Ever wondered what REALLY happens in the therapy room?
For too long, therapy has been seen as taboo in our society and is shrouded in myth–it’s only for the weak or ‘crazies’, it’s just blaming your parents, a therapist ‘only listens’ and so on. In this book, Aruna Gopakumar and Yashodhara Lal bust those myths and show you how therapy actually works.
With decades of combined experience in the field, these two therapists share fascinating stories based on their practice. You’ll meet the woman who sends secret messages to her husband during arguments; the towering tattooed man who realizes he can’t save his sister; the teenager whose life is revealed in the tale of a lonely bear; the divorced man angry with his ex-wife for starting to date again; the fiery gay young man impatient to change the world; the lady who won’t relax until her daughter is perfect; and many more.
In this collection of fifty stories, readers can get a fly-on-the-wall perspective on what takes place in the intimate setting of the therapy room. Inspired by the conversational yet reflective style of internationally recognized works like ‘The Examined Life’ by Stephen Grosz and the recent bestseller, ‘Maybe You Should Talk to Someone’ by Lori Gottlieb, this book is a powerful contribution by two Indian therapists to the much-needed conversation about mental health and the role of therapy. The range of issues in the book include everything from the challenges of being gay, dealing wth divorce, perfectionism, overly strict parenting, troubled relationships with food, repetitive conflict in long term relationships, issues of anger, anxiety, low confidence and more.
Both the authors are IIM graduates, about a decade apart from the same campus IIM-Bangalore, and share the commonality of having several years of corporate experience before making the unusual decision to turn to the field of psychotherapy.
PRAISE
‘Accessible, relatable and informative, Aruna’s and Yashodhara’s stories illustrate that therapy is for anyone seeking clarity on everyday life.’
APARNA PIRAMAL RAJE, author of Chemical Khichdi
‘[A] fascinating collection . . . Contextual narratives and conversations in each story render what actually transpires in the therapy room to the reader with remarkable evocativeness and simplicity.’
DR SHEKHAR SESHADRI, former Director of NIMHANS
The official release date for the book is 14th December, confirmed the publicist for the book , Peter Modoli, General Manager, Penguin Random House
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Aruna Gopakumar, who has 15 years of experience as a psychotherapist, is the current president of SAATA (South Asian Association of Transactional Analysts). She is a dedicated trainer of psychotherapists, passionate about the cause of creating competent therapists in the space, and runs an organization Navgati (navgati.in). About the book, she said ‘We are delighted and overwhelmed by the early response to the book. Our advance reviews include praise from the likes of Shubroto Bagchi and Dr. Shekhar Seshadri. By writing stories in which many readers can find themselves, the book normalises emotional difficulty. Hopefully, seeing that therapeutic processes can also be creative can help people find the hope that mental health is accessible. We hope that therapists, counsellors and psychologists will also use the book to educate their clients about what makes lasting change possible.’
Yashodhara Lal, who is a bestselling author of several books, and after almost two decades of experience in companies such as Unilever and Dyson, has founded Allsomeness, dedicated to helping people live their full potential, and now works full time in the space of therapy and coaching. About this book, she said ‘The potential of this book to help people understand the power of therapy is exciting. Especially with the kind of pressure that this fast-paced modern world puts on all of us, it’s time to take a fresh view on a totally underleveraged resource that is therapy. We are on a myth-busting mission and are also seeing great responses on our Instagram page (@inthetherapyroom) with people appreciating easy-to-digest but informative ‘therapy reels’, and asking us for more! With this book, our hope is that more and more people understand therapy – and themselves, and reach out, and break out of patterns that have been holding them back – there’s a whole world of possibilities that opens up when we are in dialogue with a trained professional, and more people should try it!’
