★★★★★ 5
A letter of Gratitude to Irv Yalom for Creatures of a Day.
Format: Hardcover
Dear Irv Yalom,
This letter is a declaration of gratitude for your newly published book, Creatures of a Day, and the artful legacy you’ve bestowed upon the field of psychotherapy. In the era of fast technology and mass production, your attention to relationship and the handcrafted nature of therapy is a life line. In all of your 50 years as a psychotherapist, you didn’t sell out for clinical blueprints and formulaic approaches. Instead, you opted to stay true to what you knew--the here and now, the importance of the therapeutic relationship, and your own internal thoughts and experiences as essential elements for your work with clients. Creatures of a Day waves a flag and asks us to take notice. It invites us back into the mystery of our work and reminds us to celebrate our humanness. Your masterful story telling allows us to see you and your clients in action, mistakes and vulnerabilities included, and shares pivotal moments that will provoke thoughtful learning for generations of therapists. So thank you for this.
You show us your mistakes
You see, your books (especially Love’s Executioner and Creatures of a Day) let us into your thoughts and experiences. We get to hear you talk to yourself and occasionally grapple with doubt. We get to know your own vulnerabilities and how they influence your therapeutic relationships. This is such a rare view. And I am hungry for it. There are too few books, too few videos, and fewer workshops or trainings that offer this kind of perspective for therapists. We don’t get to see masters make mistakes. We don’t get to hear supervisors or consultants narrate their doubts. So, I consider your book an invitation to write about my own similar encounters in my work. And to continue to make this kind of conversation central to my trainings and retreats for therapists. Thank you for the inspiration and the permission.
You offer central themes and an individualized perspective
As a collection of psychotherapy tales, I think of Creatures of a Day as a series. Like a series of paintings that are created around central themes, your tales invite us to look at the existential themes of aging, death, and connectedness. And, just like a painting series, each reader will take with them a message that is individualized and of unique importance to him/her. In this way, you are truly exhibiting your art as a writer and a psychotherapist. In Creatures of a Day, two patients read the same book and take from it a very different, but beautifully applicable, message. A nurse perceives the angry words she hissed to her dying patient completely opposite of the way in which they were received by the woman she was treating. And a case that you filed away as a blunder turns out to have been a life changer that is only revealed about a decade or so later. This is a reminder to me that while we can’t predict how our art is received, we can in fact commit to creating and collaborating in the very best way we can.
You invite humanness and the art of relationship
I’d like to let you know that in addition to the invitation to write about my experience as a therapist, I welcome your permission to be human with my clients. And, with that comes a renewed dedication to knowing and experiencing what being human is for me. This means deepening my relationship with my art, continuing my work in therapy, and showing up with the same honesty and openness that you let us see in your book.
You make risk a good thing
You ask your patients to risk and use this in as a very important subject during the course of treatment. You take several risks in Creatures of a Day, and show us that risks are a vital part of being an authentic and real therapist. You show us that in your work you are just being honest and attending to your experience and the client’s experience. In fact it is more risky to be untruthful or hide than it is to show up and attend the the relationship.
You inspire me
I won’t stop practicing. You inspire me to continue to write about my own work. And in my own small way, carry your legacy forward.
Once again, thank you for your guidance, your influence, and your legacy.
Lisa Mitchell, MFT, ATR, LPC
www.innercanvas.com
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Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2015
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