you, could possibly say goodbye to you?”
“When you feel you know the future, you can be sure that you are reliving the past, Annie, because nobody knows the future.”
“I could not afford to respond truthfully to them, to show them anything real about their effect on me.”
“In each moment in every life, there is a gesture hovering, to move toward or away from a truth.”
“If you fulfilled their wishes and died, then maybe they could love you.”
“I’d actually feel like a child for a moment or so.”
“This child could already foretell the future through the past.”
“What has been wounded in relationship must be, after all, healed in relationship.”
"What you fear most has already happened."
“Are you wondering, Annie, how someone who doesn’t see you, really doesn’t recognize you, could possibly say goodbye to you?”
“When you feel you know the future, you can be sure that you are reliving the past, Annie, because nobody knows the future.”
“I could not afford to respond truthfully to them, to show them anything real about their effect on me.”
“In each moment in every life, there is a gesture hovering, to move toward or away from a truth.”
“If you fulfilled their wishes and died, then maybe they could love you.”
“I’d actually feel like a child for a moment or so.”
“This child could already foretell the future through the past.”
“What has been wounded in relationship must be, after all, healed in relationship.”
February 23, 2012
*Healing is always two-sided*
Annie's realization that "healing is always two-sided" seems to capture the heart and soul of the therapeutic relationship. Her artfully written narrative shows how "what has been wounded in a relationship must be, after all, healed in a relationship."
Her healing therapeutic relationships--both as a therapist and as a client--help Annie begin to move beyond the damage of her past traumatic relationships. Annie convincingly demonstrates the therapist's own sense of vulnerability has the potential to bring either tragic harm or human healing to the client. She beautifully summarizes this realization with her advice to therapists: "If it is possible to remain open to our fears and make reparations for our mistakes, our vulnerability can be used in the service of healing."
Annie's realization that "healing is always two-sided" seems to capture the heart and soul of the therapeutic relationship. Her artfully written narrative shows how "what has been wounded in a relationship must be, after all, healed in a relationship."
Her healing therapeutic relationships--both as a therapist and as a client--help Annie begin to move beyond the damage of her past traumatic relationships. Annie convincingly demonstrates the therapist's own sense of vulnerability has the potential to bring either tragic harm or human healing to the client. She beautifully summarizes this realization with her advice to therapists: "If it is possible to remain open to our fears and make reparations for our mistakes, our vulnerability can be used in the service of healing."
January 16, 2018
A fascinating read about the therapeutic relationship, from the point-of-view of a therapist in training. An enlightening account of the damage that therapy can inflict, as well as its potential for healing. Having experienced classical "on the couch" psychoanalysis in my 20s, I enjoyed this view. It's easy to think that therapists have all the answers or don't have their own demons, or that they don't experience some of the same emotions as their patients, but this account dispels that idea. Rogers's therapeutic encounters with her young patient "Ben" and her own therapists are evocative and sometimes heartbreaking to read. Lastly, the author's lyrical prose elevates this memoir from prototypical life writing to literature.
June 24, 2024
Absolute masterpiece
Read
January 9, 2025i go through phases of appetite. right now the only thing I crave is hot chocolate and apparently all other hunger was for this book.
May 25, 2012
Rogers paints, and at times openly pastes herself - ironically unashamedly, on these pages; as unapologetic as she is as "patient"; and as curious and giving as she is as therapist. It is a story of the terror and dissociative, time-lapsed nature of early trauma, and how relationship harms and heals.
She ends with an Epilogue on clinical practice: the limitations of (many) psychotherapy trainings, the dangers of not acknowledging the impact of clients on therapists (i.e. countertransference), and the need then to see and let be the vulnerability of both parties. Rogers, in clearly seeing the shadow side of clinical practice, calls for a different attitude of therapists in relationship. It is relationship that counts, and my thinking is that it would be a good idea if each practicing clinician starts a personal exploration of what relationship is to them, free of textbook definitions or clinical technique.
Whilst she ends with valuable insights on being a therapist, Rogers illustrates in her work with Ben, how it is to practice with compassion and skill. No doubt she helped (and continues to help) all (or at least a large percentage) of those that cross her doorway. She also to my mind shows us what it is to be a courageous client (and writer) as she searches to face and meet her darkest places. Her insight and honesty about her feelings in relation to her therapists, and ultimately her unspeakable past, is personally clarifying.
I found myself lost in the groundless confusion of dissociation and piecing together the whirlwind of memory fragments. Perhaps beware, if working on similiar issues, Roger's process may move along your own, not sparing you from deeper truths that lurk at the edges of your consciousness or veiled by fog. The invitation to see more clearly is definitely there.
This book can also be seen as a picture of the connection between psychosis/extreme states, trauma, and dissociative, personality, attachment, oppositional/behavioral disorders, depression and anxiety - where does one 'end' and the other 'begin'? Which is the chicken or the egg? Blumenfield, her healing psychotherapist's gift was to relate rather than work more directly to 'fix' any of these issues.
Rogers writing is beautiful and compelling. I am thankful she shared herself, when in a profession that carries much stigma against one identifying as both patient and therapist, an identity which Rogers eventually rests in.
She ends with an Epilogue on clinical practice: the limitations of (many) psychotherapy trainings, the dangers of not acknowledging the impact of clients on therapists (i.e. countertransference), and the need then to see and let be the vulnerability of both parties. Rogers, in clearly seeing the shadow side of clinical practice, calls for a different attitude of therapists in relationship. It is relationship that counts, and my thinking is that it would be a good idea if each practicing clinician starts a personal exploration of what relationship is to them, free of textbook definitions or clinical technique.
Whilst she ends with valuable insights on being a therapist, Rogers illustrates in her work with Ben, how it is to practice with compassion and skill. No doubt she helped (and continues to help) all (or at least a large percentage) of those that cross her doorway. She also to my mind shows us what it is to be a courageous client (and writer) as she searches to face and meet her darkest places. Her insight and honesty about her feelings in relation to her therapists, and ultimately her unspeakable past, is personally clarifying.
I found myself lost in the groundless confusion of dissociation and piecing together the whirlwind of memory fragments. Perhaps beware, if working on similiar issues, Roger's process may move along your own, not sparing you from deeper truths that lurk at the edges of your consciousness or veiled by fog. The invitation to see more clearly is definitely there.
This book can also be seen as a picture of the connection between psychosis/extreme states, trauma, and dissociative, personality, attachment, oppositional/behavioral disorders, depression and anxiety - where does one 'end' and the other 'begin'? Which is the chicken or the egg? Blumenfield, her healing psychotherapist's gift was to relate rather than work more directly to 'fix' any of these issues.
Rogers writing is beautiful and compelling. I am thankful she shared herself, when in a profession that carries much stigma against one identifying as both patient and therapist, an identity which Rogers eventually rests in.
April 22, 2014
Annie G. Rogers is a psychotherapist in an institute near Chicago. As she journeys into new therapy with a young patient named Ben, the reader becomes immersed in her story. Due to her almost clinical take on things, she analyzes and dissects events so thoroughly that the significance of each becomes extremely clear. However, this clinical tone in no way makes it a cold one-- it is emotional and sometimes even heart-wrenching. The ability in which Rogers makes the reader feels first Ben's grief and then her own is truly a gift. However, at times, reading can become confusing, more specifically when Rogers' conflicts become internal and personal. As she navigates through her own dark past, it can be perplexing to determine what exactly you have just read. But, these confusions are eliminated later on as Rogers clarifies. This memoir delves into a controversial area, deeply exploring psychotherapy and hospitalization due to loss of mental stability. Although they are dangerous waters, the book manages to still convey that human relationships are the best and most pure form of healing that one can experience. Perhaps one of the most significant themes that Rogers gets across is this: if one does not confront their internal fears and overcome them, one can never truly live a full life. This book, being quite serious in content, should be recommended only for those who have experienced mature and traumatic writing before.
August 6, 2016
INCREDIBLE book. This book was recommended to me by a counselor and I had it low on my to-read list for awhile, but I'm so glad I got around to it. It's super honest, relatable, beautifully written, and often heart-breaking. Just don't read it if you're about to do something for which you need to be super emotionally composed. If you've ever worked as or with a mental health professional, I'd recommend it.
November 13, 2009
Kelsey's advisor at college wrote this book. I loved the parts of the book about her work with Ben, a severely emotionally disturbed 5 year old, it was like you were in the room with them and could see and feel the healing taking place. Some parts about her own breakdown were very confusing and vague. This is an amazing book for those interested in psychotherapy or not.
October 4, 2009
Sometimes confusing and hard to follow but really a very moving story. I really appreciated the author's willingness to share what was happening to her while she was working with Ben. Blumenfeld was a brilliant therapist. I wish there were more like him in the world.
January 15, 2015
Astonishingly brave and revealing and sad and terrifying and hopeful all at once.
March 21, 2015
Excellent book
This book touched me as a chaplain so many ways. It was an intimate portrait of what Nouwen's 'wounded healer' looks like, and why they're so invaluable.
This book touched me as a chaplain so many ways. It was an intimate portrait of what Nouwen's 'wounded healer' looks like, and why they're so invaluable.
August 18, 2016
Read in graduate school (social work) and just devoured this story. Beautiful, haunting -- truly a gem. Note, though, it's dark and not for everyone.
July 20, 2025
A textbook in psychotherapy (and child psychotherapy, and trauma therapy) as much as a personal account of pre-verbal trauma states and the possibility of healing them. Delicate, truthful, psychotherapy-in-motion, it diverges from the common analytic stance and moves in the realms of true and deep interpersonal work, because "what is wounded in a relationship can only be healed in a relationship".
May 25, 2023
Extremely different from the average therapist book—much more personal to the author, raw, and insightful. Was both a challenging and illuminating story, and a really informative, important guide for clinicians. I would recommend to therapists.
January 11, 2021
This book. My heart. Just wow. This memoir is deeply moving, inspiring, and heart-wrenching. An artfully written story of a double healing in psychotherapy that I won't soon forget.
February 24, 2024
Every so often a book comes along that is everything you didn’t know you needed. This was that book.
January 25, 2025
Wow I did not expect myself to cry my eyes out in the end lol
June 20, 2024
This was such a beautifully-written and unique book. I’ve never experienced a therapist write so delicately about her own experiences, that which mirrors the history of an important client which is present throughout the book. Most literature on psychotherapy is overwhelmingly written by men, and reading this just reinforces my belief that we need more female perspectives.
September 26, 2013
Rogers is unflinching brave,honest and free though she herself may not see it. She does acknowledge that she will never be healed or "cured like a ham".They say that most therapists have the highest occurrences of mental disturbances. It makes sense, not able to fix themselves, the turn to help others. Noble in my opinion.Rogers is a Survivor of incest,physical and emotional abuse. (I was glad that Rogers did not go in to too much detail about the incidents. Just enough to let the readers get the gist of things that happened to her.)Rogers becomes emotionally attached to her therapist, Melenie who seemed similar to her parents, cold,detached and unprofessional.She has a break down after bringing a toy gun and a real knife to a session. I can't say that I enjoyed this book since I did not agree that she continued to work with children and teens, especially when she is entertaining the ever so en vogue "Split personality" diagnoses, along with schizophrenia and a myriad of other mental issues. Of course she does have to work and who am I to judge?I felt that this book was more about her then the little boy she worked with for a time, so I felt that the book description was slightly misleading.
March 3, 2018
A lovely, intimate memoir of a therapist who understands what her young clients need, even while she doesn't quite understand what she needs. Through the book, Annie Rogers learns about herself, becoming a better therapist (I'd guess) because of her own self-discovery.
The takeaway from this book is larger than one woman or one child's story. It's the story of how therapists can seriously harm their patients, whether they mean well or not. It's also the story of how undoing that harm can be painstaking and uncomfortable - requiring a deft touch and endless humility. Sadly, Annie Rogers is not the only person who has been harmed through therapy. There is a whole industry of therapists who simply work to undo other "treatment."
If for no other reason, this is an important book. To see a young therapist in training be wholly turned around by her own history and then a woman who is supposed to help her. Every therapist should read this one.
The takeaway from this book is larger than one woman or one child's story. It's the story of how therapists can seriously harm their patients, whether they mean well or not. It's also the story of how undoing that harm can be painstaking and uncomfortable - requiring a deft touch and endless humility. Sadly, Annie Rogers is not the only person who has been harmed through therapy. There is a whole industry of therapists who simply work to undo other "treatment."
If for no other reason, this is an important book. To see a young therapist in training be wholly turned around by her own history and then a woman who is supposed to help her. Every therapist should read this one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews