In her acknowledgments, she thanks her therapist, Dr. She sought therapy after struggling with an eating disorder, thoughts of death, and because she had trouble maintaining meaningful relationships.įirstly, I’m glad for Tate that she benefited from her long and extensive therapy experience (which peaked at three sessions a week).

Group chronicles Tate’s experience in group therapy over a number of years. Instead of calling Christie Tate’s memoir, Group, let’s call it Red Flags in Psychotherapy Part Two. It’s often used as a text for ethics units in counselling. “Often hilarious, and ultimately very touching” (People), Group is “a wild ride” (The Boston Globe), and with Christie as our guide, we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy-an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.There’s a book called Red Flags in Psychotherapy. 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. Rosen’s outlandish directives, but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy.

Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure. Christie is skeptical, insisting that that she is defective, beyond cure. About everything-her eating habits, childhood, sexual history, etc. All she has to do is show up and be honest. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups, he can transform her life. 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 despite her achievements?Įnter Dr. The refreshingly original and “startlingly hopeful” (Lisa Taddeo) debut memoir of an over-achieving young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to group therapy and gets psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangers-and finds human connection, and herself.Ĭhristie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control.

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Christie tate group