Inside 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, ‘And How Do You Feel About That?’

Authors Aruna Gopakumar and Yashodhara Lal bust those myths and show you how therapy 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 includes everything from the challenges of being gay, dealing with divorce, perfectionism, overly strict parenting, troubled relationships with food, repetitive conflict in long-term relationships, issues of anger, anxiety, low confidence, and more.

Both 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. (IANS)