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Reading Barbara Gerson's The Therapist as a Person is at times as emotionally fraught and challenging as life itself can be. A collection of essays on “the effects of central life crises and identity concerns of therapists on their work as therapists” (p. xiii), this volume allows us to experience vicariously the many vicissitudes of a therapist's personal life as they
affect his or her professional functioning. The sixteen chapters range in topic from the commonplace “traumas” of child rearing and aging, to the more acute, serious circumstance of a death in the therapist's immediate family. They also address the residual effects of a therapist's childhood life crises on his or her current clinical functioning.
These highly personal essays are written in a phenomenologically immediate and detailed way, which enables the reader to empathize readily with the therapists' (and their patients') plight. Their tone is one of honest self-scrutiny, with a remarkable absence of self-pity for the unusually trying circumstances many of these authors have undergone. While relevant pragmatic concerns are well addressed, the authors effectively blend these with theoretical and philosophical considerations that are inevitably evoked when the therapist's life situation looms large.
The contributors to this volume reveal how life caught them off guard and how—notwithstanding significant trials—they were largely able to sustain a viable treatment process with their patients. It was not only instructive but also enriching to read how many practitioners have lived through untoward personal events with little permanent damage (and sometimes much benefit) to their therapeutic work. I hesitate to use the word “inspirational” to describe these accounts; I would not want to give the impression that they are sentimental or sensational. On the contrary, they are for the most part matter-of-fact and straightforward, leaving much room for the individual reader's personal reaction to take shape.