num_pages: 288
description: The refreshingly original debut memoir of a guarded over-achieving self-lacerating young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to get psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangersher psychotherapy groupand in turn finds human connection and herself.Christie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she driving through Chicago fantasizing about her own death? Why was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that still plagued her in spite of her achievements?Enter Dr. Rosen a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups he can transform her life. All she has to do is show up and be honest. About everythingher eating habits childhood sexual history etc. Christie is skeptical insisting that that she is defective beyond cure. But Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: You dont need a cure you need a witness.So begins her entry into the strange terrifying and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Christie is initially put off by Dr. Rosens outlandish directives but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend on the sessions and the prescribed nightly phone calls with various group members she begins to understand what it means to connect.Group is a deliciously addictive read and with Christie as our guideskeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy but hopeful in spite of herselfwe are given a front row seat to the daring exhilarating painful and hilarious journey that is group therapyan under-explored process that breaks you down and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.
language: English
title: Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster