Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate
Print Length: 304 pages
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Adult, Autobiography
TW: anxiety, therapy, harassment,
Looking for a book that dives deep into mental health and group therapy? Check out this review!
Christie Tate sought therapy from a renowned therapist known for his unusual methods after struggling with being single in her 30s and having no friends. She was suggested to try group therapy, where six strangers come together to share their thoughts and experiences in explicit details, including intimate, embarrassing, unforgiving, and uncomfortable feelings that one is conditioned to suppress throughout their life.
This book delves into the complex and often overwhelming realm of mental health issues. It highlights the importance of actively resolving one’s thoughts and actions in order to overcome the crippling effects that these issues can have. Through a raw and unfiltered account of her personal struggles, the author shares her secrets, traumas, failures, and more. The text takes the reader on a journey through the author’s mind, demonstrating how negative thoughts and emotions can become all-consuming and lead to isolation and despair. The book also offers a character analysis that highlights the devastating effects of social incapability and intense feelings of loneliness, depression, trauma, anxiety, or loss. By shining a light on these difficult topics, the book aims to offer insight and support to those who may be struggling with similar challenges.
Christie leaves no stone unturned when it comes to explaining her situation. At times, I felt exhausted by her numerous failures; however, talking it out with people who have genuine concern for her plays a pivotal role in learning bittersweet life lessons.
That was how I’d always imagined the surface of my heart—smooth, slick, unattached. Nothing to grab on to. Unscored. No one could attach to me once the inevitable heat of life bore down. I suspected the metaphor went deeper still—that I was afraid of marring my heart with the scoring that arose naturally between people, the inevitable bumping against other people’s desires, demands, pettiness, preferences, and all the quotidian negotiations that made up a relationship. Scoring was required for attachment, and my heart lacked the grooves.
Christie Tate, Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
If you’re someone who loves to read books that portray real-life situations and make you feel emotional while also making you ponder, then this book would be perfect for you.
Ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being exceptional):
Quality of writing: 7
Pace: 6
Plot development: 6
Characters: 6
Enjoyability: 8
Insightfulness: 9
Ease of reading: 8
Photo/Illustrations: NA
About The Author
Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children’s fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child. Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Callender is Black, queer, trans, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Callender debuted their new name when announcing their next young adult novel Felix Ever After in May 2019.
Sources – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15809784.Kacen_Callender
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