Reviews

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review! Jamie Marich writes an incredibly compassionate and informative book on perhaps one of the most misunderstood human experiences: dissociation/dissociative disorders. Whether you pick up this book as a mental health professional, someone looking to better understand your own experience, or simply want to educate yourself on the topic, the information inside is insightful and doesn’t read as dense psychological text. It felt as if I was in an extremely earnest conversation with the book; it continuously brings up multiple points of view that may contradict each other and it reminds us that healing, language, and modes of therapy are never one size fits all. Each chapter includes exercises you can complete on your own time and important questions to ask any therapist you’re considering opening up to. Absolutely give this one your time if you're even the least bit interested in the topic.

prairiemandolyn's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

mnlarson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

bookbanshee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Really useful framing of dissociative experiences that helps me to understand myself (in all my parts and their iterations!) so much better, with really practical exercises that I feel really good about both working on myself and taking to my therapist. As an artmaker, I really appreciated the suggested creative practices, which really help with engaging my parts through something other than the analysis lens of talk therapy, and can actually unite parts that are frequently in conflict with one another. At least one of my parts wanted a more linear description of what to expect and what to do about dissociation, but that also helped me recognise how desperate that part is for a clarity that I’m not going to have access to, at least in this complex and messy body and experience of life! I loved that this centered lived experiences from a range of contributors (alongside that of the author), with quite diverse perspectives. I’m grateful for the validation and tenderness I found in these pages, and highly recommend it for anyone finding that CBT is worsening their internal landscape rather than helping it — at least for me personally, I think this was a sign that any kind of superficial and primarily cognitive therapeutic work was doing more harm than good and that there was far more below the surface desperate for care and attention.

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dimolkova's review against another edition

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4.0

this book came just at the right time of my life--when i was piecing together my experience of dissociation and parts approaches (i have specifically been reading about IFS). this book really showed me that those are two sides of the same coin. i am grateful for this insight.

kjwolfwarrior's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

fkshg8465's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

4.0

I didn’t know much about DID until this book. I actually got it thinking it was about disassociation, which is something my therapist pointed out that I often do. Apparently, that’s different than dissociation. I’m happy to have made that mistake, because now I know more about DID. Really important work, and I’d like to learn even more.

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